Today is day two of the Time Management series from my special guest blogger, Rodger Constandse. Be sure to come back every day this week for a chance to win valuable prizes to enhance your productivity.
One of the simplest, most powerful and valuable time management techniques that I recommend to all my clients is what I call the “Project Block.”
All you need to do is to make appointments with yourself (one hour appointments work best for me) and spend that hour focusing on a single project. That’s it.
Now, you’ll want to spend your project block time focusing on important high-value projects because they are the ones that really matter, so don’t waste this valuable time on low priority busywork.
Here are two important reasons why the project block strategy works so well:
1) They help you create blocks of uninterrupted time that you can devote to important projects
Peter Drucker says that knowledge workers NEED unbroken blocks of time to work productively. It’s not a matter of preference… you NEED to do this if you want to do productive knowledge work.
The reason is that it takes some time to get into a productive state when doing knowledge work and if you keep jumping from one unrelated thing to another, you’ll never get a chance to get into your groove and you’ll end up wasting a lot of time.
2) They help you MAKE time for important stuff
When you schedule an appointment with yourself, you are MAKING time for your project in your schedule and excluding everything else you could have done with that time.
You’ll know exactly when you are going to work on that project next because the appointment will remind you to do it.
The easiest way to use project blocks is to schedule them in your calendar just like if you had an important appointment or meeting.
Just try using this strategy the first hour of the day to help you work on your most important projects and you’ll immediately notice a big difference in your productivity and results.
Of course, project blocks work better when you combine them with all the other time management principles & strategies you’ll find in my Get More Done In Less Time ebook, like separating projects/tasks in your to-do list, prioritizing and weekly planning.
What are some of your favorite tips, techniques and strategies to get motivated and overcome procrastination?
Today’s prize for the best comment is my Psychology of Procrastination course.
My tip to get motivated and overcoming procrastination is to share your plans with your best friend or partner. This will make you accountable and also keep you honest.
No one ever likes to lie to their best friend or partner; right!
Also, break down your projects into smaller sections so that you can get started! (which is always the biggest hurdle for us procrastinators!)
Working from home, not only are there many distractions, there are many avenues for procrastination.
When I block out time for a project of importance, I also leave the “office.” I work at the library, coffee shop, restaurant. I choose a table out of the way and place my back to the people (eliminating people distractions). Then the only thing to do is the work in front of me. I can’t even get distracted by other “important” work projects thereby salving my conscious for not working on the scheduled project.
In a corporate setting, blocking out project time on your appointment calendar (Outlook, usually) is a crucial way to devote uninterrupted attention to your most important tasks. I try to keep one day relatively open each week, so that I move project blocks if necessary; that helps me stay available for impromptu collaborative work while staying on-track with deadlines.
Of course, unforseen emergencies always arise, so try to schedule 15-30 minute gaps between your project blocks for putting out fires. Organizing your appointments and project blocks into half-day chunks can make scheduling easier while maintaing room for responsiveness (i.e., “I’m free Tuesday afternoon,” instead of “I’m free at 8:30, 11 or 2:30.”). Put recurring tasks on your calendar, too, and keep your firm’s business rhythms in mind as you plan your week/month.
Most of all, once you have a project on your schedule, honor that commitment the same way you would an important meeting: triage your incoming calls and emails, and only respond to the most important during project time. Urgency always wants to elbow importance out of the way — don’t let it. Otherwise, it’s tough to get traction on the issues that matter most.
Good tips and reminders here…one of my strategies is to take a moment to answer the question “WHY am I procrastinating?”
Sometimes it’s because I’m not sure of what the next step I really need to take is, so I make it a task to brainstorm that next step. Other times might be because it’s an unpleasant task. Ways I can deal with that include reminding myself how much more unpleasant it could be if I delay, and the successes I’ve had when I took care of something difficult earlier rather than later. Another way is to schedule that unpleasant task first thing in the day — the rest of the day will be usually be downhill from there.
Knowing what is important is the key for me – even before scheduling time I sit with the weekly urgent tasks and the upcoming tasks/projects and prioritize.
It is sometimes a struggle to do the most important thing when there are other more exciting things to do.
I agree that scheduling helps with commitment but it isn’t enough. I see so many people schedule tasks/appointments and then still do not do them. What is that about??!! I do it too. I claim it’s re-prioritizing sometimes, but it’s also avoiding the tedious and difficult tasks. Avoidance is a powerful beast.
Once again, your comments were all so good that it was hard to choose the best one, but today’s winner is Debbie.
Debbie’s suggestion for home-based workers to go off-site to eliminate distractions can also work for people who work in corporate offices, who may be able to book some time in a boardroom or vacant office where they won’t be distracted by other projects or interrupted by phone calls or visitors dropping by.
Congratulations, Debbie! You win a copy of Rodger’s Power of Productivity course.
There are still three more prizes available, so be sure to come back shortly for today’s post.
Janet,
Woohoo! Thank you so very much. I may have to leave my office and find a place where I can work and focus on the course uninterrupted.
Thank you , Janet, for your creative and fun ways of getting the tips/benefits of organizing into the hands of others.
Debbie
Oops, Debbie won the Psychology of Procrastination course, not the Power of Productivity! Too many P’s for me!