How I Set Up My Day For Productivity
A breakdown of the only bullet journalling components you need.
It is really easy to fall into hours of watching TikTok videos or having Netflix and YouTube autoplaying entertainment for the better part of a day that could otherwise be productive. The first two weeks of spending my whole day indoors at home were relaxing; but I quickly realized I need to start building back structure in my life, especially since we’re in for a long haul of social distance living. In an office or a classroom, I fed off seeing others heads down at their computer to force me to do the same. At home, I’m keenly alert of my responsibility to drive my own productivity.
Something I’ve been working on for the past 2 years is consistently keeping to-do lists. Many have commented my lists have the skeletal makings of a bullet journal. I’ve tried bullet journalling, but found the construction of creating one, or the expense of purchasing one with too many fill-in-yourself charts and diagrams wasn’t really helping me.
There are tons of articles that online the benefits to the extent of benefit and applications a bullet journal can bring to your life like this one. However, if you need a super super light weight approach to setting goals and your daily tasks, this is how I hold myself accountable and feel good about awarding myself when I get $*%# done.
Write down your big goals (3, 4 and 6 months out)
As a co-op student, my life alternates every four months between school and work. I like to set long term goals 4 months out, however depending on your schedule (perhaps by business quarters or the halfway point in the year) you can change how far out you want to see yourself complete that objective.
The number of long term goals shall not exceed 5. So, for my term goals I try to set 3. If we spread ourselves too thin trying to achieve too many things at one time, we won’t see any results in our progress or productivity.
It’s important to easily see long term goals everyday to remind yourself what you are working towards…and sometimes reflect on if you need to pivot.
These big goals I want to slowly work towards over time. A great workshop for Splunk interns recently made me reflect on my goals with Warren Buffet’s 5/25 rule. It’s a great exercise in prioritizing your goals where we were asked to write down 25 goals we had, then pick our top 5. Focusing on 5 goals AND ONLY 5 GOALS (avoid other goals AT ALL COSTS) drives consistent progress to success.
Set your goals for the current month
Depending on how hectic my month can be, I like to leverage different structures for my monthly goals in order to capture the most important information I need to keep me on track.
Currently, my day-to-day has less external structure. I work with total autonomy of my schedule, and my current goals and objectives this month are not set by any external factors. So, to make sure I do not lose my focus, I first set my big objectives that align with my term goals (using Buffet’s rule here as well). All other monthly tasks and events are generally housekeeping reminders (ex. do my taxes) or to-dos.
As a student, during school semesters I have hard deadlines for tests, assignments, and projects on a frequency of ‘every other day’ sometimes. It’s important I keep track of all these deadlines and continually reprioritize.
Write out your tasks for the day
Either the night before, or the first thing in the day, I’ll start my daily task list. I always tell myself that my daily number of tasks should not exceed 7, but sometimes it does. Some days, I’ve got 5 tiny or so things I need to remember and then 2 or 3 main goals to accomplish. I just try by best to keep it under 7, or else the list gets too big and it becomes impossible to finish everything on the daily list.
When I finish a task, I get the satisfaction of striking a line through it. There is something really satisfying about the physical action. I like the tangibility of physical pen into the paper over every digital productivity tool I’ve ever used; it feels good.
My Everyday Routine Goals
Now that I work from home everyday, I need a new morning routine to mentally prepare myself to start working. I saw one of my favourite YouTubers, Jenn Im, create this in her journal, where she had a calendar she marked off everyday she exercised. I wanted to bring this into tracking my morning routine and daily objectives, so that these tasks wouldn’t take away from my larger daily goals in my list.
My Book + Syntax
I recommend getting a large paper size notebook with a low page number count. My most recently completed book is 9" x 12", 40 pages lined was found at the dollar store for $1 CAD.
My current book is 7.5 x 10.5" (approximately) with 50 pages and grid lines that I got at MUJI for $2.50 CAD.
Here are some syntax rules I use in my journal:
- S̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶. = completed
- X at beginning of task = incomplete
- Scribbles and arrows → = reminders of my train of thought
That’s it.
Easy to decipher, and easy to track.
Note: Try to be cognizant of how your productivity tools works for you. A good friend and classmate of mine took my notebook setup and made it his own with highlighting and organizing his way.
What I love about my journal is it gives me space to not be perfect. It’s lightweight, low time and money investment, and a really high return on my daily success.
Final Thoughts
Now, I’m not perfect. And more days have incomplete lists than not. I’m human, and sometimes my day has unexpected events that pull time to complete the things I had hoped I could achieve. Sometimes I’m tired and just don’t feel like it.
I try my best to consistently work towards my term and monthly goals in my schedule everyday. But sometimes I’m busy and I need to put other things first. I try to get all my daily task completed and have a clean slate for the next day. I try to tell myself I can get twelve things done today but I need to understand staying up 4 more hours past midnight isn’t going to help me understand my homework. When I don’t get it all done, things spill over. That’s okay.
What’s important to my continual practice of planning things, is balancing ambition and compassion, and understanding that I’m trying my best, each and every day.
Originally published at https://medium.com on April 6, 2020.
