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Most people I know, myself included, have things we want to get done. These are not the ordinary things like “do the laundry”, but bigger things like “write a book”. Yet most of us don’t make much progress on these projects.

The Advice Out There…

I’ve read a whole bunch of advice on how to do this over the years. “Balance your roles”, “only work on the important stuff”, “delegate everything that doesn’t move you forward”,”do your work first thing in the day”. These are all pieces of advice which individually never set well with me.

After all, I can’t delegate everything, because I don’t have a June Cleaver waiting around the corner to take over my household duties. I can’t balance my roles without adding more to an already overburdened schedule. I can’t only work on my projects, because that would leave things like earning a living out in the cold. And I can’t do my work first thing in the day because that is generally when my employer would like me to be working on their projects – the ones they pay me to work on.

The Pickle Jar

A few years ago I heard about an analogy that made a lot of sense. If you have an empty pickle jar, a few large rocks, some pebbles and some sand. If you put the items in the jar in order of increasing size, you will not have enough room to get the big rocks in. The way to make it work is to put the big rocks into the jar first, then fill in the gaps with the pebbles and then the sand.

So goes our projects. If we work on the small stuff which is most plentiful, we won’t have enough time for our big rocks, or the projects that matter the most to us.

So the question becomes, how to get to the Big Rocks?

Getting To The Big Rocks

While I can’t use any method that I talked about above to fit my life, I can apply the principles together.

Identify The Rocks

First, I have to decide what the big rocks are. Unless I can recognize them, I won’t find room for them. My big rocks are taken from my lists that I made with the 2012 Creating Your Goddess Year. These are the things that would rock my world (no pun intended). Writing and publishing a book is one of my big rocks right now.

I also look at these big rocks during my weekly review. I have pages in my planner listing what I want to do and by when (if there is a firm deadline). I make sure that I include these projects on my target list, and I mark them with a star, so when the item is complete, I know to put the next thing to do on my list. In the case of writing the book, I simply have to write every day.

Plan 3 Must-Dos Every Day

My problem with most project and task systems is that there is too much going on. On the flip side, I have seen systems that say once you’ve done three things, you’re done for the day. So instead of going to one extreme of the other, I list out tasks in three categories: Must Dos, Would Like To Do, and If I Have Time.

Every night, I pick out the three Must Dos for the next day. These are usually big rock items, but sometimes a big rock falls into the Like To list. Big Rocks never get onto the If I Have Time list, because they won’t get done.

My rules is that I may not get to the Must Dos first thing in the day, but they absolutely have to be done as soon as my time permits. They take precedence over the items in the other lists, and definitely before any minutiae that repeats itself (such as laundry, cleaning, reading, television).

Evaluate Daily

As part of my nightly planning session, I also look at where I am on the projects. Am I getting done what I want to? Do I need to move in another direction? Do I have the supplies I need?

By asking myself these questions, I am less likely to procrastinate doing something for whatever reason may pop up.

I find that by following these steps I am able to make large amounts of progress on whatever I am attempting to do.

Do you have any tips about how you get your important projects done? Share below.

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One of my goals for this year is to switch off on Sundays. No computer, no email, no internet, no social media, no texting, no IM.

I have wanted to give myself this break for a couple of years, but I’ve never managed to do it, because I would always decide last minute, and then find that I had very necessary things to do, and hop back on.

This year I decided to give it another try. But rather than deciding, I’m actually planning ahead. So that means that all blog articles have to be written, posted and edited before Sunday. All important emails have to be written and sent before Sunday. All administrative tasks have to be done before Sunday.

I told myself that by planning ahead this would be a piece of cake. Right?

Wrong.

EEK! No Internet!

What I have found is that being on the computer is a habit for me. If I don’t have anything else to do, I’ll go to my desk and pretend like I’m being productive…rambling around in the name of “research”, posting updates in the name of being “social”, organizing in the name of being “productive”.

Yeah, right.

Truth is, all that stuff doesn’t matter, and it simply sucks up time.

Another difficult truth is that I wasn’t comfortable with the end results of empty time, and I longed for the ability to fill it up.

The first three weeks were very difficult.

The Sun Has Come Out

After the first three weeks, I adjusted. I was able to feel good about what I had done to get to a switched off Sunday. Many Sundays have been spent frantically doing stuff because I didn’t have my act together enough to get it done ahead of time, or I procrastinated. So I was actually more relaxed.

I’ve also found that I’m more creative. I’m more likely to start…and finish…a small project around the house. Or cook an amazing dinner because I don’t feel rushed. Or spend time constructing Lego structures with my daughter.

I’m finding time to read and craft and be social. All the things that I wanted to do, but felt I didn’t have time before. All because I switched off for one day.

What would happen if you did this?

A few years ago, during a National Switch Off Day I challenged my team to do it. One programmer looked at me and said he wouldn’t survive a whole day without the internet.

So maybe you need to start slower than a whole day? Maybe an afternoon or evening?

What would happen if you switched off? What direction would you go in? Share below.

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In knowing how you are spending your time, you can find the places for improvement. As we reboot our lives, we need to have an accurate assessment of how you are spending your time.

Why Do A Time Audit?

A time audit can help you find places where you are putting in too much effort for the results returned. It can also help pinpoint pockets of time you can use to put to other uses, such as making your long-term goals come to fruition.

A time audit is not about boxing yourself into recording every last detail, but rather to get a feel for how you are spending your time.

How To Do Time Audits

There are different ways out there to do time audits.

Three bloggers I have read present three different ways to do time audits.

Emily at Organized Life has a great write up on her time audit at “Track Your Tasks with a Time Audit”. Based on a chart from the University of Minnesota at Duluth, it walks the fine line between too much detail and too little. This is a good starting place if you’ve never looked at your time before.

Bob over at Get Things Done uses a spreadsheet that is available from WaybackMachine.org. It automatically calculates how much time you are spending on up to 10 activities. I’ve expanded the spreadsheet, and it can be downloaded (Excel format) on my Free Stuff Page.

Mark Shead over at Productivity 501 has a different take on the time audit at Time Audit – How to do a time audit | Productivity501. He talks about capturing what you are doing, not just the general categories, and how to analyze the data after you do the time audit. He also suggests using some sort of alarm to remind you to enter the data.

One method that is not very precise, but is one that can work to give you a broad over view is to do a mini-review every six hours. Think about what you did during that time, and estimate how long you did each activity.

Time audits do not have to be overwhelming. They are not to punish you or make you feel guilty, but to help you get an accurate overview of how you are spending your time.

Do you have any time audit tips? Share below.

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In the last article, I talked about how to figure out what your projects are. Chances are, that if you made a complete list, you will find it is much longer than you thought.

If your project list doesn’t seem do-able, it could put you off working on them; or it might prevent things from getting done in a reasonable amount of time as you try to tend to far too many things.

In that case, you need to thin your project list.

Figuring Out What Needs To Go

For each of your outstanding projects, you need to look at it closely and ask yourself:

• Do I need to do this? Are you the one who is truly the best one for this job?
• Do I need to do this? Is it truly necessary?
• Do I need to do this? Is this the best thing for me to be doing to forward my goals? Or is it simply marking time? Would my energy be better spent pursuing another project?

Examining each of the items on the list with these three criteria can give you an idea of what you can take off.

Gracefully Dumping Projects

When it comes to getting rid of projects, you need to consider who will be impacted if you decide to get rid of or postpone the project. If this is no one, then draw a line through it right now!

If other people are impacted, you will need to move more cautiously. If it is something that requires special talents that you have, but are no longer willing to give, you need to find a replacement. If it just requires a body to do certain tasks, you can resign with warning to those impacted. (Remember, a ball cannot be picked up if it is never dropped!)

The Someday/Maybe List

When I first got involved with Getting Things Done, I was a big fan of the someday/maybe list. It’s purpose is to hold all those things that you aren’t ready to let go of. I liked it because it meant that I didn’t have to get rid of stuff.

It was that not getting rid of anything that caused trouble. My someday/maybe list grew to epic proportions, and when I went looking for things to “activate”, I got lost in the rabbit trails of a list of my own making. I ended up having to purge the list from about 75% of its items. I am very careful now to really commit to doing something before I put it on the list.

If you want to have a someday/maybe list, by all means, go ahead. But don’t leave it to grow unattended. You will need to have some way to clean it out from time to time.

Do you have any special way to thin down your project list? Share below.

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As part of taking stock of where you are, you need to consider what is not only on your schedule, but what is on your project list. By having an accurate idea of what is outstanding for you, you can decide what to get rid of, what to complete quickly, and what to defer.

First of all, it’s not your fault things are out of control

One of the things I find funny about most personal management systems is the assumption that you make a conscious effort to decide if you will take on a project. From my experience, I don’t see that as the case.

Example: your son comes home from school and announces that he has been selected to play the lead in the class play, which will include a costume of a radish. It is now your project to get that radish costume, even though that isn’t something you might have chosen to put on your list.

Example: at work, you are asked your opinion about the holiday party, and at your boss’s request you find yourself on a committee of people working to plan more events to boost morale. Again, not something you consciously chose, but something that was thrust upon you.

Sometimes projects end up on our lists by simple choices. Today, I bought chickpeas and eggs with the thought that I would make hummus and hard-boiled eggs to give us some healthy protein for snacks and lunches. By putting those two items in my grocery cart, I landed two more projects on my plate.

You Might Not Be Aware Of Your Full List

With all of the above examples, you might not be aware of the extent of your projects. These are things that are requiring your attention and effort, but they might not end up on a list anywhere, because you may not have really thought through the effort.

It’s important to do a periodic sweep to make sure that all these things are captured into one place so that you can see what is expected of you.

Open Loops and the RAM Dump

David Allen calls these outstanding projects open loops. He suggests going through and reviewing them once a week. That’s fine if you already know what all your open loops are. But what if you don’t?

This is where the RAM Dump comes in. (It doesn’t hurt that it fits in with the life reboot theme, either!) I personally use a list from Kathy Paauw, found here. This list helps me track down things that I might not have realized are nagging at me, pulling my attention. I try to do this list quarterly.

The Mini-RAM Dump

The big RAM dump list is a great tool, but it is big. On a weekly basis, I conduct my own mini-version of the RAM dump, which I use to remind me of just the sort of tasks I gave above. It contains items like:

• For each of my daughter’s activities, is there anything expected of me in the next week? Month?
• For Girl Scouts, is there anything coming up in the next two months I need to prepare for? What are the upcoming deadlines? (you can insert any organization in there)
• In my kitchen, is there anything I need to attend to? Food to be frozen? Dishes not on the menu plan that need to be prepared?
• In my clothing, is there anything that needs special cleaning? Hand washing? Dry cleaning?
• Do I have enough cleaning supplies on hand? How about toiletries? Paper products?

You get the idea. These questions bring my focus onto things that are “everyday” but when not done can pose a big inconvenience.

How do you capture outstanding projects for the big and little stuff? Share below.

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As part of the life reboot process, I have to figure out a target for where I am going. Monday I went through what I want more of. Today I need to look at the flip side of this: deciding what needs to be eliminated from my life.

Why Do This?

Looking at what we want less of in our lives is a basis for eliminating things that are impeding our progress, growth and happiness. They may center in us, in which case we can work to change ourselves. They may center in others, in which case we can change how we react to those others. They may center in our circumstances, which we can then change or improve.

Deciding What You Don’t Want

Much as I did for the list of things I want more of, I sat down and wrote things I want less of for five minutes. As with the things I want more of, some of the things on this list surprised me.

Things I Want Less Of In 2012

• Needless conflict
• Social media
• Time wasters
• Reading junk
• Thrash
• Frantic busy-ness
• Responsibility
• Tasks put upon me
• Doing things because no one else will
• Sugar
• Impatience
• Irritation
• Rush
• Uncertainty
• Lack of confidence
• Procrastination

These were just some of the things I came up with.

Getting Rid of the Negative

Unlike being more aware to get the positive things into my life, getting rid of things requires a different tactic.

For those things that are habits, such as procrastination, social media, and time wasters, I must replace those habits with positive ones. I can replace them with pauses to plan, create and think.

For the interactions with others, I can be aware of my own state of mind, and take appropriate action. For me, impatience goes to irritation and then to needless conflict if I am hungry, stressed or tired. I can make sure that I am aware of underlying conditions and deal with those.

For the tasks put upon me and doing things because no one else will, I need to either say “no” up front, or let them drop.

What are things you want less of in your life in 2012? How can you bring them about? Share below.

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As part of the life reboot process, I have to figure out a target for where I am going. Sometimes it is as simple as asking what I want more of in my life.

Deciding What You Want

I found that the best way to do this was to sit down and write everything that came into my head for 5 minutes. Some of the answers surprised me.

What I Want More Of in 2012

• Pauses
• Sleep
• Joy
• Time to think
• Time to plan
• Time to create
• Nature
• Prosperity
• Gratitude
• Music
• Sunshine
• Nutritious food
• Social
• Smiles
• Cuddles with fur-beasts

The list is not the full list of what I came up with, but some of the items surprised me. Gratitude? Sleep? I hadn’t thought I was short on either, but they popped into my head.

Figuring Out How To Get This Stuff

The next task is to look at ways on how I can bring these things into my life. Nothing on my list is outside the realm of possibility; I didn’t ask for the moon.

Some of them are easy: bringing more music into my life means that I need to work it in. There are lots of times at work when I find myself distracted by the b*tching discussions of my co-workers floating over the wall. Plugging into music can eliminate that distraction and bring more music into my life.

Some things will need me to rearrange my schedule. It’s not that I don’t have time to sleep, plan, think or create, but that they are not the first things on my list. I find myself conscious of too much time wasted on things that could be better put to use.

Some things are best brought about my a shift in consciousness. If I am aware of a desire to smile, eat nutritious food, and look for things to be grateful for, I will do them. If left to my current frantic state of unawareness, I might not.

What are things you want more of in your life in 2012? How can you bring them about? Share below.

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Once I looked at my evenings, the next logical step for figuring out how I want to restructure my life is to look at my weekends. They are my largest chunk of free time, yet I have spent many weekends playing catch up, or doing things that don’t move me toward where I want to be.

My Ideal Weekend

• Relaxing. I want to spend time not rushing hither and yon.
• Limited blogging. I want to only deal with blog business (comments, updates, orders) on Saturdays.
• Tech free Sundays. I want to not connect to the internet at all on Sundays. Posibly not the computer, but this may waver depending on writing needs.
• One hour of housework only. At most I want to spend an hour on housework. No more days spent cleaning and running errands.
• Game or movie night. I want to have Saturday night to spend watching movies with my family, or playing board games.

It’s a simple list, but it represents profound changes for me. What would your ideal weekend look like? Write it down, and share below.

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As I look at re-balancing and rebooting my life, one of the first questions I asked myself was “what do I want my evenings to look like?” By figuring out where I want to go, I can plan a route to get there.

My Ideal Evenings

I’m talking weeknights here, so most of my evenings would start after the family dinner and cleanup.

Time To Craft

I enjoy working with my hands, and I have projects languishing because I don’t have (or take) the time to work on them. I want to be able to have the time to sit down and knit, or cross-stitch, or quilt, or scrapbook.

Time To Read

Although I have made headway since my no-new-books policy, I still have many books I need to read. I know myself – if I try to read non-fiction right before bed I will either not retain the ideas, or I will go to sleep. I want time during awake hours to read.

Time To Take A Course

I’ve signed up for quite a few e-courses in the past few years. I have completed few. I want to have some time to take the courses, or read the ebooks so that I can grow, and I can grow my blog.

Time To Spend With Family

With my daughter in school, the only time I get to see her is in the evenings. I want time to spend with her so that we can build a strong relationship. This has to be quality time together, though, not just time spent in the same room.

Time To Write

I manage to write every November, but it fades after the month is done. I want to spend a bit of time every evening writing my book, with the hopes that I will get it put into paperback form by June.

Evening Activities

Right now I have two evening activities: choir and Girl Scouts. I thought long about if I wanted to give up either of these activities in order to make more room for the ones I want. The answer is “maybe” for choir (although there are other circumstances playing into that one) and “no” for Girl Scouts.

Is it still possible to fit my ideal evenings around my activities? I think so.

What would your ideal evening look like? Take some time and write it down, and share below.

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When you’re looking at a life that seems out of balance, and you know that you need to make changes, the toughest part can be knowing where to start.

Start With Questions

For me, the best place was to assess where I currently am, before deciding where I am going. So I wrote down some questions and gave myself some time to think about them and answer them.

• How do you feel right now?
• How do you want to feel after the reboot?
• What do you want your days to look like?
• What do you want your evenings to look like?
• What do you want your weekends to look like?
• How do you want your relationships to work?
• Where do you spend the most time?
• Are you satisfied with how you are spending your time?
• What do you want more of in your life?
• What do you want less of in your life?
• Are there areas of your life you are neglecting?
• Are there areas of your life your are hyper-focusing on?
• Are you carrying resentments because of your activities?
• How do you feel about your activities in the past year?
• What are you proud of in the past year?
• What did you let go of in the last year?
• In an ideal world, where would you be in one year?

There are more questions, and we will be looking at these further in future articles as we talk about rebooting life.

Did you know you can get Twitter and Facebook updates from this blog? For Twitter, look for @SmplProdBlog. On Facebook it’s Facebook.com/SimpleProductivity. You can also find me at Google+ as lj@simpleproductivityblog.com.

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