How a Daily Theme Can Boost Your Productivity

Years ago, my wife felt overwhelmed by her job. She had, easily, a dozen projects she was being asked to complete. The interruptions at the office, coupled with inane meetings, prevented any momentum.

She knew she had to do something about it and after talking it through, we decided to theme her days.

Theming is something I’ve done for at least five years and it’s saved my career and boosted my productivity. I figured it might help my wife as well.

We broke her week into four categories: marketing, programs, community outreach and long-range projects. From there, we decided which days seemed to “fit” with the various themes.

If I remember correctly, it went something like this:

• Mondays: marketing (social media, website, etc.)
• Tuesdays: program development & execution
• Wednesdays: program development and community outreach
• Thursdays: community outreach
• Fridays: long-range projects

This kind of a framework might work for you too. When I’ve presented this concept to audiences, the pushback often goes something like this, “but you don’t understand my work… I could never theme my days like you can!”

I get it, I really do. My response would be to try theming one day in your week. The week after, do it again. The week after that, try it one more time. While I don’t pretend to understand your work or job as I do my own, I can assure you that just theming one day out of five can make a huge difference.