Personal Productivity 101
Productivity with Purpose
Weekend Catch Up
Apr 10th
I am using this weekend for an overall catch up! It’s a good idea to schedule time at least once in a while to tie up all of those loose ends:
- clean your home or office.
- complete overdue tasks.
- get a project back on track.
- sleep late.
- time with family & friends.
- re-assess goals & commitments.
- time by yourself to ponder & plan!
Have a productive & happy weekend!
Improve Performance by Joining a Group
Apr 8th
For the next two days I will be away from my office, first attending the WISE Symposium and then in an all-day team meeting with two groups of very inspiring peers. Though the settings and formats, even some topics are different, the result is the same. Every time I come out of one of these sessions, I am completely energized; overflowing with ideas and information, ready to try out new strategies and different concepts. This started me thinking about the value of learning from and building relationships with other members in your industry, mentors and newbies as well as complementary products and services. Especially if you are a small business owner, an entrepreneur, work at home or even stay at home with children(that’s work too) you may not take advantage of these types of opportunities. You really are cheating yourself out of an entire set of valuable resources!
Research what groups, events or organizations exist that you can network with and gain information and support from. Places to look:
- An industry or trade organization(local or national)
- A career specific support group(i.e. writer’s forum)
- A mentoring group (like SCORE)
- Sign up for a class to further or refresh your skills
- Find a non-career networking group(book club, play group for SAHMs)
Any forum or setting where you can exchange ideas and get honest feedback is definitely a good investment of your time. I might just come back with some new productivity strategies to share! Stay tuned….
How Can You Salvage a “Very Bad Day?”
Apr 7th
I awoke feeling very overwhelmed by life today. It felt like a scene out of the favorite childhood book “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” The combination of not sleeping well, not eating well or drinking, together with too many different demands and responsibilities has made me feel is if I am heading for burnout. Once upon a time, I would have dragged my body unwillingly out of bed, fueled it with a couple extra cups of coffee and slogged through my day, but no longer. I have committed to taking better care of my health this year and have decided that those old behavior patterns just don’t serve me anymore. That old way of thinking does not increase my output or efficiency; on the contrary it actually impedes maximum performance by draining my reserves so that I can’t function efficiently. Our bodies are like machines in that we must give them regular tune-ups and maintenance if we want them to be dependable!
So this morning instead, I thought “OK, what would most benefit me right now? What do I really need and what is the absolute minimum I must do today in each area of my life and work?”
I NEED A MENTAL HEALTH DAY!
- I need to rest –mental and physical downtime.
- I need to exercise because it energizes me and helps ease the aches and pains.
- I need to eat well and drink extra water to fuel and hydrate my body.
- I need to re-center and recharge – perhaps meditate, yoga or sit for a while and pet the dogs.
- I need to reprioritize and refocus -list priorities and absolute minimums for each area of my life.
At this Point I got up and wrote in my journal to get all of this out of my head –which ultimately turned into this post. I then looked at my calendar and marked the appointments which were nonnegotiable:
9:30 – 10:30 – conference call for work-required and not a high energy drain
3:00 – 5:00 – pick up daughter at high school, son from math club, run home to get instrument and snack and head to drum lessons.
Then I made a list of all of the tasks that I felt were necessary in each area of my life:
- Exercise
- Read with son before school –at least 15 minutes
- Yoga or meditate
- Walk the dogs – maybe I can get kids to do it?
- Email mom and Candace to find coverage for son for next two days
- Talk to daughter about River dance plans tomorrow night
- Present for friend’s birthday –been thinking about this for weeks but just haven’t picked it up yet
- Confirm doctor appointment for next Wednesday –cancel or move drum lessons and find coverage for son after school
- Email family details for son’s birthday party and give gift suggestions – should have been done last weekend
- Write today’s posts for both blogs
- Check email for job to see what is urgent or time-sensitive
- Downgrade desert tonight from spice cake-which requires baking-to Milano cookies-where Pepperidge Farm has already done the work for me
- Make dinner tonight – pasta dish in the crockpot sounds easy
- Email/text husband to firm up date night plans for tonight-request a low energy date
- Return movie – not worth the $1 late fee
- Basic home chores –laundry, vacuum, clean kitchen, tidy bedroom and bath
- Plan dinner for Thursday while I am at conference – delegate this to husband!
- Email friend-cancel coffee tomorrow and reschedule for Saturday if possible before horseback riding
- Talk to son-reschedule breakfast date to Saturday or Sunday
- Check in with daughter to see how she’s feeling
- Check in with older son to see if he can watch his brother tomorrow after school
This may seem like a lot to do for a supposed “Mental Health Day,” but actually just getting it all down and looking at it helped me tremendously. This is perhaps half of the list for a “normal” work day – I know you can all identify – we are all over scheduled and way too busy!
The point of this exercise is not to whine and complain about my busy life – we are all alike in that- it is to illustrate in a real and concrete manner precisely how we can salvage a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” and in the process get the required tasks done while at the same time, paying attention to our energy levels and productivity cycles.
Make the best of every day! After my conference call, I am off to yoga….
