As mentioned in an earlier post, I was gearing up for my first session with productivity expert Terry Monaghan of Organizing For Your Life. Terry works with individuals and executives at organizations to help them them develop structures and processes that enable them get more done in less time.
During our first session, Terry asked lots of questions about what was working and what wasn’t. We discussed what support systems I currently have in place and how I would like things to work. During the course of our discussion, we uncovered some of my sticking points and what made them sticky for me.
A few of the key points that really shifted my thinking …
- I’m a highly visual person. If a thing is not in my line of vision, it’s likely to fall off my radar. What I learned is that my visual cues (polite term for ‘overflowing step file holders’) are overstimulating and overwhelming; and that there are more visually appealing and less stress-inducing ways of keeping track of active projects. Music to my ears!
- Many of the systems I have in place are well thought can work well for me, once I work out all of the kinks. For instance, I have numerous email accounts to help me keep track of different types of email (bills, personal, shopping, business, admin, networking, etc.). While some people use filters, I chose different accounts. My system for separating email works, but the way I process my email doesn’t. I’m working with Terry to implement a system to process my in-box and keep it empty.
- Most of the projects I’m working on require large chunks of time, something I rarely have. Terry helped me to shift how I think about my projects and my progress on them. By breaking projects up into smaller tasks, scheduling blocks of time for tasks (even as little as 15 minutes) and using a timer to keep me on task, I can make steady progress and achieve a sense of accomplishment while working towards completion.
- I don’t have to start from scratch. Terry explores how I work, what works well, and then works with me to put structures in place that support the way I work. So, it’s not about implementing a canned system, but building a system that works with my work flow.
These may seem like obvious things, and on some level they are. But discussed with a productivity expert in the larger context of prioritizing what’s most important to me and maximizing my time, it’s quite powerful. By making just a few small changes in the way I work over the past few days, I’ve already seen an impact and my motivation is quite high!
Next, we’ll work on my time. Stay tuned…
In the meantime, what’s most effective for you in managing your email, your schedule, your paper? How do you manage it all?
Life is pretty complex. With three young kids, multiple business ventures and no local family, some days it doesn’t take long for me to get overwhelmed by it all. Even when one is on top of their game, there are those cyclical things that come up and need to be addressed, like the winter cold and flu season, summer camp planning, school vacations and breaks. Some are predicatible and can be planned around, but others just spring up, like a snow day. And, without plans in place to address these things before the crisis arises, one can easily be thrown off course.
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