I Don’t Take My Own Advice
One of my down-n-dirty, get-r-done tips to clients is: 1. One sticky note per day. 2. Write three things. 3. Do them. Ah yes, grasshopper, snatch the pebble from my hand…Do I sound just too insufferable or what?
Then the other day I caught myself still diligently keeping everything on that one little square, but I’d blown way past three things and was writing around and up the side, in teeny-tiny print and abbreviations. “Cl B50″ and so on. I realized I’d been slipping down the slippery slope for a couple of weeks, getting increasingly frazzled and accomplishing less. “No time” for my early morning coffee zen time. “Too much to do” to take a half-hour power walk. Etc. etc. Sure, I had a pretty good excuse with the oral surgery follies (It’s really not a good idea to stagger ’round the ‘hood in a Vicodin glow), but still…
So, I gave myself a mental smack and am now back to one sticky, three things (and no abbreviations) with coffee zen and walk time. Things are going much more smoothly and the important work keeps getting done.
Tags: time management, productivity
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September 11th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Sitting at a desk covered with loads of multi-color sticky-notes from God-knows when, I’m definitely going to try to start taking your one note - three to-do’s advice. I agree with watching out for abbreviations. Another thing I tend to do is jot down phone numbers on post-its. I find them days later, but have no idea who the phone number belongs to, as I have neglected to write down a name. Definitely a bad practice to watch out for.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:38 am
One of my bad habits is to scribble those phone numbers - and cryptic reminders on the back of - say - an envelope. Which I then, being a neat freak, throw away. Ah-yahhhh…
It’s important to note that I typically do more than three things in a day - but the discipline in doing “just three things” make things go smoother - and I’m not as frazzled and frustrated. I know that I did three things that reallly needed to be done.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
As long as my name is on those notes, I’m o.k. with this……….
But seriously, I also like to keep a list of things which need attention in the future. At least three times a week, I’ll take one small action item from them and put it on today’s list. Because a little work today will pay off big several months from now. It may be as simple as “Call Sally” who is an old business acquaintance whom who haven’t spoken to in a year.
And I need to get back to the gym. Ski season will be here before you notice.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Bruce,
In fact, you were the “B” in “Cl B50″ shown above. ‘ The actual task was “Call Bruce re 50 words for Celia for MSP Alliance event due before 9/7.”
And then there is the siren call of the on-screen sticky notes…oh dear. (That’s where I keep my master lists, which works out pretty well.)
September 14th, 2007 at 8:38 am
[…] If a cynical old snarkster like me can do this, so can you. Have a great weekend! Now, I’ve got to go work on my list of three things. […]