This is Week 27 of a Year of Living Productively
This week I tested the Accountability Chart from Sparring Mind. I broke my day up into 90-minute work periods followed by 15-minute breaks and then wrote down what I accomplished during each 90-minute block. Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post for more details.
How an Accountability Chart Saved My Sanity This Week
- Gave me something new to try. I was excited to give this method a try. Maybe because it was based on research, but I think more because I thought the “accountability” factor would work for me just like it does for dieters.
- Helped me get a lot done at first. The first day I cruised through lots of work and enjoyed writing what I accomplished next to each time block.
- Enjoyed the longer work periods. This week I have been preparing materials for the new school year. I was so motivated to complete these tasks, that I honestly didn’t take 15 minute breaks after every 90 minutes of work. I took little breaks here and there and long breaks in the evenings.
How an Accountability Chart Made Me Crazy This Week
- Hated writing things down. After the first day, I resorted to using my phone’s Notes app to record what I’d done. The longer I did this, the more time I let go by before recording. Soon I was just thinking about what I’d done and not writing. I was getting lots and lots done and it just felt silly to take the time to write it down. On the other hand, if I had been goofing off, I wouldn’t have wanted to write that down either. My response to this approach was very much like it was when I wrote down what I ate while dieting: yuck.
- Resisted the time limits. While I used a timer for work and breaks at first, I quit in part because I overused the method by continuing it all day long. I think that’s because I was in binge work mode. I quickly realized that I liked the 50-10 approach I used with Pomodoros much better because it didn’t interfere with the rest of my routines. Often a 90-minute block would overlap with lunch or dinner, for example.
- No help with knowing what to do. As I’ve said, I’ve been focused on school preparation. That means that other things I need to be doing started to slide through the cracks. The time blocks and chart were no help with this.
Did an Accountability Chart Help Me Get Things Done?
Overall, no. Even though I was very productive, I felt like this approach got in my way more than helped me.
**UPDATE**
While I don’t use an accountability chart, the warning feature of Skedpal keeps me accountable. I am not able to slack off or try to squeeze in too many tasks without consequence.
Image courtesy of nattavut/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 28
This week I’ll be testing whether limiting choices can help me get more done. The idea is that the fewer options we have, the more we get done. I have simplified my routine and will reward myself with an A for every day I accomplish 90% of it.
The concept. This week I was telling a friend how much my 15-year-old likes to know exactly what school work to do on a given day. That’s when it occurred to me that I like that, too. Unfortunately, I don’t have much of that in my life and when I do, I give myself more tasks for a day than anyone could accomplish. The result is that I never feel like I’m doing enough of the right things. I’m striving to be an A student in a course that has hundreds of fuzzy objectives. And it’s exhausting.
A friend sent me a link on Raptitude that motivated me to limit my choices of what to do. My first strategy was to use the routine I set up using Home Routines. This would enable me to limit the choices I make. The second strategy was to reduce the number of steps so it is humanly possible to finish them all on a typical day. I went over each aspect asking myself if my husband (one of the most balanced, productive people I know) would say it was stupid. I eliminated work that I wasn’t doing anyway and wasn’t important. I limited cleaning to a time limit per floor rather than several specific tasks. I limited the true task time of my routine to “must do’s.” I reviewed the blogging tasks for the traffic they produce and decided to eliminate the smallest returns on investment. I asked to be excused from a ministry that stretches my time. And I will no longer write first thing in the morning on non-gym days, allowing myself time for a leisurely chat with my husband and oldest son over breakfast.
The result is a routine I think I can really do. If not, I will pare it down further this week.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read the Raptitude article on minimalism in task management. The Barry Schwartz video he links to is worth the watch, but note that there is a cartoon with sexual content. (Note that I am not necessarily endorsing the views expressed on any site I link to).
Do a review of what you’re doing and your expectations of what you should be doing and make your day manageable. If you prefer not to use a simplified routine, make decisions now that will limit your choices later.
Click here to see if limiting choices helped me get more done.
If you’ve tried an accountability chart to increase your productivity, please comment. Click here to follow me on Facebook.
Here are the links to the productivity hacks I’ve tried so far:
Week 16: David Seah’s 7:15AM Ritual
Week 17: Another Simple and Effective Method
Week 18: Daily/Weekly/Monthly To-Do List
Week 19: Ultimate Time Management System
Week 25: Make it Happen in 10 Minutes
Oops – i think I lost my last comment. If you see two, that’s why! Love hearing about how things work in your life and the changes you make, Melanie. Also interesting that you do 50-10 for Pomodoro. I’m still at 25-5 but sometimes I do two in a row with no break. Now I won’t feel guilty when I do that!
How can you tell where most of your blogging traffic comes from? Is that from Google Analytics? It seems like I could tell Facebook and maybe Pinterest, but not sure if I’d be able to tell much else.