The Magic

First of all, TRO is working really well for me.  It’s not that this system is magically better than everything else I’ve tried.  The difference is in what I’m doing now that I wasn’t doing before: consistent daily and weekly reviews of my tasks and priorities.

Second: Here are a few of the most important ideas about personal productivity that I’ve discovered lately, neatly summarized in one short article:
HBR – The Magic Of Doing One Thing At A Time

• Focus is powerful.  We can accomplish more, and more creatively, when we focus on one thing without distraction for a decent period of time.
• Breaks are important.  After a period of focused effort, take a break to renew yourself before plunging in again.  You’ll actually be more productive in the long run than if you didn’t take breaks at all.
• Work on your most important project first thing in the morning.  ”You’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of creative energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour.”
• Set aside time to think long-term and strategically, on a regular basis.

Good advice.

-J

Mantra

Practice Prioritization, Focus, and
Healthy Breaks instead of Distractions.

Maxims

Lately I’ve read a lot of articles and spoken to a few people about productivity.  A few common themes keep popping up.

First, Go Directly To Work.

Don’t start your day by checking your email.  You get dragged into someone else’s priorities, or you allow yourself to indulge in lengthy personal conversations.  Instead, start your day by opening your most important task first.  And “a quick win in the morning sets the right tone for the rest of the day.” (Jonathan at Illuminated Mind)  This is a great habit to develop.

Just Start

Starting is often the hardest part of a task.  Just starting, without over-thinking things, moves you past the anxiety that you’re holding for that task, and gets you immersed in the project again.  Once you’ve started, things are clearer and less scary.  I am hearing this advice from a lot of different sources lately, and it’s good advice.

Resolving to finish something is a big scary goal.  Just resolve to start.  Then start.  Then keep starting – it gets easier – until it’s finished.

The Power of Focus

Forget multitasking.  Constant distractions and task-switching leads to shallow thinking and makes creativity impossible.  Spend as much of your day as possible on your #1 priority.  This doesn’t mean don’t take breaks – just don’t spread your energy around.  Make sure your breaks are actually rejuvenating.

Actively control distractions.  Change your environment if you have to.  Lock out access to Facebook and other highly-addictive entertainments.

Goals

I should have specific, clearly-defined, prioritized goals.  With deadlines.  And plans.  I don’t have these.  Why should I have these?

Visualize

Imagine yourself living by the habits that you most want to cultivate.  Don’t imagine yourself as rich and successful, that can lead to disappointment.    This is about how you live and work, day to day.  And remind yourself every day about your long-term goals, and how today’s tasks serve those goals.

“I try to spend the first few minutes of my day thinking about the life that I’m creating, the people that I’m serving and why I care about what I do. Keeping those things in the front of my mind helps me stay synced with my reason why.” (Jonathan at Illuminated Mind, again)

“I Work Best Under Pressure.”

Although I don’t believe that anyone produces their BEST work under pressure,

It’s good to be reminded once in a while of

How well you CAN FOCUS and How FAST you can WORK.

-J

The Now Habit – Progress Report 1

I’m in my fourth week of applying The Now Habit‘s methods, and I’m happy to report that I’m making progress.  It wasn’t a miraculous transformation from procrastinator to producer (nor did the book promise such), but I have started working again and I get more productive every week.

Central to the method is the “unschedule.”  It works, I think, not because I ensure that my leisure plans get priority, but because I get a blue stripe every time I get 30 mins of uninterrupted work done.  It’s like a gold star on a spelling test.  Suddenly I want as many blue stripes each day as I can possibly earn!  Green stripes are good too, they represent 30min periods of “guilt-free play” which must follow every focused bout of work.  I’m getting more quality play time AND more quality work done.  Here’s my Unschedule from last week:

Unschedule, The Now Habit

It covers 16 hours per day, 7 days.  Tuesday was particularly good.  Wednesday I had a meeting all morning.

Overall, it has about twice as much ink on it as my first one did, just three weeks ago.  The completed Unschedule is not only a sign of progress, it also provides valuable info.  I can see that I do most of my procrastinating in the morning, before that first bout of work.  Once I get into that blue-green-blue-green routine I’m pretty good, but I’m obviously putting off starting it.  So this week I’m working on getting that first blue stripe earlier in the day.  I could even get 30mins of project work done first thing, before I even check my email.  Why not?

The other aspects of the method have been helpful too, when I remember to apply them.  Catching myself in negative self- talk.  The relaxation and focusing exercise (a bit like self-hypnosis) to get into “the zone” before turning to work.  All good stuff.

What’s Working For Me

Here are a few tricks and strategies that are working for me right now:

1. In the morning I write down what I am going to accomplish that day.  I try to plan an amount of work that I should be able to finish by about 3pm.  I also write down something FUN to do when I’m finished.
   • This incents me to get the work done and to not waste time on the internet.
   • I usually chose two different project per day; keeps me from getting too bored.
   • Even though 9-3 is not a full work day, I’m getting more done than when I planned to work all day and then wasted half of it goofing off.
2. I’m using a timer to:
   • keep myself on task while I’m working (the value of focus) – 30mins is about right.
   • remind myself to take breaks away from the computer (keeps me alert, recharges creativity, prevents headaches).
   • limit the length of my email/surfing breaks.
3. I’m closing my email apps when I’m supposed to be working.

 

Another big win is that I seem to have gotten a handle on my chronic headaches.  Stretching, exercise and back-pain meds weren’t working anymore, so I went to see my massage therapist again (I’d stopped because it’s expensive).  Oh my goodness, what a difference!  A massage doesn’t just cure the headache, it has some lasting effect on the neck and shoulder muscles that were causing it.  It has now been a week with no headaches – and I aim to keep it that way, so I’m keeping up with the physio exercises and stretching.

It’s hard to stop procrastinating when you feel like shit.  This has been a big boost for my productivity.

Next up: I need to pare down the list of social media sites and web comics that I’m checking daily.  I’m even thinking about moving all my personal documents and bookmarks to another computer to make it harder to play with them during the work day.

Cheers,

-J