Jump Start January: Week 3 Day 1
Time for a change of theme, and this week we’re looking at ways to be more productive and generally get things done. Today it’s time to run through this week’s schedule, and then schedule a meeting…with yourself.
This week’s schedule
- Day 1: Hold a meeting with yourself (details below)
- Day 2: Start an ideas book
- Day 3: Kill your to-do list
- Day 4: Remove distractions & set a timer
- Day 5: Chain up your habits
- Day 6: An easy way to get up earlier
- Day 7: Work, but don’t overwork (it makes you inefficient)
Today’s activity
Sad but true: the companies and other organisations that hold the longest and/or most frequent meetings are often the most inefficient. Many meetings tend to run on too long, and are often not fully relevant throughout for each attendee. They can also take you away from your ‘real work’.
However, if you schedule a meeting with yourself as the only attendee, it’s going to be a lot more efficient. Think about it. You’ll only be looking at things that interest you, you won’t have to deal with interpersonal politics, and the opportunities for idle chit chat and pointless gossip will be few and far between. And you’ll definitely find it easier to get important items agreed upon, or thrown out. Win!
There are two types of meeting that I’ve had most successfully with myself: a five-minute priorities meeting (I do one of these most days, often at the start or end of the working day, or maybe an hour or so before bedtime), and a half-hour creative meeting (I do one every Tuesday, they seem to be best done mid-morning or mid-afternoon – with added hot drink and/or cake).
So today, try the five minute option with yourself. Think about your main priority right now, and maybe one or two lesser priorities. For example, that could be: re-design website, finish monthly audit, arrange birthday party, redecorate spare room, organise publicity campaign, etc etc. Let the thing that truly means the most to you right now rise to the top, whether it’s a work thing or a personal thing.
Don’t pick the most urgent thing, it should be the thing that has the most personal meaning to you or the thing that’s going to be best for your business in the next few weeks or months. We often get bogged down in other stuff, or in just being ‘busy all the time’.
Now schedule a generous chunk of today or tomorrow – ideally the time of day when you have the most focus and energy – for working on an aspect of your true main priority. For example, if you’re going to redecorate the spare room, you could start by scheduling in a tidying-up session or a trip to the DIY shop for paint and brushes. If you’re organising a publicity campaign you could identify your core market or audience, and research how best to reach out to them. And so on.
It’s a neat way of scheduling in a way to be a little braver and go after what you really care about – without giving yourself too much of a scare.
Do you ever have meetings with yourself? If so, where do you go, and what do you do?
