I recently got an email that got me thinking about how productive was being. I should have been doing something else at the time, but I took the time to read this email. The e-mail gave a comparison to Football "audibles" and your daily life interruptions. These were interruptions like employees needing help, a call from home, or anything that interrupts your daily focus.
I deal with this all the time so it peaked my interest. How do I stay focused on the big picture and taking the right path to get there? I have written about some tools I use in the past that help me stay on track, but I think they are worth mentioning again. Here is more about each.
- Read Traction by Gino Wickman.
This book is more of a roadmap to set your goals. Once you have those goals, you can use Traction Tools software to help you run meetings, setup to do lists, and review issues that are keeping you from the goal.
2. Set your Daily Rocks
Rocks are the top 3-5 things you need to get done that day in order of importance. If you only got through the first thing on your list, that day would be a success. That's how important that first thing should be. It's the thing that gets you closer to your goal. It's the thing that has been nagging at you. It's probably the last thing you want to do 🙂
3. Set your timer for 15 minutes
I stole this one from the Fly Lady and her cleaning blogs, but this one is great for cleaning your desk or email inbox. Set the timer for 15 minutes and only do the thing you want to focus on. You will be amazed at what you can get done in 15 minutes if you don't let yourself get distracted.
That's it! Those are some tools I try to use to make sure I don't get to the end of the day and think "I worked hard, but didn't get anything done today".