You’ll encounter some roadblocks as you strive to build a productive routine and begin working on major projects. Relax, it’s nothing to be worried about.
The more projects you have, the more you will need a system for keeping track of them. You’ll require processes to keep you working while you’re on the road, at a conference, at a new work location, or even on a flight. Disorder, indifference, and overload are common hurdles you may encounter while labouring for weeks, years or even decades. When you’re feeling off-balance, you may likely benefit from certain resources that can help you get back on track.
While you may have seen advertising on Facebook for “productivity expert snake oil software,” these aren’t those.
This is all you need to know. All the fundamentals. Your first set of tools. Fortunately, these proven tools and methods work for all sorts of work and all kinds of individuals.
A Humble Calendar
A calendar helps you see how you expect to spend your time and energy. Using a calendar helps you plan your day and keep you focused on the goals you’ve set for yourself. If you start your day out with a strategy, you have a significantly higher chance of making it a successful one than if you don’t.
When it comes to scheduling, you must be quite precise. Make room in your schedule for the matters most important to you. Some of the most usual things in organized calendars are appointments, deadlines, important events, time-sensitive errands, and focus time.
It’s important to remember that your calendar is hallowed territory. Nothing gets put on your schedule until you really must do it and it has a deadline. Don’t schedule it if it doesn’t match these requirements.
A Friendly Contact Manager
Underestimating the contact manager is a huge mistake. Technology makes this quite simple, but it doesn’t have to be complex; you could use anything as basic and traditional as a Rolodex (a classic addition to home office desks) if you choose. There’s nothing more you need than a method for keeping track of your connections and their personal info like telephone numbers and birthdays.
Being efficient is excellent, but you can’t apply it to personal relationships. Peter Drucker once said that you should be effective with people and efficient with things. A contact manager makes it easier to handle individuals and is thus an integral part of your private productivity system.
A Handy Note Taker
You’ll need a place to write down thoughts and insights as they come to you. This might be analog or digital; the important thing is to have something readily available at all times. In such a case, you can either use the Notes app on your phone or free apps like Evernote. However, many people enjoy analog tools at their workstations because of the limits they impose on their creative expression.
It doesn’t matter what you use. Just make sure you record things when you’re focused on them. Put your ideas onto paper and get them out of your head. It is better to have a shorter pencil than a long memory.
A Reliable Time Tracker
Whether or not this is crucial is up for discussion, but if you wish to improve your time management, you need to know where you’re spending your time. A time tracker does precisely that. Using a time tracking system reveals how you utilize your time, as opposed to how you believe you spend your time, and the two might be quite different from one another.
The only thing we can’t get more of is time. There are the same number of hours in a day for everyone. It all comes down to how well you can handle the 24 hours available and your energy and focus. During today’s 24 hours, you may have taken huge steps toward your objectives and made an important step toward your perfect future – or you may have wasted five hours on Netflix. It’s all up to you.
A Dependable Task Manager
Keep track of all the things you must accomplish. There are various ways to keep track of everything you want to accomplish, from a basic to-do list to a comprehensive program.
Whatever task management system you choose, there are four crucial criteria to keep in mind:
- It needs to be simple to keep current
- It should list the tasks in a logical sequence.
- You should be able to add new tasks to it.
- It should help you see what needs to be done right now and understand that not everything needs to be done immediately.