Planning and prioritizing boosts productivity.

Gee. I'll bet that never occurred to ya, did it?

I know this "tip" isn't exactly a light bulb moment for most people. Unless of course, your pre-existing light bulb is rather dim.

But I heard something smart -- and I mean --- REALLY smart at a Jeffrey Gitomer seminar on Friday. He said that throughout the morning he would be sharing ideas that would cause many people to say, "Yeah. I already know that." He went on to suggest that if we found ourselves saying that, go one step further and ask ourselves how good we are at that thing we say we already know. Just because we know something doesn't mean we're good at it.

Excellent point. Which is why I stole it.

Most of us know we should plan and prioritize, but how many of us are actually doing it? How many of us are any good at it? If you need a refresher, here are some quick ideas for being better at two skills (planning and prioritizing) that should become habits if you want to maximize your productivity.

And I should add that entire books are written on how best to do these two skills, so I'm not going to be able to exhaust the topic in a blog post, but I can give you a few quick-hit ideas to improve your execution.

Have a plan for every day.

• Spend 15 minutes thinking about how you're going to spend your time during a given work-day. You must take this time because the plan is not going to create itself. During that 15 minutes the plan must be written down in some way. Electronic or paper, whichever works best for you.
• Have your appointment calendar in front of you as well as your list of things you'd like to get done. There's no sense in planning to do three hours of office work if you're booked solid with appointments or meetings all day long.
• Note that in the above bullet I said "things you'd like to" get done. Most of us are masters of over-committing to ourselves. You may want to get ten things done, but in your plan, pick one, two, or three that are non-negotiable. No matter what, you will focus on completing those. How many you choose is based on how long each one will take and how much time you have that day to complete them.
• Why only one, two or three? Because every day is always going to bring something new and unexpected. The plan has to be flexible abd have some wiggle room so we can adjust when things come up. If we have ten things on our plan these unexpected diversions will give us an excuse to do none of the ten. If we have one or two solid commitments, our chances of follow-through are exponentially better.
• If you're sharper at the end of the day, carve out time then to plan for the next day so you'll be ready to go when you hit the office in the morning.
• If, like me, your best time is in the morning, plan your day first thing in the morning.

Prioritize

• If you have two or more things you are committed to getting done, prioritize them so if something has to be moved to tomorrow, you know quickly which one is last on your list for the day.
• Sometimes people get stymied because they feel like all their tasks carry the same urgency. It may seem that way, but since multitasking is very bad, (You don't want to get me started on that rant, do you?) you just have to choose.
• Knowing the difference between projects and tasks can help you prioritize. A task is a single "to do." A project is something that requires two or more tasks. Only tasks should be on your plan for the day. How to keep track of projects is another blog post.

Hope that helps. As always would love to hear feedback, comments and questions. Let me know what's on your mind about this stuff.

More later...