A Tutorial for Increasing Productivity

The System

• Select a calendar to manage your time, tasks, and lists.
• Your choice – choose what works best for you.
• Start with a To Do list and set priorities to complete the most important tasks. ↴
• Then add other lists that you need, and decide where you will keep them.
  • Lists for the GTD system include: Next Actions, Maybe/Someday, Waiting For.
• Essential goals and projects to keep track of.
• Make lists of repeating tasks.

Possibilities:

• Some people simply use notebooks or other paper tools. Explore free printable tools here.
• Many productivity apps are available for smartphones and tablets.
• The Daily PlanIt Keep It Super Simple (K.I.S.S.) System relies heavily on Google (plus a few apps) is accessible across platforms (computer, tablet, and smartphone) and allows printing lists. (here’s a look at my system and workspace)
• Systems vary from simple like Zen to Done, to the more complex Getting Things Done, or GTD.

The Focus

• Get enough rest to be alert and aware of how you are spending your time. Know the value of time and Make Today Count!
• Reach for significant goals that AIM for an Active, Inspiring, and Meaningful vision
• Access your strengths to gain motivation
• Explore creativity
• Target procrastination triggers
• Follow values to set priorities ↴
• Observe outcomes and notice the feedback.
• Concentrate and feel the flow
• Use routine ↴
• Stop external & internal distractions – eliminate or reduce time wasters like procrastination as much as possible. Set up a workspace that helps you focus as much as possible, and avoid multi-tasking.

• Adjust direction by embracing values
• Clarify what is important – gain direction with a value statement that pinpoints what you do and why (the power tool for purpose). It includes how you add value based on what your values are.
• Target GREAT priority tasks to say YES to:

• Give big impact
• Requirements that are urgent
• Extend high engagement
• Are important
• Target good return on investment

Four Fantastic Tools for Focus

The Plan

Use your system to:

• • Plan for the day: schedule, add and delete tasks, review and plan for tomorrow.
  • Look at your calendar and tasks, plan projects and goals and evaluate them.
  • Act on top priorities to Get Important Stuff Done.
  • Navigate peak time and energy
  • Take time for a Weekly Review and Plan, Break large tasks down.
  • Include a Monthly Review.
  • Manage activites, spaces, and information with four activities: evaluate, simplify, increase effectiveness, and increase efficiency.
  • Examine results during an Annual Review.

The Routine

• Follow a daily routine based on the Science of Productivity to automate things you do every day. Daily themes and time blocking can be helpful. Include music and inspiration in your routine to keep you motivated and happier.
• Do a time audit and use peak time for your most important tasks.
• Remind yourself of tasks with timers, alarms, and/or a tickler system.
• Manage your focus. Be aware of the Pareto Principle, and maximize your use of available free time. (more on focus above)
• Manage your energy. Take breaks in a rhythm that works for you: the Pomodoro technique has short breaks after 25 minutes, the 90/20 rule advocated by Tony Schwartz is based on Ultradian rhythms, or Peter Bregman’s 18 minutes with a short break each hour during the workday.
• Learn more to master skills at Productivity Levels, the Study of Productivity, & Learn about Productivity.

Get Organized

• Manage email.
• Organize the information you need in files.
• Set up a bill paying system and process paperwork.
• Set up a Household Notebook.
• Organize recipes and menus to plan meals.
• Eliminate clutter and unnecessary stuff.

Goals and Productivity are like peanut butter and jelly. To spend your time where it most matters to you, begin by setting goals that align with your value statement or Unique Selling Proposition. Learn how to set goals and achieve them with this free tutorial. Learn more with the Daily PlanIt eBook “Get Goaling”

“Efficiency is doing the job right. Effectiveness is doing the right job.”-Peter Drucker

Tools for Productivity (hint: see Free Tools)

Daily

• Calendar: appointments, meetings, special dates to remember-dates and deadlines
• Daily to-do List: items from calendar, repeating tasks, action steps from goals. Take action today
  • set priorities
  • add incoming tasks
• Master list: things you need to do, remember, plan, discuss-no due date
• Idea File-to think about, possibly act on later
• Follow-up System: either a tickler file or calendar/holding file-future action required

Weekly

• Weekly Review: Gather information together
• Weekly Plan: items from calendar, repeating tasks, goal and project plans, schedule items from Master List
• Goal and Project Plans: action steps, target date, rewards, return on investment
• Goal Master List: top priority goal in each life area

Learn about the study of productivity, with videos and courses

Master Productivity: Productivity Levels (pdf based on posts at The 2Time Mgt Blog)

MORE RESOURCES

• Successful Person’s Guide to Time Management (pdf) from University of Kentucky
• The Ultimate ADHD Guide to Time Management from the ADHD Nerd

A To Do list is a basic tool to be more productive and an important part of any system for task management. Some people like to keep an electonic list or use a to-do app, while others prefer a written list. Whatever you choose, creating an effective To Do list is a part of daily planning that will help you combat procrastination and get motivated to get the important stuff done.

Has your To Do list gotten out of control? When you list everything you need to remember and get done, the result can be overwhelmingly long.

The To-do Today list is best kept simple.

Super Simple ways to pick priorities:

• Oliver Burkeman advocates planning each workday around a 3-3-3 model, with three hours for deep work, three urgent tasks, and three maintenance tasks.
• The 1 – 3 – 5 Rule suggests choosing one large task, three medium tasks, and five small tasks.
• The Most Important Tasks (MITs) method from Leo Babuata of Zen Habits. After reviewing your calendar, choose only a few MITs, three things that MUST be done today.

Important tasks can be routine things, like a report that is due today. Sometimes there are unpleasant frogs or DAM CRAP that must be dealt with. But don’t let the less urgent Very Important Pursuits that are Active, Inspiring, and Meaningful Solutions get lost in all the distractions that compete for attention.

With your to do list at hand, begin the day by focusing first on the top priority task. Once that is completed, move on to the next. If time is available, add more tasks from your weekly plan, repeating tasks, work goals, and action steps for goals and projects.

When you keep your To-do Today list simple, you need somewhere else to keep all the OTHER stuff you need to do. That’s why we need more than one to-do list for The Daily PlanIt Keep It Super Simple (K.I.S.S.) System. Decide how you will capture these items in other lists. These may be kept in a To-do app, or a list in Google Drive or Evernote. I have come to really appreciate the abilities of Google Keep for lists and reminders. Or if you prefer paper, you may want to keep them in a planner or notebook.

Beyond the To-Do Today List Options:

• You can set up a To-do Next list, or lists for To-Do Later, To-do This Week, etc.
• You can use a master list.
• You can use lists from Getting Things Done  (GTD):  next actions, projects, waiting for, and someday/maybe. (I prefer different terminology)

Incoming Tasks

During the day, be prepared to capture tasks that arrive in various ways: via email, meetings, conversation, phone messages, etc. Recognize and add incoming tasks into your system, and delete the ones you accomplish.

De-clutter your To-do lists

Are your To-do lists cluttered with repeating tasks and daily routine activities? Few time management systems have a good way to deal with these. Here’s how to de-clutter your To-do lists.

Repeating (or recurring) tasks

We all have repeating tasks for home and work. For home, there are maintenance tasks that are necessary to keep life running smoothly and errands like getting gas or going to the bank. For work, there are often job duties that are done on a regular basis. You can keep a separate list of repeating tasks in a To-do app so they don’t have to be re-entered each time they need to be done. Just assign it to a date within your To Do list and it’s there. Once completed, simply send it back to the repeating task list. Even though I like having a list of repeating tasks, I don’t use the recurring feature in to-do apps, because some of these tasks are needed on an irregular basis. If it’s something I will likely forget without a reminder like changing the oil in the car that I want to remember in a few months, I schedule it in my calendar.

Daily routine activities

I don’t like the things I do as part of my regular daily routine to constantly show up in my tasks or calendar. I prefer to keep them as a separate list in Google Drive.

To-Do Apps: There are many options available for to-do apps. See Apps for Productivity and learn about the Daily PlanIt K.I.S.S. System. Google Tasks is a part of Google Calendar that has become a very useful tool.

For People Who Prefer Paper

Daily PlanIt free printable forms

• Daily Plan Form 8.5 x 11″ one-page (pdf)
• a free printable Daily Plan for a binder at Planner Printables
• a sticky note version daily planner (using a template from studenthandouts.com)
• a set of a weekly planning form plus five daily planning forms (pdf)

From Others: The To-do List from Samplewords is a neat pdf you can type your own information in. Find more at the Free Tools page and at the Productivity Tools Pinterest board.

You can manage your tasks with a To-Do Today List and other to-do lists you like. To-do lists are a big part of daily planning. The next step is to actually get them done! Learn more at the Daily PlanIt Time Management 101 Tutorial. You might also like Planning is Thinking, a Planner Checklist, a weekly review and a Weekly Plan.

Further Reading: Craig Jarrow, the timemanagementninja, calls it a TODAY list and shows 10 Things Wrong With Your To-Do List, Back to Basics: How to Simplify Your To-Do List and Make it Useful Again from Lifehacker,  No More Bloated To-Do Lists! at Instigator Blog, Inc Article The Surprising Secret to Time Management,  Do Your Most Important Task First? at 99u & List of Ways to Ruin a List at Brazen Careerist. Watch Creating a To-Do List that Really Works video from Michael Linenberger. See also Time Management at Wikipedia