Measuring Productivity

The results of a journey of development are now available at The Daily PlanIt. Productivity Scorecards incorporate principles of effective time use into a sleek, portable notepad system that is easy and fun to use.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure”

Measure productivity with daily and weekly scorecards to track actions completed, and time spent in important and productive tasks. Effective time use measures the amount of time utilized in high priority tasks that contribute to goals, as shown in Stephen R. Covey’s time management matrix.

time management matrix

The Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule, illustrates the importance of using the small amount of discretionary time available to maximize results. The majority of our time use goes toward maintenance, work duties, and repeating tasks. That’s why it’s so important to use the small percentage of remaining time effectively.

pareto principle

Followers of “Getting Things Done” (aka gtd) ideas or any other productivity system will enjoy this fun and easy way to track productivity. A method that could be used for adding notes is the slash/dot system proposed by Patrick Rhone. Increase your effective time use with the Daily PlanIt Productivity Scorecard Notepad System now!

Foldable Goals

I have been striving to improve the portable gtd mini system. The little files from notecards work fine but are a bit bulky and a little worn looking. I was inspired by the clever PocketMod to create two Word templates with six areas (somewhat close to 3×5 size) to print on 8.5 x 11 paper.

I also discovered one of my favorite tools, plastic project files, could be cut down to 3×5 size to make protectors for the system…three from one project pocket. Here are the plastic project files at Office Depot. They are just the right flexibility and strength to work well.

To create Foldable Goals, print two sides (back and front) for goals in a total of 12 life areas. Check out the Goal Plans at the Daily PlanIt Sticky Wiki for goal ideas.

Side One Foldable Goal Template | doc | pdf |

Side Two Foldable Goal Template | doc | pdf |

Organizing Your Garage

There’s a great article at American Profile on organizing your garage. It just might inspire you to action!

Retirement RX

In the book “Retirement RX: The Retirement Docs’ Proven Prescription for Living a Happy, Fulfilling Rest of Your Life,” Dr. Fritz Fraunfelder and Dr. Jim Gilbaugh share the results of their study of those who make the transition to retirement successfully.

The most satisfied retirees all share eight key traits. While planning for financial security is an element, “highly successful retirees” also plan for happy relationships, intellectual stimulation, enjoyable and fulfilling activities, and a healthy lifestyle. To suddenly have a lot of time on your hands and no idea of how to happily fill it is not a good position to be in. Here are the eight traits of highly successful retirees:

1. Plan ahead. Advance preparation is essential, not only for finances, but also for how your time will be spent. There is no better time to think about how to best spend your time for achieving life goals, contributing to society, and enjoying leisure activities. If you’re part of a couple, this also involves consulting and coordinating with your mate.

2. Maintain a positive attitude. Choose an optimistic outlook and be open to possibilities. Changing a negative mindset isn’t easy, but it can be done. Take time for appreciation each day, have goals, and stay curious.

3. Accept change. Realize that challenges are a part of life as we age, and adjustments will be needed. It’s always good to have contingency plans.

4. Develop a strong support group of family and friends. Lay the foundation now by maintaining current relationships and making new friends. In this chapter, the doctors talk about the circles of support around us. The inner circle includes your closest relationships, often your mate, children and close friends. Around that is an intermediate circle of other friends and family. Next is an outer circle of acquaintances from groups and organizations. And finally, a peripheral circle is made up of doctors, dentist, financial advisor, and others who are a part of our maintenance system.

People will come and go from these circles. When we retire, we lose the interactions with co-workers, and our social world often narrows. Make the effort to try new activities where you can meet others, volunteer, or join a group that interests you.

5. Engage in enjoyable leisure activities. Make a list of ten or more activities you enjoy doing or would like to try. Note those that are done alone or with others, whether they are indoors or outdoors, active or passive, expensive or free. Make these a regular part of your life. Keep your eyes open for new ideas.

6. Follow a healthy lifestyle. You know the drill: watch your diet, exercise regularly, quit smoking, etc.

7. Have a sense of purpose. If your purpose is not clear to you, here is a way to find clues: List different life areas (such as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual) and ask “What will fill my life with value in this area?” Choose a few values that you are most passionate about and plan specific steps to increase them. Also think of actions you can take with your talents and skills to contribute to the world and add value to life.

8. Enjoy expression of spirituality in some form. Embrace spirituality with activities that deepen it, join or expand participation with a church community.

The advice in this book is actually helpful for anyone to follow, working or not! But if retirement is in your future, a good way to prepare for it is to follow this prescription.

Making Connections

Tim Sanders describes an exercise from his book “The Likeablity Factor” in a post on his blog, Sanders Says, called “Develop a Sincere Interest.” It’s a great way to make connections with the people in your life. Here’s a summary of the steps:

1. Write down the names of your most frequent contacts.
2. Write down the interests and hobbies they are passionate about. If you’re not sure, ask them.
3. Write down the interests and hobbies you are passionate about. The exercise in my post on quality leisure may be helpful.
4. Note any instersections of shared passions.
5. Note any contact interests you might enjoy trying yourself.
6. Note intersections of shared interests between your contacts who may not know each other, and introduce them.

Quality Leisure

It’s as important to plan for quality use of our leisure time as it is any other time. Here is a helpful exercise:

• List ten or more activities you enjoy or would like to try.
• By each one, note if it requires money, can be done alone or with others, is indoors or outdoors, active or passive.
• Rank them in order from most to least enjoyment. You may end up with some that are more interests rather than passions.

If you’re having trouble thinking of ideas, the best list of activities I’ve ever seen was in a book called “The Superwoman Syndrome” by Marjorie and Morton Shaevitz (no longer in print). Online, you could try DiscoverFun.

What should be rewarded

A comment from Ibrahim Husain led me to explore his site at http://www.zencollegelife.com.

There’s lots of productivity info here with a focus on college life. There was also a link to Steve Olson’s gathering of Free Personal Development Material, to be explored with all the extra time you will gain!

I was especially drawn to his review of The Greatest Management Principle in the World” by Michael LeBoeuf BECAUSE of the list of things that should be rewarded. I immediately thought of David Seah’s Printable CEO Series and how this could fit in to motivate ourselves. (or employees)

The next thing to consider is how to discover what is most rewarding for each individual, and find a way to work that into the system.

Productivity Flourishing

Productivity Flourishing offers three free planners with a view to using highly productive time blocks for tasks that require high levels of productive capacity.

Happy For No Reason Photo Cube

I recently read the book “Happy For No Reason” by Marci Shimoff. The many charts about choosing expansion over contraction were terrific. I was inspired to put them on a photo cube template from HP to make a Happy For No Reason Photo Cube. The HP template is a little small for the photo cube I found, so I needed to cut them out to paste on the inner cube.

With the Photo Cube Companion, you can track time spent on four main areas of development: Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual.

A Tool for Clear Purpose

This is a wonderful tool to clarify what you want to do with your life:

Pave Your Life Roadmap at Idea Sandbox

Don’t miss:

The radar diagram in pdf-a visual map of how you are doing at filling your life with value.

The Life Roadmap Plan in doc-a way to get specific in each life area about what will fill your life with value and how you will bring this into your life. I adjusted it a bit to fit my understanding. Under “enabling activities” I thought in terms of specific action steps that can be done right now: map.pdf

1. Use the radar diagram to identify values/themes. List life areas and ask “What will fill my life with value in this area?”

2. Use the life roadmap to plan steps for specific goals to increase value.

3. Choose three values/themes that you are most passionate about to focus on.