Matthew Lang

... where you are.

... have been proven to work. So why not use them?

Thanks Curtis.

... with Adam Keys.

Not all tricky problems are complex. Some are presented in a complex way, some are complex because of restrictions that are simply worked around, and some are complex because of an adjoining social problem. Find the simple problem, or the social problem, and solve that instead. It often works for me.

— The Simple Problem Inside the Complex One by Adam Keys

Every time I write a post for my blog, I ask myself this question:

What if the majority of my readers already know what I'm writing about in this post?

I've purposely held back on a number of ideas for blog posts in the past due to this. I get myself into the mindset that the idea for the blog post will be invaluable to the majority of my readers and therefore I dismiss the idea.

However loooking over my analytics for previous posts I have written that I have questioned but went ahead with, I have been surprised by the number of times the posts I thought would quickly disappear into the archives are still being read by more than a hanful of people every day. Even though I had the belief that the post would only be relevant for a limited time and to a limited number of people, these posts are still drawing in new readers every week.

So my advice to you is this. Even if you think your readers won't find any value in your idea for a blog post, write that blog post anyway. Chances are that someone will find value in your blog post rather than no-one.

Yesterday I told you about the second part to my grass roots productivity approach which is to sort your master list. Today we're going to look at the last part of the series and probably the most important one, working through your list. All the preparation in the world counts for nothing unless we're actually going to work through our list.

I've tried in the past to pick off items from the top of the list at the start of the day, but it often leads to confusion and the wrong things getting done. I've learned now that scheduling actions into my calendar ahead of time is a better way to get things done and more importantly get that item off my master list.

I was prompted to do this after reading 18 Minutes by Peter Bregman. In the book Peter mentions the importance of using a calendar to schedule the items on your list:

If you really want to get something done, decide when and where you are going to do it.
— 18 Minutes by Peter Bregman http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0446583405/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0446583405&linkCode=as2&tag=mattlang-21 18 Minutes %}

How many times have you picked three things off your list to do during the day and reached the end of the day and not one of those things gets done? That used to happen to me all the time, until I started scheduling my items in my calendar and removing them from my master list. After they were removed from my list, I found it easier to complete the actions in my calendar.

Scheduling items in your calendar also means you are working to your strengths, the times when you are most productive. We all have different times in the day when we are most productive. I'm more productive in the morning, so I usually schedule difficult tasks in the morning and leave the mundane jobs to the afternoon.

That's it for my grass root productivity series. Being productive doesn't mean you need to have any kind of complicated system, multiple applications and countless reminders. The simplest thing you can do is work through a single prioritised list at the times that suit you the best. That's all there is to it.

What I have outlined over the last three days is what is working best for me right now and don't see any benefit to changing it. I'm not saying this is the best system to use, but it is the simplest thing you can do that will work. There's lots of other workflows out there that others will advocate. You just need to find what works best for you.

via FGGT

Yesterday I introduced you to the first step to getting productive, keeping a master list of everything you want to do and must do. So what's next? Just pick off the stuff we want to do? No. We need order. We can't do everything at once, but we also want to move towards what we want to do while at the same time checking of those mundane tasks we need to do. We need to prioritise.

Take your list and sort it. It's as simple as that. Put the stuff you want to do sooner at the top and the stuff that can wait at the bottom. Simple right? No numbering systems or sort labels here. Just the order of the list itself. Granted this is easier if your list is managed with something like TaskPaper, but I think that even doing this with pen and paper isn't going to be too long an exercise. Also, with pen and paper it gives you a chance to think about each item on your list. Is it important? Can it wait?

Prioritising your list is one of the simplest things you can do to get your list in an order that makes it easy to tackle. Cherry picking items from your master list will lead to you only doing the easy things or things you want to do. Doing this will mean that you'll never get round to writing that novel or building the next big app that will take the world by storm. Prioritising your list gives you an order in which to tackle your list. You're putting the items that matter or need to be done at the top of your list.

I usually review my master list on a weekly basis. Usually this involves just moving the items that have been recently added to their appropriate space in the list. My priorities are long term, so the order of my list doesn't change drastically from week to week. What I do see though is items gradually moving up the list which shows that I am moving forward with my projects and tasks and there's nothing lying stale at the bottom of the list for too long.

Don't forget to mix the list so that it's not all the things you want to do at the top. Working towards a dream holiday or breaking the top 10 best selling books can't be your only focus. There's still stuff to do on a day to day basis. Bills need to be paid, kids need to be taken to their extra curricular activities and such. So make sure your list is evenly mixed with those things you want to do and things you must do. Keeping this balance is important to working through your master list.

Being productive means keeping track of everything you want to do. This is the first step in being productive. We do this by keeping a master list. This is where you list everything you want to do. And I mean everything. The master list isn't a to do list. To do lists are started with the best of intentions and then neglected. Just the mention of a "to do" list makes me not want to do anything on it. The master list is different. It's filled with things you must do and the things you want to do¹. Think carefully about these two types of actions for a minute. They're very different.

Yes, you must book the car in for a service, you must pay that bills before the end of the week and of course there's hundreds of other things you must do. What about the things you want do? Write a novel, produce a movie, backpack across Asia. How many of these things do you have on your list? If you don't have any then why not? These are still things you want to do. If you don't list them, how are you ever going to start on the path to actually doing them?

Here's a selection of actions from my master list:

• Pay tax bill for the year
• Learn to play the guitar
• Submit academy membership for the golf club
• Take a family holiday in Vancouver
• Take a family holiday in Las Vegas and The Grand Canyon
• Write and publish a novel

Do you see any mundane chores here? Yes there's two, but there should be more to your master list than the things you must do. It should also have the things you want to do. I know the stuff that needs to be done on a day to day basis so I dump it on my master list so I don't forget, but I also dump the things I want to do. Otherwise I'll never get round to doing the things I want to do. Your master list is a reminder of everything you want to do.

So my advice to you is to list everything you want to do and must do in one place, your master list. You don't need a fancy app to do it in either. Pick up a notebook and pen and start writing your master list. Go offline for a bit and think about the things you must do and the things you want to do. The things you really want to do. You'll be amazed by how many things you want to do that get added to the list if you don't think of the list as a todo list.

1. I can't claim the idea of master list. Credit for the master list goes to Nicholas Bate, where I first read about it.

There's more where this came from on the Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist.

via Mme. Scherzo