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I love productivity.
I consider productivity the most crucial tool to get the most out of your life.
Productivity will give you:
- Priorities.
- Focus.
- Optimization.
- Efficiency.
- Control.
- Security.
- …
That’s the basis to drive you through the way to fulfillment, which always ends up in happiness.
After having managed hundreds of different productivity systems, tools, software, and apps, I conclude that the best productivity tool is a calendar.
Knowing what you have to do today and the rest of the days is the right information to focus on DOING, that is what productivity is all about.
That’s why I plan every important task on my calendar for over a decade.
I just plan 2 or 3 tasks to be done each day, and I always define my highlight of the day: one task that MUST be done without any excuse.
I have each of those tasks inside a block time in my calendar, so I perfectly know WHEN those tasks will be executed.
Having the day, time, and length for each task give you:
- Structure.
- Control.
- Clarity.
- Security.
- Calm.
- Relax.
- Focus.
- …
The rest of the day is “free” to manage:
- E-mails.
- Habits.
- Contingencies.
- “Breathing” (you should never forget about this “task”…).
- …
I’ve always said that if you do “only” 2 tasks every day, and you don’t miss a day:
- Your projects will have progressed notably within a month.
- You will have achieved most of your goals within 6 months.
- You will have made a miracle within 1 year.
Compound interest will always be by your side.
DO DATES vs. DUE DATES
A couple of months ago, I started watching August Bradley’s YouTube video series, and he has created a brilliant term to define this way of planning.
It’s a subtle and straightforward term that tells you how amazing August Bradley is. I don’t know if he invented it, but he was the first person I heard saying it.
He differentiates between these 2 terms:
- DUE DATE: the date the task should be finished.
- DO DATE: the date you will dedicate time to that task, trying to finish it, if possible.
Most of the productivity apps you find out there are based on the DUE DATE.
You create the task, fill in a DUE DATE, and see a calendar or a to-do list based on that DUE DATE.
A DUE DATE is important because maybe it’s a deadline for you (an important one if a client is waiting for it…), but it doesn’t help you at all when talking about planning.
To start doing, you need to know when you will do the task. At that stage, you don’t care at all when the deadline is.
So don’t forget these 2 easy-to-remember rules:
- Use your DUE DATES to PLAN.
- Use your DO DATES to DO.
That’s why I use a calendar because it’s the most intuitive tool to define when you will do something.
- You have a clear vision of everything.
- You manage and balance workloads.
- You can even set the time in which you will do each task.
- You can also see events or meetings that will consume time.
A calendar full of DO DATES is your productivity machine.
Don’t forget you don’t have to manage tasks, you have to manage TIME.
So, what better than a calendar to manage the time?
That’s why they were created.
Never changing 2 vowels (dUE) for just 1 (dO) was so productive in life.
In my opinion, August’s term is key always to remember the concept we’re talking about.
Always ask yourself: When am I going to do this?
Obviously, pay attention to DUE DATES when planning your DO DATES.
Takeaways
Having your whole week planned will allow you to manage unexpected events, those that will always happen every day.
Whenever an unplanned item appears, you can easily compare it with your planned items and ask yourself this question:
Which one is the most important?
- If the unplanned item is the one, go for it.
- If it’s not, just plan it some other day and keep on doing your planned items.
As easy as that.
That’s how you’ll be able to keep on doing the IMPORTANT things, instead of just doing the URGENT ones.
Here, you can see how to transform the IMPORTANT into URGENT.
Don’t let your dreams go away.
Photo at the top courtesy of Brooke Lark on Unsplash.