Great Advice on Being More Productive

Just wanted to share with you an article I read on this subject by Collis Ta'eed. It's a guest post on Leo Babauta's Zenhabits blog.

Collis's post is titled How to Get a Lot Done - Seven Tips to Achieve More. In fact, there are really more than seven tips, as several of the items have 'sub-tips' listed under them.

Here's one tip I found particularly interesting:

2. Plan, plan, plan!

If you want to make the most effective use of your time, you need a plan. Without one, trying to do a lot will give you a major stress attack. Whether it's daily to-do lists, business plans, or a productivity system, choose your weapons and put them to use.

Personally I have two planning tools that I use constantly. Next to me I keep a notepad with daily to-do lists. They usually span two A4 pages because I like to do some serious multi-tasking.

I also carry a Moleskine notebook with me literally everywhere I go. I spend a couple of hours a week writing ideas, goals, plans, and lists in it. What's coming up next, how to increase income on a website, lists of actionables to launch a new project, the chapters for a book, points to write in an article. You name it, it's in there, combined with enough squiggles and doodles to impress the most idle mind.

All this planning means that my time in front of a computer is spent purely executing. There's less wondering 'what next?' or 'what should I write?' and more getting things done.

I can really relate to this. When you're a busy working freelance writer with a number of regular clients, it's easy to spend all your time working to other people's agendas, and not focusing enough on your own goals and priorities.

Anyway, having read Collis's article, I'm determined to spend a bit more time on planning my own schedule in future. And I'll be doing my best to apply his other productivity advice as well!