Recipe for a Productive 2005

“I can’t fit 48 hours into a day!”

Honestly, we’ve all lived in this world before– “It’s not humanly possible to get all of this done in a single day.” All to often we find ourselves procrastinating under the constant strain of deadlines at work, keeping up with a busy schedule at home or finding ourselves sitting and staring at that personal project that has been collecting dust over the weeks. Recent studies from the University of Leicester, in England indicate that for every hour we spend working only 30 minutes are actually productive. They also discovered that most people work in short burst followed by periods of waiting. What if we could all do an hours worth of work every hour, that would make for a 48 hour day!

Below are a few simple ideas that might find to be perfect productivity tools:

1. Break tasks down. It’s much easier to get motivated to start and finish a smaller task than a larger one. For example, if you need to do yard work tomorrow, chances are that tomorrow will come and you’ll find a dozen excuses. What about breaking the task down into smaller chunks like: rake the leaves, mow the lawn, do the edging, mulch the flowerbeds. Then tell yourself that tomorrow, you’ll start by raking the leaves. You’ve just made the first step towards accomplishing a major project.
2. Set attainable goals. Break task down into bite-sized morsels. Don’t say I’ll tidy the lawn up because that’s too vague and too broad. Define the specifics of the project, otherwise it will appear too overwhelming.
3. Reward yourself for those bite sized accomplishment. Think about the incentive for completing a task. And if it’s nothing more than saying, “I deserve a coke for my hard work”, odds are you’ll complete that phase of the bigger project much sooner.
4. Start on the best task first. It serves to create a positive momentum for the completion of the entire project.
5. Keep records. In the techno-age, there are so many wonderful tools to help schedule and document progress such as PDAs, online group calendars, etc. Sometimes a simple 3 x 5” index card is the best tool. List all the things that need to be accomplished for that day in pencil. Use a pencil because it allows you to expand each item into sub-task. List no more than three to four high level items in order of priority. You might need to re-prioritize items on the card, but never remove a high level item until it’s been accomplished.