5 Surprisingly Simple Steps To Do More At Work & Play

Mark Garrison |
Productivity
| February 5th 2009

We’ve all said the words “I’d really like to…” followed by some personal or career ambition that often doesn’t get done. “I’d really like to write a book”, “I’d really like to be able to add illustration to my design skills”, or “I’d really like to learn to cook Thai food.”

And, of course, these statements are almost always followed by “if I had the time.” Here are five really easy things that are guaranteed to get you a lot closer to your ambitions (lets face it, if we didn’t have lofty ambitions we wouldn’t be reading this blog).

Get Up An Hour Earlier Every Morning

Even if you aren’t a morning person. Actually, let me amend that… especially if you’re not a morning person. Force yourself at first, and before long it will seem natural. I hate mornings, but I get up at 6:30 and (here’s the important bit) I start doing things right away. By 8:00, I’ve showered, had my morning coffee, and spent over an hour working on something (and it doesn’t have to be client work).

Now, I know some of you are saying “Getting up earlier will just move my whole day forward an hour. How does that get more done?” The answer is all about inertia. If you take your time and get up when you want, you set the pace for taking your time with everything. By getting up earlier and starting in on something immediately, you’re setting a productive pace. Trust me, it’s as if I have an extra hour every day and the pace it sets for the day means I get even more done. Just try it. If you don’t like it I’ll give you your money back.

Set Aside Time For Your Own Projects

It’s far too easy to allow work for clients to choke out all your personal projects, but making progress on your own projects and goals helps keep you happy and productive. Try setting aside one hour every day for your own projects (Hey, why not use that extra hour you just got by getting up earlier?). One hour every days adds up quickly. That’s 30 hours a month and 365 hours a year. There are few projects that you can’t accomplish in that time.

Setting an hour aside each morning has been the best change I’ve made in a long time. I actually started by getting up a half-hour earlier to work on my projects, and I was so thrilled by how much I was getting done that I bumped it up to an hour. All my “one day” projects started coming to fruition at a surprising pace. Then comes the fun part: dreaming up new projects to start.

Cancel Your Cable

Yes, I know this is not a new idea, but it is easier than it once was. Your favorite shows are all on DVD and/or online anyway, so you can still get your fix of passive entertainment. There’s one big difference between watching cable and watching the same show on DVD, and that comes when the episode ends. With a DVD, when an episode ends you need to make a conscious decision to watch another. With cable, when the show you’re watching ends the next one starts, and it’s far too easy to get sucked into another show, then another.

This cycle that comes from watching cable causes two problems. First is the sudden realization that you sat down to watch a half-hour show and ended up watching for two hours. The second is the inertia that comes from that much passive entertainment. The average American household spends more than eight hours watching TV every day. That is absolutely staggering. In Canada (my home country), I’m proud to say the average is closer to three hours per day, but even then I can’t help but think of all the better things that can be done with that time.

Take A Class

Yes, there are plenty of ways to teach yourself things, but the classroom has one benefit that can’t be replaced: accountability. Joining a structured class increases your chances of following through significantly. When we are learning from a book, a video, or a friend, it is very easy to postpone or cancel a lesson for a myriad of little reasons. When we pay for a structured class or formal lessons, we are accountable to ourselves because we are paying for the class whether we go or not, and we are accountable to the instructor to keep up with the class work.

Admit it. We all have teach-yourself books that we bought with good intentions, flipped through a couple of times, then never opened again. Check out your local community center, or local college’s continuing education programs. The added price is worth it if you end up with a new skill.

Set Deadlines

There are two problems with “one day” thoughts. The first is that “one day” never comes, and the second is that we rarely quantify our goals. If you want to actually make these dreams happen, you need to set a date and a quantifiable goal. Again, this is about accountability.

It is really easy to say “I want to learn to play the piano someday”, but what does that mean? At what point can you say that you’ve accomplished that goal? When you learn to play Chopsticks? When you learn jazz improvisation? When you become the top pianist in your country? Change that goal to “I’d like to be able to play ten songs by July 1st,” and your chances of reaching that goal increase dramatically.