Reason #2,385 Why I Like My Time Log
Posted in Goals & Time Management
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If you’ve been reading lately, you’ll see that I have been tracking my time with a log to see how effective I am at the end of each week. I’m proud to say that I have been spending an average of 80% of my time on whatever the week’s Focus Items are (writing my ebook lately, and getting people to promote it, and training Tracy to schedule webinars for me).
Click Here to See Alan’s Time Log from Last Week
Here is Reason #2,385 why I like using the time log:
2385) I fill it out as I go throughout the day, and therefore
I know what one thing I am supposed to be doing at any given time. So imagine, it’s
6:50 am (yes, I start early so I can stop early, and also have a
bomb shelter where I can concentrate on writing). I write in my log “6:50″
and then next to it, “Write Blog.”
That took 2 seconds to do. But now, I know what I’m working on at the moment. This is HUGE for anyone with A.D.D. who can switch from one task to another every minute on the minute. I’m writing a blog right now. I can see it written down on my desk here.
* If the phone rings, I don’t answer it because I’m writing in my blog. That’s not what I’m doing now.
* If I get a great idea, I jot it down quickly and get back to writing in my blog because that’s what I’m working on now.
* If I feel like checking my email, I resist, because that’s not what I’m doing now. Right now I’m writing in my daggone blog and I have this log here both as proof and to help me correct my course when I get distracted (which I was at least 5 times while writing this post up until now).
Can you imagine going about your workday without really knowing what you’re doing at any time? I like focusing on one thing at a time, and writing it down before I commence work helps me to 1) choose the most important thing to work on, and 2) Stay on track once I’ve started until I’m done.
If you think that writing down what you’re doing would be a pain because you’d have to update it every 2 minutes with “Answered the phone” and “Sent an email,” that EXACTLY why you should use a log–to pick one thing and work on it for 10-20 minutes, then move on to doing emails all at once.
BAM.
