New Day! New Week! New Month! What Productivity Habit I’m Starting in October

It’s a New Day / New Week / New Month! For October, I am starting the 1-3-5 Productivity Habit.

You see, I work between two offices, one car office, one online course PD powerhouse, two universities, one consulting business, four main airports, and four tech interfaces. My life is partly in the conference room, the car, and “the cloud. Want to see me panic? Take away my post-it-notes.

Something got to give. So I am going to implement and follow the 1-3-5 Rule

ToDo ListI’m keeping my comprehensive To-Do list of everything I have to do (mostly because I am afraid to throw it away)…  but I’m whittling it down to a daily, prioritized triage list. On any given day, I’m going to target one big thing, three medium things, and five small things to accomplish. I’m also going to immunize myself against “Meetings” the most viral version of productivity sludge. Last night I attended an online meeting, completed in 25 minutes! It can be done, but not very often. Usually most meetings are just excuses for self-aggrandizing busyness.  At the end of the day, I’m going to take a few minutes to define my 1-3-5 for the next day.  Because my days often bring lots of unexpected tasks, I’m going to leave one medium and two small tasks blank, in preparation for the last-minute requests, often communicated as “emergencies” by bosses and clients. I’m using this template available here.

 

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