Perfect Selfmanagement in 52 Weeks: Tracking Daily Activities

Tracking Daily Activities

This week, you’ll record your daily activities and the amount of time you spent on each. If you already keep daily records, continue with whatever system you're using, being sure to focus on what you actually do. Please don’t write down every tiny detail, just get the gist of things down on paper.

Why should you do this? You need to have a comprehensive picture of your day’s activities so you can more easily note where to make changes that will make you more successful.

Day 1: Take your daily planner or, in lieu of that, use a plain piece of paper. During your workday, write down the following things in short form:

Activity	On or off task?	Disturbance?	from …  until…

Day 2: Keep track of your day. Write down your daily activities just as soon as you’ve done them. Don’t wait until the end of the day (or week!).

Activity	On or off task?	Disturbance?	from …  until…

Remember, the focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not changing time. A good place to start is by eliminating your personal time-wasters. For today, for example, set a goal that you're not going to take any personal phone calls while you're working.

Day 3: Does keeping track of what you do during the day keep you more on the “straight and narrow”? Are you less likely to extend conversations, meetings or breaks? Are you becoming aware of optimal concentration times and also times of the day where it takes longer to get things done? Write down what you have done just after you do it.

Activity	On or off task?	Disturbance?	from …  until…

For today, disconnect instant messaging. Don't instantly give people your attention unless it's absolutely crucial in your business to offer an immediate human response.

 Day 4:

Activity	On or off task?	Disturbance?	from …  until…

Today, block out distractions like Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media unless you use these tools to generate business.

Day 5:

Activity	On or off task?	Disturbance?	from …  until…

For today, practice not answering the phone just because it's ringing and e-mails just because they show up. Disconnect the signals for e-mails and incoming instant messages. Especially during the time where you need to be absolutely concentrated on a high-priority task.   Instead, schedule a time to answer email and return phone calls.

Whew, that called on lots of self-discipline! Five days of tracking your daily activities isn’t easy but very important. Check through the week’s lists and see if there were activities that were detrimental to your time management success. Then go enjoy your weekend.

Perfect Selfmanagement in 52 Weeks - POWER HOUR

The Power of an Hour

While doing research on mental toughness, I looked at the training Navy SEALs have to endure. SEAL training is brutal. It takes over 30 months to train a Navy SEAL to the point at which he will be ready for deployment. The SEALs that emerge are ready to handle pretty much any task they could be called on to perform. The training pushes them to the limit both mentally and physically in order to weed out those who may not be able to successfully complete the demanding missions and operations with which SEALs are faced. The types of stresses they endure during BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) are the same stresses they will endure as SEALs. If they can't withstand it when lives aren't on the line, chances are good they won't be able to withstand it when lives are at stake.

How are SEALs able to get through training which includes their trainers pulling off their breathing gear while underwater? What makes the difference between the trainees who make it and those who don’t?

Mental toughness is one difference.

Lieutenant Commander Mike H., an executive officer of SEAL Team 10, says, “Today, our primary weapons systems are our people’s heads.  You want to excel in all the physical areas, but the physical is just a prerequisite to be a SEAL.  Mental weakness is what actually screens you out.”

Break Big Goals into Small Targets!


When the going gets rough, it is so easy to simply retreat into a corner and surrender to the forces of lethargy. This is a losing strategy! If you take time to plan your approach, things become much more manageable. Breaking big goals down into small, manageable tasks allows you to work toward your big goals in an empowering instead of an intimidating way.

Even if you aren’t sure how to accomplish your big goals, it is still important to keep moving forward. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” And that is where the “Hour of Power” comes in.

If you are feeling daunted, just get through the next hour. One hour, that’s all. After that hour is finished, pat yourself on the back, take a short break, and launch into another “Hour of Power”. Anybody can make it through an hour!

That’s it. Just make it through the hour. Make those cold calls for just ONE HOUR. Then relax a bit. Visualize your next hour. What challenges are you going to meet and conquer for ONE HOUR?

One of my clients tried this and was really excited about the results. She was having a “motivation breakdown” and needed an idea how she could “force herself” to make more calls and set more appointments. After a week, she was thrilled with the results. And her motivation was coming back to boot. Not even to mention the success she achieved. Every day. One hour at a time.

If you haven’t yet identified any big goals you are trying to work toward, just make sure you accomplish one significant thing every day. It could be something as big as doing your taxes (or one hour of work on them) or as small as taking a power walk in the park.

The point is that every day should be at least somewhat productive. Then, if you find yourself getting ready for bed and still feel as though you haven’t accomplished much that day, just mentally run through your day’s “Power Hours”. You’ll fall into a deep, satisfied sleep.

Day 1: Make sure you accomplish one significant thing every day this week.  Here we go: Take your most important task or project and work like crazy on it for one hour. Focus – block out everything else.  Celebrate yourself afterwards – this is very important!

Nice job.

Day 2: Break down an important assignment or task into small parts. In what order do these microtasks need to be done? Start on micro-task number one. Finish it. If you still have time left in your Power Hour, get started on Task Two. When the Power Hour is finished, pat yourself on the back, go get some water, stretch a bit, open the window and take in some fresh air.

Ready for another Power Hour? Go for it!

Day 3: How do SEALs survive Hell Week, the most grueling week imaginable? One secret is disassociation. Disassociation is the ability to disengage from one’s body and the wailing mind to focus intensely on something besides the pain, boredom or discomfort at hand. It’s basically “going to your happy place.”

Today, pick out your most difficult task. Maybe one you’ve been putting off. Something that is very important to have done yet you „just haven't felt like it“.

Rev yourself up. ONE hour, that’s all. Remind yourself that you can get up after one hour and take a delightful rest.

Just do it.

Day 4: Thoughts of a warm shower, dry clothes and a warm bed keep Navy SEALs from quitting while sitting for hours in freezing water. Body builders flex and pose in front of a mirror to remind themselves why they are doing all this exhausting training. Many marathon runners spend the first few miles establishing their pace and the next 20 mentally building a house, brick by brick, to get through the monotony of 26.2 miles. Long-distance swimmers go into what they call a “swim coma” as they swim back and forth for 6,000+ meters. Some college swimmers even ‚write’ their term papers in the pool. An office knight might think of the cup of coffee and the chat with collegues after the Power Hour.

What significant task are you going to tackle today? Pull yourself into focus mode and get started. If you can do your most important tasks at a time of day when you are feeling alert and fit, you’ll get lots more achieved.
Great job!

Day 5: You are a lot stronger physically and mentally than you think you are. The concept of one's mind over the body is reflected in a phrase often chanted by candidates and instructors alike during Hell Week: "If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

Sometimes it is not so much a matter of mind over body. It has to do with mind over mind. If you visualize yourself doing something before you actually do it, it comes as less of a shock to you and you set yourself up for success.

The steps to mental strength:

- Familiarize

- Motivate

- Reduce negative thoughts (stop that ‚stinkin’ thinkin’!)

- Refocus

- See success

- Set the stage for performance

Today, pick out something challenging to accomplish. You’ll work one hour full steam ahead then take a break. Sixty little minutes. First, visualize the steps to be taken, then chant some motivating affirmation („If I can’t do this, who can?!“) Remind yourself of the feeling you’ll have when the task is completed. Now DO IT!

Relax and enjoy yourself this weekend. You deserve it.

4 Ways to Squeeze an Extra Hour (or More!) into Your Day

Julie Morgenstern, organizing and productivity expert and author of Time Management from the Inside Out, shares four ways to squeeze an extra hour (or more!) into your weekday.

Save 25 Minutes

Don't stop to pick up a phone call, answer e-mail, or carry on a conversation if you're in the middle of a task. Some research has found that it can take us 20 minutes or more to regain the same level of concentration after an interruption.

Just as a food diary helps you stick to your diet by offering a healthy dose of self-awareness, time-tracking software can keep you focused by revealing how many minutes you've devoted to applications and Web sites on your computer. For Macs, we like TrackTime (GetTrackTime.com; $25); PC users will want to try ManicTime (ManicTime.com; free).

Save 20 Minutes

To combat indecision—one of the most insidious time wasters—plan your schedule three days ahead, which is as far out as most of us can contemplate without feeling overwhelmed. If you're waiting until the last minute to decide to cook breakfast or head to the gym, you won't be prepared to do either.

Save 15 Minutes

Cut out time spent wrestling with easily tangled wire hangers by replacing them with wooden, acrylic, or fabric versions, and end drawn-out wardrobe decisions by grouping clothes by occasion (dressy, weekend, work) and color.

Save 5 Minutes

Instead of wasting time digging through your messy makeup bag, limit yourself to the eight products you use most often and stash them in your medicine cabinet for instant access.

Quickfire Shortcuts to Get You Out the Door Faster

Laura Stack

Prepare and Pre-Pack

What do you wish for your morning routine? Create a "to do" checklist for each day—at least until you establish a consistency. Talk with your kids about what their morning routines should look like too. Young kids may have fun drawing pictures of each step of their morning schedules, while adolescents and teens can benefit from creating "responsibility charts" that will help them sail smoothly through their daily routines. Make pre-packing easier by creating inboxes (and in turn, their outboxes) for each person. Have each person unload their backpack (or your purse or work bag), and keep important papers and must-haves for next day's use.

Get Future Focused

Go over your next day's schedule before bed.  Check the weather report too. You'll sleep better—and dress better—if you know as much as possible of what's in store. And don't forget to call ahead for carpool so you don't spend half the morning making last-minute transportation arrangements for kids' activities. Arrange all necessary transportation as early as possible, at least the day before. If you're driving, fill the gas tank the night before if you're running low.

Work Before Play

Naturally, you might want to "have a moment" before kicking off your day. Time management expert Laura Stack says, "It can be easy to sit down with a cup of coffee and get sucked into surfing the Web." She says that working women should shower and get dressed before they start any morning tasks. For moms, she says, "If you miss that chance to take care of yourself first, then later, when your kids start tearing each other's hair out, your makeup just isn't going to happen."

Make a Fast Breakfast Matter

Have the coffee machine prepared so that all you have to do is press "on," or make a pitcher of iced coffee ahead of time. Keep a to-go cup handy so you can have your morning jolt while you drive your kids to school. Have a lineup of several routine breakfasts to serve, with at least one being portable. "If you're making a smoothie in the morning, put everything in the blender with the lid on the night before and store it in the fridge," Stack says. You can also set out nonperishables and any pots or pans you might need in advance. 

Swap Caffeinated Drinks for Water

Caffeine fires up fight-or-flight hormones (like adrenaline) which can give you a temporary energy boost, but when those hormones wear off, your energy crashes. Personal trainer Jim Karas says to train yourself to enjoy Mother Nature's elixir and your energy (and morning productivity) may increase.

Plan Your Outfit

Prearrange your clothes, ironing anything that needs it. When possible, buy wrinkle-free. O Creative Director Adam Glassman says, "Go for low-maintenance fabrics: stain-resistant, wrinkle-free pieces that emerge from the washer and dryer looking polished. And develop a stylish, authoritative uniform: a well-fitting top and pants or trouser-style jeans."

Time Yourself

Ready...set...shower! If you tend to linger too long when you check email, eat breakfast or any consistent daily task, organization expert Julie Morgenstern suggests setting a timer to keep everything on track.

No News is Good News

You might want to try avoiding the news in the morning—at least until the bulk of your to-do list is complete. Depressing reports can distract you from efficiently accomplishing your a.m. routine—getting ready for work, feeding the kids, mentally preparing for a good day, says Los Angeles lifestyle coach Ruth Klein. If you really want to watch a morning show, DVR it. 

Charge It

Keep your cell phone in its charger, right on top of your briefcase or purse.

Keep the Peace

Tempers can flare when children are still half asleep. Prevent sibling spats by making sure your house rules cover things like sharing clothes, bathroom etiquette and sharing front-seat privileges on the way to school. 

Stop Catering to the Kids

If you find yourself going out of your way to do everything for your family in the morning, no wonder you're scrambling to get out the door. According to time management expert Laura Stack, some parents overcompensate for the way they were raised—and don't let their kids do anything. "Parents are not servants; they're teachers," Stack says. "It's okay to let other people pack the lunches or make the beds—even if they don't do it the same way you do," she says. Stack suggests chores for each child to help speed up the get-out-the-door process. A good rule to enforce is that kids don't get their privileges—watching TV, playing video games, talking on the phone—until after they fulfill their responsibilities. Stand firm. You can try a chore-reward system (think, extra playdates) if you achieve a week of on-time arrival and departures. 

Keep things tidy

A 2008 study found that if people regularly tidied their homes and offices, most would gain between 16 minutes and one hour a day when they could be working (that's four to 15 days a year). The average retrieval time for a piece of paper is ten minutes; 3 percent of all papers are misfiled. One study put the cost to a corporation of recovering a lost file at $120.

Perfect Selfmanagement in 52 Weeks - Priorities

Priorities

It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about? ~Henry David Thoreau

If you are like many other folks, you are juggling lots of things: your career (and/or helping others with theirs), school, relationships, friends, health, finances, personal development, creative projects, etc. When you have a lot to do, it is often hard to know what to do first.

Here is where the rule “first things first” comes in. It simply means 1) find out what you have to do and 2) do the most important projects first.

You've figured out what to do. Now the hard part: what's first -- or seventh? Knowing which tasks are most important is essential. Grab a pen and paper, then list each "to do" item, sorting by high, medium and low priority.

A top priority could have an impending deadline (maybe it's a report for work or dry-cleaning pickup before a weekend wedding). It could also be something that's important to you personally, like attending your child's recital or keeping an appointment with your trainer at the gym. An IMPORTANT task or activity helps you - doing it avoids a danger to you or brings a benefit to you.

Day 1: Write down the six most important things/projects you have to do today. Actually seeing your priorities in writing can make it easier to set aside time for them.

Rate each area in terms of how important it is to you. Use a scale of 1-10 with 1 being "not important" and 10 being "vitally important”. 

Work on the most important task until it is finished or you can’t do anything more on it for the moment.

Day 2: Being able to set priorities is the key to getting organized and making the most out of your time. Make sure your day-to-day life doesn’t take precedence over your most important goals. It is so easy to get caught up in „busy work“.

Take your list of things/projects you need/want to get done and separate them into the following categories:

Priority 1: Must Do – these goals or activities must be achieved if you are to consider yourself victorious. These are your highest priority goals or activities.

Priority 2: Should Do – these goals or activities should be achieved (but it is not essential) to consider yourself successful.

Priority 3: Nice to Do – these are more „feel good“ activities.

Day 3: Today you number all tasks still left on your general list in the order that you need to do them, from 1 being most important (do this one first) to however many action items there are on your list.  

Be careful with „urgent“ items – they yell the loudest but are often not as important as the „quieter“ tasks. Human nature means that we automatically act on tasks that are ‘urgent’, whether these tasks are crucial or not. That’s okay for the tasks that are also important, but low-priority tasks  are not the best use of your time and effort.

Day 4:

Today we follow only two rules:

A – Tasks which are important AND urgent, we do NOW! Spend at least half of your workday on these.

B – Tasks which are important yet not urgent, we do NEXT.

·      Try to keep work on tasks that are not important but urgent down to a minimum.

·      Learn to say no to additional commitments. Of course, it feels great to be in demand, but consider what it will cost you to take on yet another activity you don't have time for.

·      Cut unimportant tasks short. For these tasks, you can generally get by with 80% instead of 100%.

Day 5: If you can put off a task without unpleasant consequence, do it. Tackle fewer but higher priority tasks--you'll meet your goals faster. Don't be seduced by how easy a task appears--your time will be eaten up regardless of how important the job is, so spend that time wisely. Put activities and tasks in your schedule that match your highest priorities.

With projects, work on small portions every workday that will be due by the end of the week, starting with the most important tasks first.

Assign realistic priorities to each task:

• Priority 1: due today by 6pm
• Priority 2: due tomorrow by 6pm
• Priority 3: due by the end of the week
• Priority 4: due during next week

You can further prioritize tasks within this grouping by adding a decimal place. For example, a Priority 1.0 task needs to be done immediately, whereas a Priority 1.5 task simply needs to be done by the end of day.

Your goal today: think about next week, set your high priorities, mark them in your calendar and put it to bed until Monday.

SO, ONE MORE TIME, SETTING PRIORITIES MEANS:

Be clear about what you want to achieve - in life and work.

Don't confuse urgency and importance.

Keep focused on the fact that important things help you achieve your goals.

Use urgency and importance to be clear of your priorities - importance is your top priority, not urgency.

Now pat yourself on the back and go have a lovely weekend!

Perfect Selfmanagement in 52 Weeks - To-Do's

To-Do’s

We all have too many things to do. They can’t be done in one day. In fact, there will probably never be a time when we can say, “I’ve done everything I need to do”.

Studies have shown that writing down all the to-do’s, projects, goals, etc. lets the brain off the hook and releases mind-energy for getting the most important things done.

Day 1: Take a large sheet of paper (or start a workbook for “Project Self-Management”) and write down everything you can think of that you need to get done. If something else pops into your head as the day progresses, write it down.

Day 2: Look at the list you created on Day 1. Break larger projects into small steps. For instance, instead of "Plan vacation," the entries could be "Call travel agent," "Pick up brochures," "Buy tickets," "Call Mandy to water the plants," etc.

The quickest route to a task you'll actively avoid working on: Make it a ‘gigantic ambiguity’. Put a nonspecific item such as "Clean out the office" on your to-do list, and that will be the last thing you'll ever do with it -- guaranteed. Actually, "Clean out the office" isn't a to-do at all; it's a project. Author of “Getting Things Done”, David Allen, says projects are not tasks; projects are collections of tasks.

Day 3: Try writing a to-do list on a computer program such as Ever-Note. That way you can sync your list across all your devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, etc.), and you can easily edit it.

When it's time to add something to your to-do list, think it through using the following guidelines.

Only Put Items on the List That You're Definitely Doing

Sometimes you think of tasks you're just not ready to do yet. Maybe learning a new language - while it's an eventual goal - just doesn't fit into your life right now. Maybe upgrading the website is low priority because your business is shifting gears in a major way, and any site overhaul will look very different - or maybe won't be needed - in six months.

Instead of allowing tasks you're not quite committed to hang around on your to-do list until you're tired of looking at them (and sick of the reminder that you're not quite there yet), move them off to a separate list, a holding area for Someday/Maybe/Might-Be-Nice items. I have a large flipchart-size poster for these on my closet door. Only solid actions you're committed to completing should find a (temporary!) home on your to-do list.

Day 4: There's no better feeling than checking something off your to-do list. Done! Finished! Mission accomplished! Yet it's so easy to let a whole day or week go by without knocking one task off your list. Not so today! Pick an important task and do it. Just Do It! Now, how does that feel? Feel like knocking off another task? Go for it!

Day 5:

Microtasks can be used as a method of completing projects in time spans of 5 minutes or less. You can handle almost anything for 5 minutes!

Coming up with those tiny tasks requires thinking up front, when you're putting the task on your list. breaking down your tasks into a series of single actions creates more than one task for items that look like regular to-do's but turn out to be small projects. For example, replacing a broken glass table top involves measuring the table, calling and ordering a replacement, and possibly going to pick it up, which brings us to the next guideline.

When you have a multi-action task - such as replacing the glass table top - keep only its next sequential action on your to-do list. When the task is complete, refer to your project list (again, separate from to-do's) and add its next action to your to-do list. At any given moment, your to-do list should contain only the next logical action for all your working projects. That's it - just one bite-sized step in each undertaking.

Imagine that you're at your desk, you have a spare 10 minutes before a meeting, and you pull out the to-do list. You could get an item done from the doable list. You could email a friend about a dentist referral, or check the university website for fall class offerings.

No one wants to have an endless to-do list. It's overwhelming. Instead, keep your to-do list under 10 items. Does that sound like too short a list? Your to-do list should be short, to-the-point commitments that involve no more deciding as to whether you're actually serious about doing them.

Every day, two to five tasks get checked off, and two to five tasks get added. Remember, your to-do list is a working document, not some showy testament to organization that quietly gathers dust because you're off doing real work that's not written down anywhere.

Now go home and enjoy your weekend!