Want To Be More Productive? Try This!

Let’s face it. It can be hard keeping up with all that we need to do each day. Some days feel like they pass in a blur and you’re not even sure what you did all day. All you know is that you were BUSY!

I felt like this the other day. From breakfast to bedtime, it seemed to move at warp speed. But, worse than feeling busy was feeling like I was trying to catch up, and never could. It was as if my day was dragging me by the hand as I jogged to keep up, but I was never fast enough. And, judging by my half-finished to do list, that was true. When the urgent nudges out the important, you know you’re not being productive.

So how do you keep up? How do you stop being busy and start focusing on the important things?

You need to plan. You need a plan.

When you fail to plan for your day, you are at the mercy of every little thing that comes by to distract you. You can’t live intentionally without intent.

Would you go to the grocery store without a list? Maybe, but you’ll probably return home with things you don’t need and missing some things that you do. Would you cook something new without a recipe? If you’re like me, the answer is No. Way. Not if you want anyone to eat it. Because spontaneity has its place, but it’s not in my kitchen. Or in my daily tasks.

If you want to be more productive, you need to have a planning time. A time when you can sit down and decide how you want your day to go. That way, as those urgent tasks come calling (as they inevitably do), you can decide when you can take them on. Your priority is the most important things that you already have planned for the day.

How do you get started?

[Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. Please see below for more details]

1. Choose the best time to make your plan. This might be at night, right before bed, or first thing in the morning. The advantage of doing it at night is that everything is set when you wake up, bleary-eyed and not very focused. It also lets you do a brain dump so you’re not thinking instead of sleeping. Mornings are great, too. Starting your day with coffee and your planner lets you see exactly how you want the next 12 hours to go.
2. Be prepared. Do yourself a favor and have everything you need in one place, regardless of what time you hold your planning session. But this is especially important in the mornings. No one wants to be searching for their planner in the dark while trying not to wake the rest of the family. Get anything you’ll need together. Here’s a few things that I always have with me:

• notebook
• pen (I’m a pen snob so just any old one won’t do)
• planner
• phone
• My Home binder (basically, everything I need to manage our house)

3. Focus on what’s important. Pick 2 or 3 things that you consider to be the most important things for the day. They don’t necessarily have to be the mandatory things you do, like going to a doctor’s appointment. You’ll be doing those anyway. Instead, choose things that are in amongst your less important tasks and can sometimes get shunted off to another day because they are less urgent and, sometimes, a pain. Mine usually include returning library books to avoid fines, making appointments, and working on a project that has a far off deadline (which just begs for procrastination).
4. Make a plan. Ideally, you’ve already written out your plan for the day in your planner or Google Calendar, or whatever your favorite method of planning your day is. By make a plan, I mean visualize your day and how you want it to go. This can involve writing it out in a notebook, using a Daily Docket (like the one in my toolbox), or just mentally preparing. Are you going to the library on the way to pick up the kids? Are you washing the floor during the morning or afternoon nap?

 

So what’s the difference between this and what you do each week when you fill out your planner and make your to do lists? For one, this is shorter. It’s also more specific. It can take some time making the game plan for the week, but this is just a quick five or ten minutes. You’re taking a look at your “recipe” for the day (plan), checking your ingredients (tasks), and preheating your oven (coffee, of course!).

Starting your day with a clear idea of how and when you want to do things allows you to get through it by taking deliberate steps. You’ll spend less time scurrying to catch up with the important stuff and more time making a dent in your to do list. And, at the end of the day, you’ll know exactly where the hours went and what you did with them.

 

Do you struggle with being busy, but not getting the right things done? What intentional steps have you taken to be more productive?

 

Need help turning inspiration into action. Ready, Set, Go!

1. Pick a quiet plan time, either before your day starts or the night before.
2. Keep everything you need for this time together. You don’t want to be wasting time searching for a pen.
3. Pick your must-do, most important things. At the end of the day, you want to be able to check these off your list.
4. Spend a few minutes figuring out how your master plan fits into your real-life day. How can you streamline your tasks?

 

[Disclaimer: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a commission, at no additional cost to you. All opinions are my own and I never recommend anything I haven’t used myself and loved.]