I must make a confession – I LOVE to sleep. If sleeping were an Olympic sport, I am confident that I could go for the gold. Well at least the silver, probably some spotty teenager would out sleep me.
Recently, I have been trying out a little experiment; getting up 45 minutes earlier than usual and I am loving it. No I am not nuts, yes I still love a lie in but I have discovered that I find it better to write before the day has a chance to wear me down. I adore the sense of acomplishment.
My new routine can benefit anyone not just bloggers. I am happy if I do a load of laundry, clean the cat box, put stuff on eBay or just about anything I can tick off my list for the day. One of the best ones is to fire up the slow cooker before I go to work then when I get home dinner is just about ready.
A few days a week, I work at a fairly un-fulfilling office job, where the sense of accomplishment is pretty non-existent. You know how admin work never ends. These are the days that it is especially important for me to do something creative and or constructive before I get to the office.
I have also recently started to use Mark Forster’s Autofocus, which is one of the simplest productivity systems ever. All you need is a notebook and a pen. I love it as it is like stream of consciousness productivity. Make a list and tick it off. Have a look at the video in the link for a much better description.
I am always looking for bigger, better, faster, etc productivity tools, do you have any favourites? I am game to try almost anything to be more productive.
Allysgrandma
May 16, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Thank you for posting the Mark Forster link. I am getting started today!
Emma Cossey
Apr 8, 2012 at 10:45 am
I also love my sleep, but I find waking at 6am gives me more energy for the day, I get more done before the emails start and I can catch up on last night ‘s tv before work!
Have you read Eat That Frog? It’s based on the concept that if you do the hardest thing first, the rest of your day will be much easier. It also has a prioritising method that I find very useful (and helps me accept that the To Do list is never going to be fully ticked off!)) I’ll defintely check out Autofocus too though!
Viviana
Apr 8, 2012 at 11:01 am
Hi Emma, thanks for commenting. I just wrote about Eat that Frog – it is a Mark Twain quote. It is a great idea, I just wish I could make myself do it more. Unfortunately I have a procrastination problem.
MacPsych
Apr 9, 2012 at 9:45 am
Great post!
I’m also someone who could sleep for my country. Without any external cues like an alarm, I could easily sleep 12 hours a night. But just like you, if I get up that little bit earlier, I can hit the ground running and get lots of small tasks out of the way.
I use David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) approach and rely heavily on technology to keep me on track. But you can implement it with paper and pen. I’m just a tech junkie 🙂
I recently read “The Now Habit” which posits that procrastination stems from an urge to do everything perfectly. Fear of failing to archive this prevents us from even starting. It was quite th eye-opener! It’s a quick read, though showing its age a little now.