Plan Your Time – Get More Done
All time is not created equal. It is the quality of the time that counts. In times when I am very rested, wide awake, focused and efficient, I can be three to five times as productive as other times. My goal is to have more of these highly productive hours.
This harkens back to Stephen Covey’s Seventh Rule of Highly Effective People – “sharpening the saw”. The story of a wood cutter who is trying to saw a big tree. A passerby asks the woodcutter why he does not sharpen the saw so he can cut more easily and quickly. The woodcutter replies, “No time – I am in a hurry to cut the tree down”.
Often, it is the time taken to recharge that has the greatest return.
The exercise today is to figure out what things sharpen the saw and plan to put those into your days. Then allow the wood cutting to take the other time as opposed to the other way around. I call this Reverse Planning. Rather than planning what I have on my task list and trying to get that done, I plan my down time and deliberately work to guard that time.
This process is great for A type people (like me). It gives us permission to have some recharge time. And allows us to count it as productive time.
Some ways I add energy are:
1 – Obviously sleep. Only someone driven like me would have to write that one down. But I have found I can slip into the habit of cutting sleep to try to get things done. I now know this is not productive.
2 – Exercise. I become resentful when I push so hard that I do not have time to work out. I will schedule one hour workouts 5 days per week and 2-3 hours once per week.
3 – Taking an end of day walk is a great habit. It can clear the mind. Even 10 minutes is good.
4 – Organization or reducing the mess always has a great value to my peace of mind. Working in a neat environment adds to my productivity. Knowing this is a great way to help me do it more.
5 – Social time. I will schedule a couple of evenings per week of social time.
6 – I love stimulating my mind. It adds to my pleasure but also to my productivity. It keeps me sharp.
7 – Reading just for the sake of reading is a great way to recharge.
There are many other ways to recharge. Once I have my list, I will reverse plan them into the schedule to make sure I get them done.
Learn more about Time Tracking Software, visit Chrometa. Or stop by Jim Estill’s site where you can find out all about Time Management.
