I really wish I wasn't, but that annoying trait is deeply ingrained on my DNA.
Most days, as I'm crawling into bed for the evening, I'm left thinking, "I really should have gotten XYZ done today." Which then propels me to beg God to help me change my procrastinating ways.
Enter really cool book! I stumbled upon 31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae on my Kindle the other night. I'm a sucker for checklists and homework assignments so I immediately downloaded this book and flipped through the digital pages.
While the book is geared towards getting your home in order and defining why that's important to you as a Christian woman, I've found many of the tips or suggestions useful in other areas too.
Particularly, something called The Six List. (Have you heard of this?) In a nutshell, every night before bed you write a to-do list with only six items on it that you HAVE to accomplish the next day. Then you prioritize them from 1-6, listing your most urgent task first.
The next morning you systematically work through your list WITHOUT skipping around. So you complete task 1 first. Then task 2. And so on. Whatever you don't complete that day gets immediately moved to the number 1 spot for the following day.
As the story goes, this trick worked so well in increasing a company's productivity that the owner mailed a check for $25,000 to the gentleman that shared this tip for free.
(I apologize for the vague story. I can't remember their names and frankly, I'm too lazy to Google it right now.)
But the fact remains that this system supposedly makes a huge difference. So I'm giving it a go in our home and with my writing. I'll keep you all posted.
Talk to me: Have you heard of this technique before? Do you utilize something similar? Are you a procrastinator? When do you find you're most productive?
I don't know if I've heard of this specific technique but making a short list of big priorities as number 1 and so on, I'm used to doing.
ReplyDeleteI don't write them down before bed, but I make a mental note of what I need to get done with Work, Home, Writing, Ministry and I do the #1 for each of those and if time allows I can get done with some of the minor stuff.
If you do that, remember to send me 25Gs in the mail. Just sayin. :)
Glad it works for you J! Your check's in the mail. Really! Go ahead and wait by your mailbox! LOL!
DeleteThat's brilliant. I'm going to try it. I'm a procrastinator too and need all the help I can get.
ReplyDeleteLet me know if it works for you Julie! I'm going to try it too! :)
DeleteDitto what Julie said!!! :) :) :) Thx, Lacie!
ReplyDeleteI tend to procrastinate too... especially when it comes to housework and laundry. In fact, sometimes the laundry stays in the dryer for days because I can't quite seems to get up the motivation to fold it. :) Bad mommy! I think something just has to snap.. you have to be just done with the mess and the chaos and be truly ready to change.
ReplyDeleteMy best friend and I implemented a sort of cleaning schedule that helps to keep us accountable. Monday is laundry. Tuesday is floors. Wednesday is bathrooms... and so on. It makes it easier to just knock out a few small things each day and not try to have one big cleaning day. There are a lot of smaller things that are daily too. Plus, we text eachother and grumble about folding laundry and scrapping baby food off the floors. Helps when you can commiserate. :)