Are you overwhelmed by all the productivity advice out there?
Kaizen this, Pomodoro that, eat your frog, find your MIT (no, not the university), multi-task, don’t multi-task….
How in the world are you supposed to figure out what’s actually going to get the job done?
I’ve got a secret for you.
Tweaking your time management rhythms doesn’t have to be hard.
Coming up with new adjustments to your schedule doesn’t require an astrophysics degree.
In fact, you can make this a really tiny, easy thing to do for yourself every week!
Want more? Let’s dive in.
Reason number one
The first way to simplify all that productivity advice is to just pick one thing at a time.
You can only trial one technique successfully, anyhow.
So here’s your permission to shove aside all those other systems you’ve been hearing about. Just move ‘em over, mentally speaking. You’re not giving your time or energy to them right now.
Choose the one thing you are going to test out.
- Maybe it’s something that’s worked for you before.
- Maybe it’s the technique your best friend swears by and has been after you to try.
- Maybe it’s just the neat tip you read about last week and have been itching to see if it’ll work for you, too.
Whatever it is. Just try that one thing.
Reason number two
Next, identify precisely what you’re going to do for your trial.
You can’t just leave it at “try the Pomodoro technique.”
No, you need to know a few other details first.
- What times during the day will you Pomodoro your tasks? (I don’t think eating lunch or giving diaper changes needs to be one of them, do you?)
- Which (of your many) timer(s) are you going to use? A manual one, a computer one, the one on your phone?
- And how long a stretch do you plan on going for? Are you Pomodoro-ing an entire workday, a couple hours, or just testing out one work/break session?
Just pick one thing at a time.
Know exactly what you’re going to do, before you start – it’ll make the process a lot easier.
(Not to mention boost your chances of success!)
Reason number three
And finally, make adjustments as you go.
Fine. You attempted the “eat your frog” productivity method yesterday. But you really didn’t like how things worked out – you weren’t ready for that particular frog, and it kind of flopped.
So what could you do differently tomorrow, or next week?
Look for little changes that might make all the difference. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel (or productivity method) here.
- Do you need to shift the time of day you start on your frog, just a little?
- Are the kids needing a wee bit more time to get out the door (so you can return the house to normal) before you sit down at the computer and knock something out?
- Is one of your weekly frogs a lot faster than the others – and you have a crunch day? Put those two together in your weekly planner.
It doesn’t have to be hard.
Look at what you did. Find a couple things that went well. Point out a couple things that you didn’t like. And then brainstorm a few mini-adjustments to combat the didn’t work so well’s.
It doesn’t have to be some big deal, trying productivity methods. Finding new time management systems.
You just need to pick one thing that’s likely to work/has worked for you. And then refine it. Get better and better at it.
Soon, you’ll be the Kaizen expert – Pomodoro guru – MIT master.
All by applying incremental improvement to your week.
So tell me – which single time management method are you doubling down on this week? And what small tweak are you going to make, to personalize it for you?
