Organization/Preparation and Planning your day

Chapter 3 of The To Do List Mastery by Allen Donaldson is titled "Organization/ Preparation." I reread the book last week, and I think this chapter, as well as the next, are profound. Here are some points that I wanted to hone in on...

1. Brainstorm to-do lists. Create Separate Lists of things to do by organizing them into General topics.

2. Make a time-frame to do the list by alertness levels. For me, I'm still figuring how to do that. I do make use of my time, though. This year, since I have a study hall period on my even days, I take advantage to do some of the homework from my odd day classes. I have 2 hours and twelve minutes if I count the 45 minutes that the school gives for study hall time besides the time that I allotted when selecting classes for my schedule. This helps a lot since I only have about 1-2 hours when I come home to do homework (if I want to be in bed by 9:00 PM). I am also taking advantage of the time I have this weekend since competitions will start in three weeks....!

3. Use apps and extensions to help keep focus. One of the apps that I like is BeFocused on iPhone.

This is the BeFocused App and a summary of how it works.

I use it to choose my work intervals (Pomodoro method, anyone?), which are usually 30 minutes. Then I choose my short break intervals, which is like 5 minutes. I only take long breaks after 4 intervals, which I make 20-30 minutes. I don't have time for a long interval break during a usual school day from what I have conclude this week. This means I will save long breaks for Saturdays. Guys, taking breaks is KEY -- I can't stress it enough. It has been proven that after 30 minutes of studying, your retention and productivity rate drops dramatically. Basically, after 30 minutes, if you are continuing to work without taking breaks, you are wasting your time. What is recommended by scientists? Take a short, five minute break. I will write more on this stuff on a later post.

It has been proven that after 30 minutes of studying, your retention and productivity rate drops dramatically. Basically, after 30 minutes, if you are continuing to work without taking breaks, you are wasting your time.

Another technology resource that I like is a Chrome Extension called StayFocusd. I can actually block websites that distract me for a timeframe that I set. This keeps me from wandering when I am working. I love it!

Chapter 4 is called "Planning your Day." Here are some points from it:

1. Take 15 minutes to plan your day the night before or the morning of before you actually start. This pushed you to want to be more productive because you see what you have to do.

"If you don't have that vision for the end goal, you have no clue where you're going, and you're going to work very hard to go nowhere." - J. J. Watt

2. The 80-20 Rule by Vilfredo Pareto states: "80 percent of output is produced by 20 percent of input, or similarly, 80 percent of outcomes are produced by 20 percent of causes." Some strategies to use this rule can be learning to recognize the 20 percent of tools that will help you get the most done, and have them close at hand. You can also use this to identify your peak times (20 percent most effective period) where you can get most of your success from.

3. Divide your large tasks into smaller, manageable tasks that can be easily measured and achieved (SMART goals, anyone?). You want to always make your own dead line earlier than what's set in stone to be able to review and edit anything.

4. Finally, create a not-to-do list to include your distractions and what you won't do.

I hope all of these tips help you like they have helped me so far this school year and in the future!