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Where Liz Links
A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.
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September 15, 2004
Seven Things
This is a bit of an experiment. I'm reading a blog about productivity - it's mostly geeky tips for Mac users, most of which I'll never use, but the guy writes well, and it has some interesting suggestions outside that sphere. (I'd provide a link, but I don't have it at work.) One of the things that was suggested was to begin every day by making a list of seven tasks which should be accomplished by the end of the day - tasks which should take no more than 15-30 minutes each. It suggests breaking large tasks down into 15-30 minute increments, even. Now, I'm quite aware that this is meant to be applied to business use, but I see no reason why it shouldn't apply to home life as well. So I'm going to give it a shot for a few days, see how the system works for me. What I'm not doing: I'm not including tasks which are already ingrained into my daily routine, such as writing my journal entry or making dinner. I'm not including tasks that have no real effect on the real world, like reading or doing my Neopets dailies. What I am doing: At least two of the seven tasks should be work-related. At least two should apply to my personal life. I'll come back and strike through things periodically, and add other tasks as merited. Rules are subject to change as I adjust the system to my needs. Today's List:
Other Things Accomplished:
Stuff that needs to be on tomorrow's list:
Updated: 7:45pm
Posted by Liz at 08:39 AM
And then they said...
SCAMPI phone conference? Are you doing work for a shrimp company? And if you're not putting daily routine items on there, why is "go to the gym" on your list? SCAMPI stands for... Oh, hell, I can't remember. What it is, is a formal audit where an external company comes in to review our processes and see if we measure up to the standard that we're trying to achieve. It's a huge thing that happens about every other year. I've got a massive phone conference with some muckity-mucks up at Corporate next week where we're going to go over some areas where our office is a little weak, and see what we can do to shore things up. (The official audit, mind you, isn't until March, but in November the auditors are going to do an informal pre-audit. We want to be as prepared as possible for that one so they'll feel all warm and fuzzy when they come back in March.) And "Go to the gym" is on the list because it's not part of my daily routine. I go three times a week, and if I don't motivate myself somehow (like stating publicly that I'm going) then I'm quite likely to give it a miss. I put some of the "daily routine" things in my list of Other Things Accomplished, like making dinner and doing lunches, and I may well keep doing that - it's kind of nice to look at the list and see that I did, in fact, get quite a bit done. That part I understand, certainly. That's the reason I like lists. I like being able to cross things off of them. In fact, if I've got a list started (such as "things to do before I leave on vacation") and I do something I *didn't* think to put on the list, I'll write it in (even if it's already done) just for the satisfaction of crossing it off again. :) I'm so weird, I know. Post a comment
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