A Foothold

Yesterday I had a good day, my first productive day in a while.  I made a list, I used the timer for everything, and I got shit done.  I even spent six 20-minute periods working on my top-priority project, the one I’ve been avoiding for two weeks now.  And I finished it!

1. With One Good Day under my belt, I now feel like I have a foothold, a beachhead in the realm of Productivity.  I have this imaginary momentum that I want to maintain.  I feel like it will be easier to have another good day, today.

2. Why, after weeks of being at sea, did I finally have a good day?  Who knows.  Maybe it was the new approach I tried of making my list for the day: I put EVERYTHING on it: work tasks, phone calls to make, “work out,” “shower and get dressed,” and I listed my top priority project four times.  The premise was that crossing things off the list feels rewarding, so the more things on the list the better! – and I wanted to spend several 20-minute periods on my top priority that day.  I even wrote “free internet time” on my list – and allowed 20 minutes for that (better than my usual 6 hours…).  I also want to get into the habit of NOT doing anything that isn’t on the list.  Anything new that came up went on the general TO-DO list for consideration tomorrow (unless it was too urgent to wait).

I’ll be using the same list technique today.  Wish me luck.

-J