Organized and Productive

Ways to Become Extremely Productive and Organized

 China: Shanghai, Home After Travel, Learning, Logistics, Overall Reflection Add comments

Jan272012

"Balancing" on the walkway of Old Town, Shanghai, China.

“Argh!” my friend emailed, “How are you able to juggle all your work and social and fitness obligations??”

“Help me organize my life!”

In the email I wrote back to her, I realized that I have, indeed, honed a set of concrete Life Juggling strategies that have enabled me to get a ton done (click here for examples of uber-productivity) while still staying sane.

Allow me to share these productivity tricks with you now, as you may find some useful. Accompanying these tips are some unrelated (but still delightful!) photos from Old Town in Shanghai, China this summer.

Feel free to share your own organization and productivity tips in the Comments section!

Productivity Trick 1: Variety. I juggleabout 12 different obligations, along with necessities like exercise and fun time. Because each of these things is very different but very important, when I’m sick of one and want to procrastinate, I can just work on another, and still be productive. Further, several of them are true passions (especially this blog), so doing them is a joy!

The famous Tea House in Old Town... across from a Starbucks!

Trick 2: Put your To Do List on specific Google Cal days, not a list. I live by my Google Calendar, and it is also my To Do list. I’ve found this much more effective than a separate To Do list because it’s more in-your-face and concrete.

The moment I realize I need to do something (ex: “Do Teach Plus Homework“) or make a plan or appointment (“Doctor, 3pm“) I whip out my iPhone and enter the item directly on a day.

When a day is over and there are items I don’t complete, I drag them onto the next day. If they get dragged too often, I may decide they’re not worth it and delete them, or force myself and get them done at last, or ask for help with them.

For extra important Google Cal items, I set up email reminders– sometimes even multiple email reminders if the event is particularly important, or I’ve forgotten it in the past.

Inside Old Town's famous Tea House. Beautiful! And expensive.

Trick 3: Use Gmail Labels to Create a Secondary To Do List. I use Labels for my Gmail, which help filter and schedule my time.

The most important label is “A-Respond-To” (which has an “A” in front so it’s at the top of the Labels list).

What’s useful about this is it allows me to read email, and if I don’t have time to respond or follow up right then, I can mark it“A-Respond-To” and get to it later, rather than re-marking it unread and uncategorized. Then, several times a day, I filter to the“A-Respond-To” labeled items and respond to or act on them, then can remove them from that label. This functions as a different type of To Do list, and does not get repeated in the Google Cal.

A mother and son in Old Town watch the fish in the pond.

With this, I use sub-labels of, for example, “EdTech Conference Planning“ or “Meet, Plan, Go Events,” which I can filter to when I need to pull out emails on that responsibility. Some emails have several labels.

Trick 4: Don’t waste a minute. I use every free second to do something. This goes back to Trick #1; when I need a break from grading papers, I write a blog post. This does not, however, mean to never relax, because…

Trick 5: Make sure to schedule in some fun and relaxation! I’ve learned this year that fun, date nights, and exercise need to be scheduled in the calendar too, and honored just as meetings are! You don’t need to be totally robotic about it to the point where you kill spontaneity, but if you see you have a persistent complaint that, for example, “I never see my friend Bertha!” call her up and make a few concrete meetup dates that you both get in your calendar. Anyway, we’ll never be productive if we’re miserable and lonely and out of shape. Fun and fitness must be included in life balance!

One of many cool passageways in Shanghai's Old Town.

Trick 6: Get others to make you work. I ask loved ones to hold me accountable for getting certain things done, and give them permission to yell at me if I don’t.

What also works is to tell a lot of people what I’m doing, so they’ll harass me about the tasks, and whether I have to have done them yet. One reason I’m so active on Facebook and Twitter is because having an audience helps me perform!

Trick 7: Use Google Docs magic for project and event organization. I adore Google Docs and Spreadsheets and use them for everything from wedding and honeymoon planning (!) to organizing blog ideas for my websites, to curriculum design. These Docs and Spreadsheet can be shared with others for collaborative work and added efficiency.

Trick 8: “Throw your hat over the wall,” thus forcing yourself to climb onward. Buy a ticket and then plan later how you’ll do the trip. Tell someone you’ll have something done by a certain time who you know will be furious if you don’t. It works! “Someday” won’t make the exciting stuff happen. 

Love this photo of a woman and statue in Old Town!

Trick 9: Consider weird places to work. Sometimes I hole up in Logan Airport or South Station! And cafes and houses of productive friends are great, too. I also work at home a lot, in very strange physical positions. Kneeling on the floor works well for me to write… while eating Greek yogurt with chia seeds and listening to cheesy 80s songs.

Trick 10: Surround yourself with workaholics. We’re fun people, AND we help you get stuff done! It’s a lot easier to be productive when there’s peer pressure to work, versus pressure to watch TV. One of my favorite activities is working side-by-side with beloved folks.