What I did today…
Recently, Lorraine suggested that I write down what I’ve done for the day, as an exercise in productivity. If you recall my Top Ten Productivity Tips I always have suggested to write down what you’re going to do the next day and prepare that way for the work day. I will fully plead guilty that I sometimes keep that list in my head. Most of the times, though, I add it to Tasks either on GMail or on my iGoogle page.
I think Lorraine’s idea is actually a very good one. It helps people who do freelance work and/or consulting projects (as I do) maintain a record that allows to track productivity in a meaningful way. For example, this past Sunday I cleaned up my apartment. I live in a fairly modest/small place that doesn’t have a full-fledged home office (contrary to, for example, my home-office in Mexico). I don’t actually need a home office since I have one at The Network Hub, but it’s kind of important to me to sometimes bring work home and thus I need a clean space to work on.
I grew frustrated with my apartment’s messiness (I recognize that for a cleanliness freak like me – I’m a Virgo – the range of clutter that can be considered messy is substantially different from that of other people) and started cleaning, most of Sunday. I did write a bit, and dealt with stuff that I had promised Mom I would help her deal with, but for the most part, I cleaned my place. And it feels now way more livable than it did before.
Would that considered be productive? I believe it should. Once I wrote down ALL the stuff I did (including dealing with emails from people who ask me to review their products, attend and write about their events, startups, etc.) I almost went “phew – and this is even BEFORE I get into my research work!”
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Well, actually I suggested it entirely as a way to force your readers to follow you all over the interwebs and make sure you get credit for working hard. Not that I’d EVER be so self-interested.