This is Week 34 of a Year of Living Productively
This week I tested whether David Seah’s Emergent Task Planner could help me get more done. I pre-planned 3 tasks and added more as they “emerged.” I also estimated how much time the tasks would take and scheduled some of the pre-planned tasks. Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post for details.
How The Emergent Task Planner Saved My Sanity This Week
- Got me thinking about my MITs again. I’ve gotten away from thinking about the most important tasks to accomplish each day. The Emergent Task Planner (ETP) definitely helped me narrow down my list of want to and must do’s.
- Reminded me to be realistic. I really wasn’t far off in terms of estimating how much time my tasks would take, but that was AFTER I’d written them down. My usual approach is to live in lala land, imagining I can “get caught up” in one day. hahaha
- Gave me a place to write. I didn’t do this until later in the week, but I really enjoyed brainstorming on the extra lines provided. I drafted a terrific blog post idea. No, I don’t think that’s the point of the extra space, but I was shying away from the form because of perfectionism. Feeling free to take notes on it made it much more appealing.
How The Emergent Task Planner Made Me Crazy This Week
- Couldn’t keep track of the paper. It got better toward the end of the week, but at first, it was really annoying to realize that I’d left the form on a different floor of the house. I didn’t feel free to just work without it as I have with other paper approaches because of the time tracking issue. I knew I would have no idea how much time I actually spent without referring to the form before starting a task.
- Cramped by the task ordering. I don’t think I did the tasks in order any day this week. I didn’t feel it mattered so much within the first three tasks, but I was doing tasks that emerged first and didn’t feel this was in the spirit of the form. Maybe I’m wrong, but in any case, it made the form less appealing for me.
- My inner rebel. It seemed that as soon as I committed to doing a task this week, that was it: I wouldn’t do it. It seemed to be my inner rebel rearing her ugly head. She may have had enough of all this productivity hacking! Either that, or I was just really tired. I gave myself permission to let things go. I’m OK with that, except in some situations (not this week), that attitude has meant I’ve forgotten some critical things. I tend to be an all-or-none lady. I don’t think this has anything to do with the ETP, however.
Did The Emergent Task Planner Help Me Get Things Done?
Given my attitude, yes. I was tempted to say no, but the truth is I think I would have done even less without the process of writing out my plan each day on the ETP. That being said, I’m not that excited about continuing to use it. Maybe I’ll change my mind when my rebel has been placated.
**UPDATE**
I don’t need a paper planner like this now that I’m using Skedpal. However, I think this may be a good analog tool for people who aren’t as rebellious as I am.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 35
This week I’ll be testing Steve Kamb’s Do it Now approach. Just as Steve Kamb, the blogger behind Nerd Fitness, suggests, I am going to stop putting off daily living tasks until later. Instead, I will do them “now.”
The concept. Steve argues that we make work for ourselves by putting off things like dishes, laundry, and clean up. Doing it later means doing it longer. The principle of Do it Now does not mean that you interrupt your work for every person, demand, or idea that presents itself.
This is not a new concept to me at all. In fact, it’s a problem I thought I’d mastered. But slowly, I’ve noticed that I am not immediately hanging up my clothes, putting my dishes in the dishwasher, or putting school books away “now.” I am waiting for that magical time period when everything is quick and fun to do known as “later.” Of course, later usually makes tasks more onerous.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read Steve’s post and watch the funny (and strangely motivating) video he includes. Purpose to handle all those little tasks that should be done as you think of them “now.” If you’d like to comment or share this post, you’d better do it now. You know you won’t have time later. 😉
To see if Do It Now helped me, click here.
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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
Week 33: David Seah’s Ten for Ten
That was such a funny movie. I need someone in my house to say, “Barb …” whenever I leave things where they’re not supposed to be! Actually my husband does that sometimes, but obviously not enough! I’ll have to show him this movie. 🙂
I’m glad you thought it was funny, too. I’d be cautious about asking your husband to be your narrator though. LOL
Haha, I actually am so happy to see someone else around the house be interested in having a clean house that I don’t mind if he’s narrating. 🙂
It probably helps that he’s not a very consistent narrator. Although, funnily enough, as I was writing this, he walked by holding the telephone, saying, “ding, ding, ding, who didn’t hang up the phone?”
Here’s our newest system to get everyone to hang up the phone: first offense of the day you have to say “I will hang up the phone!!” as you hang it up. Second time, 10 jumping jacks, Third time, 10 pushups, 4th time 10 burpees. It cured me of my bad habit in a day! (I was the one who thought up the system, thinking it was my daughter who was always leaving it off the hook – little did I know it was me!)
Barb, you can’t even believe how often people leave phones off the hook here. We have four phones and usually can’t find any of them. Crazy-making. My problem is I never know who left it off. Too many other people to blame!
That’s one of the perks of having kids leave home. There are less people around to say, “It wasn’t me!”
Yeah. It’s my life, but I’m glad they’re around.
I need a voice following me around all day, too. I might have to try this one out. I’ve actually been doing it in regards to my room the past few days. I feel neurotic when hubby or the kids leave something laying around in there, but it’s still tidy! 😉
Oh and I’m so glad I’m not the only now with an inner rebel! 🙂
You’re definitely not, Audra. Glad Do it Now is helping you keep your room clean. I feel like the Narrator is at my house already!
So I decided to set something aside to put away later, and I kid you not, I heard “Do It Now!” I was like, no way. Just kidding. I couldn’t resist the voice and I put it away. I have a feeling this voice will be nagging me all week. I think I’m grateful. 😉
Haha, we all watched the video together at our house last night, and that has been a common phrase at our house since then. My husband cleaned the garage because of it! Gotta love that. 🙂 Thanks, Melanie.
You’re welcome, Barb. I just told Audra that I’m going to show it to my kids and see what happens.
That’s great. I’ve decided to show it to my kids and see if it has an impact. They’ll think it’s funny anyway.
What about keeping the paper in your pocket? With a pen. Hospital nurses do that.
As long as you’re making good choices overall, I wouldn’t worry about the order you do them in. Sometimes the structure helps. Sometimes it doesn’t.
I’ve tried “do it now”. I learned it needs limits. If your house is anything like mine, you could spend the entire day just doing what you see rather than what you need to do. “Finally clean out this drawer.” “Comment on this blog, and that one.”
Limits made it very effective. An hour doing anything that called to me cleared out many nigglies. I still try to do that once a week. An afternoon only doing things that had to be done this week makes great headway on the list, without having to refer to the list all the time. When things are really out of whack, I spend an hour only doing things that truly need to be done before the next meal (usually cooking the meal).
Choosing tasks that can be done in a reasonable time (15 minutes) and finishing each one before starting another help. Dumping all your clothes means you’re stuck there for hours reorganizing. A trail of half-done tasks is more frustrating than not even starting them.
This method can’t replace looking ahead and making good plans. Chances are you’ll forget something!
On days I wear something with pockets, that could work. Great advice on Do it Now. I know all too well that I can’t do everything now! But doing things now (in their assigned time) makes sense. Unfortunately, I’ve gotten away from that. Thanks for taking the time to comment NOW 🙂 because I think other readers will benefit from what you had to say.
FlyLady used to sell a vest that had nice pockets.
Before my iPhone, I used to wear a little tool apron around with a notebook, pen, and Band-Aids. I HAD to have Band-Aids! 🙂
Finally remembered it:
Do it.
Do it right.
Do it right now.
Off to torment the kids.
Are the kids sufficiently tormented? 😉
They got thoroughly tired of being tormented, but several small things were put away immediately after use. (Years ago, the plan was to fix my own habits first, so I wouldn’t be a hypocrite, but my own never got to that level. Erratic.)
I’d forgotten how powerful DIN is. Half my daily housework is already done. (Then again, daughter wanted to run to school today, so I didn’t go with her — but I used the extra time wisely, so it does count.)
I also used DIN on the 6-month paper backlog. Nothing urgent, just updating the database which, in theory, is used to create (and then evaluate) the budget. April is totally finished. There’s a reasonable chance I’ll finish May today. That means, though, that a bunch of other things aren’t getting done.
Cricket, I’m excited about your results. I think DIN applies to what should be done now. If you’re doing things just because they come to mind, you may end up doing the wrong things. It’s important not to overthink though.