By Robbin Orbison
- Put tasks, not just appointments on your calendar. Schedule time for everything, including projects, exercise, even breaks. It’s amazing how much more likely you are to do something if it’s on the calendar.
I schedule an administrative hour every day. It keeps me from feeling like I have to tackle every administrative task as it comes up and therefore reduces distraction.I spend an hour at the start of each week organizing the week’s calendar. It’s an hour well spent because it saves me time in the long run and keeps me from procrastinating about least favorite tasks.Paper calendars are still OK but applications like Google Calendars and Outlook work better because they can alert you when the next item is up and really help keep you on track. - Sprint! My friend Pam and I each have our own business. But we have recently tried sprinting together. We block off some time (we like two hours), choose a project that we pledge to get done in those two hours, then report back to each other at the end of the sprint.Being accountable to someone is very motivating, and for the self-directed worker a sprint is a great way to tap into that power. Pam and I did our first sprint yesterday and we not only got a lot of work done, we had fun and the motivation has stayed with us even a day after the sprint.
- Change your venue. Get out of the place where you usually work. If you’re a CapeSpace member, try moving to a different area. Get out of your office and sit in the business lounge. If you usually sit in the main lounge, try the café or the high tops or the rear corridor seating.If you are not a CapeSpace member, did you know we have hourly and daily rates, and that you can buy buckets of hours to use whenever you want?
So put this on your calendar: Sprint with a friend at CapeSpace this week!