So we’ve had our fill of gratitude, family and maybe one too many sides of stuffing or cranberry sauce. This is it. We’re in the homestretch of 2017. Never will there be another December 2017 for us to live. What we can produce, who we can become, how we can make the best of this year…all comes down to this last month.
That plus the holiday parties, extra errands and questions….Where can I find a cool outfit for my niece? How much extra do I tip my stylist? It can easily overwhelm even the most stealth productive ninjas out there. So what are we to do? We can make a million lists and check them twice. We can boost the latte consumption to make up for the lost hours of sleep. We can drop to our knees and wish for it all to be over. All of the above will get us results. They may not be the exact results we want, but we’ll get ‘er done.
We can also just decide we’re going to do in our own sweet time. Today I decided I was going to be my ‘slow jams’ day. I was going to get things done, but I was going to take my time. I was going to woo the productivity out of my sweet self. I would jam and it would be slow. Slow, however, does not mean less. Whenever I make a game out of productivity, it’s always more fun and I get better results.
You may have seen the pomodoro app. It doles out time in 25 minute chunks. Decide what project gets your attention. Hit the timer and voila…in 25 minutes your time is up and you’ve got a pomodoro’s worth of time on that project. We have Francesco Cirillo to thank for the pomodoro since the inspiration was his tomato-shaped timer.
Blocking time into focused chunks makes our brains happy. When our brains are happy, they work better. When the brain works better, we’re more productive and more importantly, productivity becomes easy and fun.
So what does blocking time have to do with surviving the holidays?
Everything.
This time of year is notorious for pulling us in too many directions. The only important direction is the direction we decide is our topmost priority.
- What’s the one thing you must accomplish before 2017 comes to an end?
- What are you willing to do to get it done?
- What time do you need to block out in your calendar so it does get done?
Get out your calendar. Open up the app. Block it in.
You’ve just turned your to-do lists and motivation into something actionable, doable and ultimately done.
Don’t forget the breaks. In between your “getting ‘er done” power time blocks, breathe. Take a moment to be grateful and celebrate where you are right now.
Then we begin again. Take it from the top!