It's a new year and many are making resolutions, plans and priorities. Getting organized, being productive often is at the top of the list, of work priorities that is. Admittedly, I think about it too at the turn of the year. I like the sense of accomplishment that comes from a clear inbox and an empty to-do list. The little sense of victory as I eagerly check the box next to each item and see that list dwindle to nothing. However, sometimes it so dang hard to get there. It seems like that list just gets longer and longer. The mixture of fun, must-do and not-so-fun tasks all screaming for attention. There are so many suggestions, processes and theories around to tackle, conquer and tame the list. I've even attempted to share/inspire you to success with a suggestion or two of my own.
Today, as I read
Kathleen Davis' article "11 Expert Tips to Help You Be More Productive in 2014" on FastCompany.com, it got me to thinking about what has worked, or didn't work for me over the past year - both personally and professionally. For my best results, I have to work within my personal productivity times. I'm a morning person, that is the best time for me to write and plan. It's the time when my creative juices run strong. I need to harness it all before 11 am. That's not a problem for me as I rise early. My father used to tease me about the number of things I get done between 6 am and 11 am vs. the rest of the day. However, there is one thing that I don't seem to do well at the beginning of the day - code. I mean the totally-geeky-its-so-cool type of coding. That seems to work best after hours when there is no sun tempting me to come out and play, little-to-no chance of client calls to happily distract me and no meetings to dream/discuss the future. Coding, especially after dinner is my personal productive coding sweet spot. I don't know why, but I'm not knocking it.
At the end of the day, it is important to know yourself and what works best for you. Experts, and non-experts, can give you advice but you have to piece together what fits your world - life, work, passion, situation. There is one thing that is clear, multi-tasking doesn't cut it. Chunk up your time, assign a task to that time and run with it. You'd be surprised how much you can get done. There's a saying about not pleasing everyone all the time, well you can't do everything all the time either. That was a hard one for me to swallow and there are still some days when I try to do it all - all at the same time.
I've got to run, the "write blog" time chunk has ended.
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