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Ducks In A Row

I'm trying to "get all my ducks in a row" as the saying goes. I've got a lot of standing projects, some personal and some professional and many straddling a line between those two.

As part of the process of figuring out what I need to do, I need to figure out what I want to do. I've got a broad range of things demanding my time and a broader range of things I'm wishing I could put my time to. There simply isn't enough of me to go around.

I see so many others around and they seem so much more productive than me. Where do you find the time? How do you do it? I've obviously got some missing element I need to find.

The plan at hand is a simple set of actions.

  • Track my time 24 hours a day. This keeps me focused, especially for non-billable hours.
  • Decide on each standing project if I can do anything. If not now, archive it. If never, delete it.
  • Write every morning. Write more whenever I have something on my mind.
There are things I wish I had time for that I never will. I never sketch any more and I haven't picked up the guitar in a decade. I'll focus on what I can accomplish so that I don't have time to feel bad about the things I cannot accomplish.

Comments

Little tip. You are focusing on the 'what'. That is fine, but its a level 1 prioritization of things. The things you need for todays tasks.

If you want to get to level 2 kind of productivity then you need to be asking 'who' in two directions. Who is demanding tasks of me and is their request superior to other who's on my plate. The second part of the equation is who could some of the requests be delegated to if any? Be sure to include yourself in the matrix of who in the prioritzation.

We go through life with constant demands to get-things-done. Much of the world finds that just perfect. But those that seem more productive are not asking how to be more productive but who to be more productive with.

Find the who.

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