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This is Week 25 of a Year of Living Productively
This week I tested Make it Happen in Ten Minutes a Day {affiliate link}. I chose a create task and a conquer task for the week and sought to spend ten minutes a day on each. Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post for details.
How Make it Happen Saved My Sanity This Week
Got me started on tasks that seemed overwhelming. You’d think I would know better than to make mental mountains out of molehills as a psychologist, but I still do it. I was procrastinating on both my tasks and this approach shrunk them down to size.
Gave me a positive attitude about the work. I love the dichotomy of create and conquer. Both are positive terms that helped me have the right mindset.
Time flew. I did get quite a bit done while working for each ten-minute stint, but was continually surprised by how quickly it was over.
How Make it Happen Made Me Crazy This Week
Wasn’t able to get into a work flow. With everything going on this week, I didn’t feel free to work beyond the ten-minute mark. Neither task was critical, so I just fulfilled the obligation. That was frustrating because I knew I wasn’t making as much progress as I wanted to.
Didn’t use it every day. Either I was gone, exhausted, or I forgot. After 25 weeks of these tests, it’s become clear that I have a one-track mind. I had a hard time focusing because the tasks aren’t top priorities.
Did Make it Happen Help Me Get Things Done?
Yes, when I used it. Besides being gone and absorbed by other goings on, I found myself a lot more interested in my 12 Week Year tasks. My two tasks felt like added obligations and habits I had to attend to. I did really appreciate that I started on the tasks, however. I am thinking I should use the ten minutes on my 12 Week Year tasks because it does work.
**UPDATE**
I have used this concept to good effect in organizing. I try to spend at least 15 minutes a day on some organizing or decluttering task. Using the tasks on this calendar helps.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 26
This week I’ll be testing what I call the Focus & Relief approach. Deven has modified Mark Forster’s AutoFocus approach to include two lists: a focus list composed of urgent tasks, tasks with hard deadlines, and up to three other tasks and what I am calling a relief list made up of tasks with no or soft deadlines.
The concept. The problem with the AutoFocus approach is finding the right balance between attention to urgent tasks and everything else. In simplest terms, the Focus & Relief approach begins with the Relief List. This is what Deven originally called the Whenever list, but renamed the Main list to avoid the connotation of someday/maybe. Based on group discussion, I like the term Relief–not because tasks are always a relief to work on, but because they will provide a break from focused work. You begin with the Relief list because it will contain non-urgent tasks that you might not otherwise get to.
Once you have done something on the Relief list, switch to the Focus list and work for as long as you like, switching to the Relief list when you need a break. After EACH Relief task, you must return to the Focus list. This process keeps you from forgetting about your top priorities, in favor of tasks you could do any time.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read Deven’s post on Mark’s forum. Don’t worry about all the acronyms. If you’re too confused by his extended rules relating to starring and rewriting, just use the guidelines above. I will be using paper lists of tasks as they occur to me.
To see if Focus & Relief made me more productive, click here.
If you’ve tried Make it Happen in Ten Minutes to increase your productivity, please comment. I will no longer be including polls.
Here are the links to the productivity hacks I’ve tried so far:
Many of my newer readers know that I am doing a weekly post for A Year of Living Productively, but what you may not know is that I did another shorter series about irritating people who don’t seem to benefit from many traditional approaches to getting things done. Could that be you?
Today I have a guest post on SteveSpring.org (an excellent personal development/productivity blog) where I summarize what I learned about motivating the rebel living in me. I hope you’ll join me there, but you don’t have to. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do actually. But you already knew that.
This week I tested whether Personal Kanban could improve my productivity. I used the traditional method of Post-It notes and a dry erase board. Scroll to the end of last week’s post for more details.
How Personal Kanban Saved My Sanity This Week
Helped me visualize my work. I’ve learned that I benefit from having an offline picture of my work in as big a format as possible. I decided to use my large vanity mirror for my Backlog color-coded notes. I could scan them and choose the ones I wanted to work on by category. I also discovered that I have a LOT of blog-related tasks.
Gave me a reward for completing tasks. It’s a good feeling to move those sticky notes across the board and into the Done column. I was motivated to remove as many sticky notes from my mirror as possible (my teenage son thought I was really weird).
Was portable. No, I did not put my dry erase board in my purse. But when I knew I would be at the dentist’s office with my laptop for three hours, I quickly pulled the sticky notes I knew I could work on, added them to a piece of paper, and popped them into my laptop bag.
How Personal Kanban Made Me Crazy This Week
Sticky notes not so sticky. I did have to restick them quite often when they fell off the board. It wasn’t a deal breaker. I did read about people who used magnetic cards instead. I would have to have dozens and dozens of magnets!
Didn’t limit my work. One of the main reasons I was excited about Kanban (besides visualizing my work) was to force me to limit the amount of work I took on. The problem is there aren’t any limits on the work being fed into the system, only on the tasks being worked concurrently. I’ve discovered that isn’t an issue for me. I don’t tend to flit from thing to thing when I’m actually working on them.
Work is never complete. Routines, Do it Tomorrow, and Scheduling tasks all gave me a sense of completion at the end of the day. With Kanban there is a never-ending stream of work coming into the system through Backlog. I started to feel hopeless. Then again, maybe it’s the winter that refuses to end!
Did Personal Kanban Help Me Get More Done?
Yes. For the better part of the week, I was motivated to complete as many tasks as possible. It was when I realized I would never finish them all, that the approach broke down for me.
While I don’t want to continue using Personal Kanban, I see a lot of value in having a visual representation of work. Using it to track projects could be very beneficial. I’ve created forms I use for blogging that use checklists for every phase of a post that remind me of Kanban.
A friend sent me a picture of her Kanban board and thanked me for the idea. In no way would I want to discourage anyone from using an approach that works for them. That’s the point of this series! I’m finding what works for me and hopefully you are, too.
**UPDATE**
Although I do not use Personal Kanban for all my tasks, I use it for writing curriculum. I have a large dry erase board at my desk. I have columns of tasks that have to be completed for each lesson (some of which others on my team have to do). I find it motivates me, organizes me, and gives me great peace of mind. Highly recommended for work that goes through a process.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 14
This week I’ll be using Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy.
The concept. Brian Tracy argues that having a written list of tasks to do the next day will increase productivity by 25%. Furthermore, choosing the top 20% of tasks that make the most difference in your day, work, or life allows you to get the most results for your efforts. Brian says that most people do easy tasks to try and “warm up” to the day, in essence wasting valuable time.
Eating a live frog first thing in the morning is the analogy for choosing to do the worst task first. The work may be repulsive to you because it’s a big, time-consuming task or is just something you don’t want to do. But to be a “frog,” it must be the most important thing you could do that day. Once that frog is “eaten,” you can continue to work your list by identifying the next most important task. This way of working is not only supposed to improve your self-control, but will increase productivity by 50%.
I’m one who has really resisted eating the frog first thing. I read this Pick the Brain article by Tom Casano (who also sang the praises of doing the worst first) and realized that I could probably get myself to do this now that I use a 50/10 Pomodoro. If I know I can take a break after 50 minutes to do some fun tasks for 10, I might be able to stomach a frog or two.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read about the basic philosophy of Eat the Frog and watch the short video. Make a list of the next day’s tasks. I’m going to make an electronic list which I then print, but you can use any method you like. I think you could choose your most important tasks the night before, but I prefer to do that in the morning. It’s amazing how different things look overnight! Then eat that frog. I’m going to try and eat the frogs in successive order of importance, but my main goal will be the top frog.
Click here to read how my week of Eat That Frog went.
If you’ve tried Personal Kanban to increase your productivity, please vote in the poll below.
Here are the links to the productivity hacks I’ve tried so far:
This week I tested whether the Repeat Test would improve my productivity. The Hourly Chime iPhone app reminded me to determine if I was happy with how I spent my time in the previous hour. If not, I wrote down what didn’t work next to that hour on a piece of paper. Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post to read more about my planned test.
How The Repeat Test Saved My Sanity This Week
Helped me realize that I’m happy with my time management. While I know I have too many commitments, I was surprised that most of the time I felt I was using my time in the right way–even when I was indulging in leisure activities.
Helped me to limit time wasters. Knowing that I would have to ask myself if I was using my time in the best way kept me from spending too long online, for example.
Enabled me to identify areas for improvement. The only times I wasn’t happy with time usage was when I was doing activities that should have been multi-tasked. For example, while I felt the phone calls I took were valuable, sitting while talking wasn’t. I could have easily gotten some cleaning or laundry chores done and would have felt better about the hour.
How The Repeat Test Made Me Crazy This Week
Not a long-term solution. I loved the meekness of the hourly chime and I did remember to consider my time usage. But I can’t see continuing this beyond this week. The motivation won’t be there. However, I think doing this again in the future would be a good idea.
Doesn’t consider the long view. I had one occasion where I was happy with my hour, but when I was pressured about a deadline because of how I spent my time, I reconsidered. However, I don’t see any problem with recording time wasters later in the day if you change your mind.
Did The Repeat Test Help Me Get More Done?
Unequivocally, yes. I found it to be one of the more pleasant weeks, because the overhead of the method was low and the metric makes the most sense. Who cares if you get lots of tasks done if you aren’t happy that you did them? Of course, I can see potential problems with people who are happy with how they’re spending their time, but their colleagues and families are ready to wring their necks! The thing is, I doubt this irresponsible type would use this test anyway.
**UPDATE**
While I haven’t used the Repeat Test specifically, I believe the 5 Minute Journal app and the scheduling method I use on Skedpal serve the same purpose. I am always asking myself if I am using my time in the best possible way. I think the Repeat Test is an excellent analog solution for procrastination.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 13
This week I’ll be using Personal Kanban. I’ll be using a small dry erase board I purchased at Target and small Post It notes.
The concept. Personal Kanban is a means of visualizing and limiting your work using Post It notes and a dry erase board. It’s been used successfully in the workplace for teams, but is useful for personal productivity as well. The labels of the columns vary depending on your work, but at minimum there should be a place (even off the dry erase board) for backlog tasks. There is a column for work that is ready to be done or that you are wanting to work on soon. The Doing column is for active tasks. This is where limits are required. I will be working with a limit of 3. In other words, if I have three tasks I’m working on and find yet another I want to do, to be true to the method, I would have to complete one of the tasks, moving it to the Done column. I can’t wait to use this as an excuse when my family wants me to do something for them. 😉 Although the idea is that everything you do be included in the system, so you see all the work you have in progress, I won’t be dismantling my routines or taking the time to add them to the board. I will, however, use different colored notes for the major areas of work I have.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read about the basic philosophy of Personal Kanban. Decide what you will use to track your tasks. Doors, walls, windows, and file folders (putting the Doing and Done columns on the bottom of the file folder) are all options. This online Personal Kanban has a free trial. Decide which columns to use. I’m adding a couple. I have a Today column and a Pen column for tasks that can’t progress because I’m waiting on someone or something. Decide how many tasks you’ll allow to be in Doing at a time. Add your tasks to the backlog. For a week of testing, I’m only including tasks that I want to complete in the coming week. I’ll be adding more as they come up. Work your tasks through to being done. If you want more inspiration, read this series of blog posts about using Personal Kanban.
Click here to see how my week of testing Personal Kanban went.
If you’ve tried The Repeat Test to increase your productivity, please vote in the poll below.
Here are the links to the productivity hacks I’ve tried so far:
This week I tested the ability of Ann Voskamp’s daily and weekly planner to help me get more done. Scroll to the end of this post to see my plan. I was super excited to use my new folder/clipboard (from Target) with the pages. I even bought new pens to use with it! Pretty nifty, huh? Here’s what I learned in my week of using these paper planners.
How a Paper Planner Saved My Sanity This Week
Reduced my anxiety about the upcoming week. I had quite a bit of anxiety at the beginning of this last week. I had the feeling I was forgetting important things. I printed out the weekly planner page and looked over my Google calendar. I started adding events to the planner. I then printed the daily pages and dated them. I could easily decide to put certain tasks on these pages because of my weekly plan.
Gave me a focus for the day and week. My favorite part of the daily planner, possibly because I hadn’t done anything like this before, was the relationship focus. I realized that I was focused on all the to-do’s prior to an event this week and the relationship focus helped me to realize WHY I was having the event. Very powerful and made the event much more satisfying. I also really liked the Scripture focus. I memorize Scripture with my children, but I liked having a personal Scripture to focus on for the week.
Paper gave me a sense of control. For some reason, the paper planner and even the notebook inside my binder gave me a feeling of having it all together that I haven’t had since I’ve been using digital task lists. I suspect it has to do with a limit on the amount of information I see.
How a Paper Planner Made Me Crazy This Week
Unfortunately, I think I would have been crazy no matter what this week. By Tuesday I was absolutely exhausted and just wanted to lie on the couch watching Biggest Loser and eating fatty snacks. I didn’t, but I didn’t get much beyond the “musts” done.
This particular planner encourages too many habits at once. I wanted to get more done, not focus on keeping a food log and recording how much water I had. Even though I don’t think I have a problem in these areas, I felt compelled to add these habits. When I didn’t keep doing it, I had that all-or-nothing toss it out the window effect going. That was related to the next problem.
Too many task options. Whereas the simple paper list didn’t pose a problem for me if I didn’t get a day’s work done, this planner really bothered me when I didn’t. I think subconsciously I pictured Ann Voskamp dutifully completing all her tasks and her workout and water drinking and her relationship focus and housekeeping tasks and Scripture memory and I wondered what was wrong with me that I couldn’t do it. I also really disliked writing my daily activities down every day, especially when they’re already in my HomeRoutines app.
The draft didn’t work. I loved the concept of the draft. Research suggests that planning when we’re going to do something dramatically increases the likelihood that we’re going to do it. But guess what? The research always focuses on ONE task. One lousy task! I could decide when to do one thing and do it. No problem! But when I started planning all the things I would do in the morning, the afternoon, and evening and when I didn’t get some of those things done, I became discouraged and gave up.
Did a Paper Planner Help Me Get More Done?
In terms of overall productivity, no. However, I absolutely didn’t forget the important things and had a much better sense of control because of using the weekly planner. I liked the weekly planner so much that I plan to keep using it.
**Update**
While I still find myself drooling over this paper planner and others like it, I don’t use them consistently. I do love having the big picture in front of me, but I quickly stop using them in favor of digital planners. I did a Periscope broadcast on using paper planners that you may enjoy.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 5
I’ve written before about Mark Forster’s unique productivity methods. I’ve tried Do It Tomorrow and AutoFocus and plan to test them again in the coming year. But while Mark has continued to make modifications to AutoFocus, I haven’t been interested in testing any of his new approaches until now.
First, the rationale. He suggests that people like me may create huge to-do lists as a method of avoiding what they know they really should be doing. I agree! That’s why I quit using a to-do list for quite a while. To keep a long to-do list from obscuring what you know you should be doing, Mark suggests:
Choosing three tasks in the order in which you plan to do them.
Working on the first two as little or as much as you like in order.
Adding two more tasks to the list and continuing on.
Like Autofocus, these tasks can even include routine things like “take a shower” or free-time activities like “get on Facebook.” I plan to continue using my morning and school routine and planning the week using Ann’s planner. I will send reminders to my phone via IQTell for tasks that I must do that day. Everything else will be worked on using Mark’s method.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read Mark’s simple explanation of the method. He recently added a statement that the method is not recommended for other people. Ignore that and carry on. You can use paper or a simple to-do application.
To see how my week with Mark’s Simple and Effective Method went,click here.
If you’ve tried using a paper planner to increase your productivity, please vote in the poll below.
Here are the links to the productivity hacks I’ve tried so far:
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
