There are times when you need to reboot and create a productivity plan. February was a blur for me leaving me feeling shattered brained. Time to refocus and get a productivity plan in place for moving forward.
Through the move and putting my new office together, I came across some old paper clippings. Real gems. One clipping was about a “Five-Day Productivity Plan” cut out from one of those HR magazines my former CEO would put in everyone’s mail bin to read and pass on. Before I thought about throwing it out, I read it. Helpful tips on this crinkled paper where the highlighted parts have faded. The information came from Work Less, Make More by Jennifer White.
• Decide on Monday what your top three projects will be for that week then complete them.
• Set aside one day to just get through stacks on your desk. I would add going through your email inbox to that one.
• Rank everything on your “To-Do” list according to its importance then when your priorities are right, dump the bottom 20% of the list and forget about it completely for at least one week. Amazing how the important items will start to rise to the top and the ones with no impact just go away.
• Read and respond to email by actually reading, responding, and then filing into a folder. Do not put it into a folder until later; just deal with it now. <- Really works and I would add keep your inbox to no more than 20 emails as well as only check email 2-3 times a day unless you are waiting on information to move forward on a project.
• Say “No” to those pet projects no matter how tempting they are. I have to admit this is a really hard one to do. Pet projects are soooo much fun.
As for focus, my wicked smart friend, Jon Aston, highly recommends this book, 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. I have it right next to me as I type and I will be reading it this weekend.
What kind of productivity plan do you have? Any suggestions?
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