You are following your plan: making and updating your list for tomorrow each night before going to bed (how romantic is that!), doing your most important item first thing in the morning (eating that frog), and working in either Jam sessions (90 minutes uninterrupted blocks of time) or Pomodoro (20 minutes uninterrupted time blocks). Now what?
An additional element that needs to be incorporated into a productivity system is follow-up. Follow-up. Follow-up. I have to admit that when I am cooking with gas, I want things DONE. I don’t want to have to rev up this project again tomorrow because I couldn’t finish it today. That’s so frustrating. As a minor example, I was trying to get a doctor’s appointment here in Paris for the last several weeks. Each time I called, the office was closed and they don’t take messages on their machine. This problem was hanging over me for several weeks unresolved. It was not life threatening, but it was certainly life annoying. I finally put it on my follow-up list and it was done the next day!
For follow-up, here is my working method: between my Jam sessions, I plan a follow-up session. Maybe 10-15 minutes. Those lose threads can be so annoying. And tying them up is very satisfying. I have a section on my daily to do list (called The Quotidien Sheet) labeled “Follow-Up” and I keep a running list on a sticky note so I can knock them out and if there are carry overs till the next day, I just move the note. That is working nicely.
Systems are personal and they have to work for you and not be work for you. You have to train yourself to do them naturally. Naturally, I am a pen and paper kind of gal. I like to write things down. I have started setting alarms on my phone because sometimes I am concentrating so hard that I lose track of time. Also I try to stack my appointments together toward the end of the day when I am less productive. Mornings are for real work (writing).
If you are interested in seeing my Quotidien Sheet or learn more about my overall system, ping me and I will write more about that. If you send me your email, I can send you a copy of my QS.
You can email me at info@aliciaberberich.com.
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