I Don’t Know How to Be Productive

Alex Pour
Alex Pour
Sep 9, 2018 · 2 min read

Today is Sunday the 9th of September, 2018. The day before my first holiday this year. I am sitting here looking at my todo list, I have just noted down something that I am exciting to do. And I realised something that has prompted me to write this short, off topic blog post.

What did I realise?

Far too often, I think of something that I want/need to do, note it down and then arrange to do it in some magical future scenario. A scenario in which I have spare time and the motivation to do it. Basically assigning work to my future self.

However, when I get to that magical date, I very rarely have the time or motivation to complete that task. I also have no commitment to my past self that set the task, because my present self is waaay more convincing than my past self.

This made me think about how life would look if my present self worked for my future self.

If my goal was to complete tasks, so my future self didn’t have to do them. This future self, could be me at 6pm that day, me on the weekend or me on holiday.

What does this look like in practice.

Instead of setting loads of tasks for a future date and then picking which of those tasks to do when I sit down to work. I plan to start each day by reviewing my done list from the previous day.

This should help me focus on how far I have come, instead of how far I have to go.

I also like the idea of starting the day by looking at what I said I would do, but didn’t. I imagine it will put me in a motivated mindset. One where I want to do better than I did yesterday.

Once I have reviewed yesterdays work, I’ll set my todo list for just the day ahead. Making sure to be realistic with how much I take on.

Selecting my tasks at the beginning of the day, means I can choose what I want to get done with a level head. Rather than choosing to work on the wrong things in the moment.

Summary

Tomorrow is the first day of my holiday. It is also the first day I plan to try this method. If all goes according to plan, I will write a follow up.

Thanks for reading,

Alex

Alex Pour

Written by

Alex Pour

Product Designer & Co-Founder of tinytracker.co

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