Got the following newsletter from Time Management Ninja. Curious to see how I’m doing with regards to these preparation tactics. What is 1 Thing You Could Do Today to Prepare for Tomorrow? Change the time you get up (or go to bed) – Start the week well rested, not dragging. Got up late today and have been puttering and cleaning, so I’ll probably go to sleep at 11:30 p.m. Read 20 pages of a book – Learn something new. Going to read Real Simple before going to bed. Write in your success journal – Recognize where you have made progress. I don’t have a success journal, but I do have…
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productivity hacks #1-3: one week later
One week later, here’s how I did! Check email standing up 3/5 – broke this in the morning by paranoidly checking if I had gotten sub coverage for dealing with a broken heating water pump. When I got to school, I did all email standing up at the laptop cart. 3/6 – did it! it’s making me so aware of how much time i’m spending on email. 3/7 – accidentally wrote some sitting emails in the morning, and in the evening at my kitchen counter. 3/8 – slipped a few times for work, but ended up not checking personal email for most of the day 3/9 – cheated a LOT…
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productivity hack #3: no cherry-picking
From A Life Less Bullshit: 3. Stop “cherry-picking” your to-do list My most unproductive days always have one main thing in common: I work through my to-do list in a haphazard order, doing just the easiest things and procrastinating on the bigger, scarier – and much more important – ones. In short, I cherry-pick my to-do list. This month, though, I’m working with a new strategy. First, I brain-dump everything I think needs to get done that day. Then, instead of jumping into that mess by choosing whatever I most want to work on, I re-write the list in a specific, thoughtful order. Which of these things is most important?…
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productivity hack #2 – bookends
Also from A Life Less Bullshit: 2. Create daily “bookends” The way I start my day has a huge impact on how the next 24 hours unfold. If the first thing I do is reach for my phone and check my email in bed, my mind is already buzzing with a list of things that other people need from me. To stop myself from doing this, I bought an alarm clock to use instead of my phone alarm (remember alarm clocks, haha??), and every night before bed I turn my phone off and leave it in another room so that I’m physically incapable of checking my email from bed. (Hey,…
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productivity hack #1 – email timer
From A Life Less Bullshit‘s email newsletter on March 1: 1. Set a timer when answering your email I’ve read a lot of tips about how to best organize your inbox by using labels and folders and filters, and while I definitely think some of those techniques can be helpful, I’ve also found that solely focusing on email organization can mask the real problem. Buying pretty boxes to hold all of your clutter doesn’t actually help you de-clutter, you know? Especially considering that what I really want is to make email my bitch, which means that the first thing I do is treat it like a once-in-a-while task instead of…