How To Be More Productive

Even though the title suggests I'm about to try to save you from the depressive depths of creative misdirection by showing you how to be more productive, I'm actually not.

Not really.

You see, I realise there are far too much productivity and time management advice material out there to be healthily digestible.

And I certainly do not wish to join the ranks of those writers.

When I read that preachy material from twenty-something aspiring life coaches and apprentice personal development gurus I just feel so damn exhausted.

It's the same material rolled out article after article, written by the merry band of well-meaning, know-it-all, know-fuck-all, I've-no-life-experience-but-I-like-to-think-I-have internet writer.

I don't know who's worse, the people who write it, those who publish it or the people who read it en masse.

These days I just try and steer clear of it all.

My Solution Is Not Your Solution

My intention here then is to offer you something I'm doing to up my own game. You can try it and if it works for you then happy days.

Over the years I've consumed a lot of material on various aspects of personal development and spirituality.

After a while, there's only so much of the same thing you can endure, especially given that a lot of it feels second-hand or third hand.

It appears to me that many writers seem to take material they feel is meaningful and simply rewrite it in their own words.

Christ, I've probably done it myself!

You'll know it when you read it. It's vacuous and repetitive. It sounds like the writers are caught in an echo chamber of their own second-hand ideas.

In this space, the message becomes lost and so do we.

It's not that there is zero benefit in it. On the contrary, getting lost in other people's loquacious jabbering can bring us to the point of change.

Tired and sick of the same well-intended writings we can actually have a breakthrough.

We eventually get tired of seeking solutions in other people and turn our attention inward. The mist begins to clear and we recognise we are the ones who are responsible.

That's what The Artist's Manifesto points towards.

The Artist's Manifesto is not a bible and it's not an instruction manual. It is an arrow pointing in the direction to which we need to focus our creative energy.

It says, hey, take a look at that over there!

Drawn Rather Than Pulled.

I've taken on a significant workload recently.

Writing the book, marketing the book, writing daily, studying for college assignments, kids, the day job…

It's a lot, but I certainly don't feel overwhelmed.

Rather, I'm energised. It feels like I'm drawn rather than pulled.

Over the last number of years I've tried many new things, projects that I felt were worth pursuing, but they didn't expand to their potential.

This time around there is a different energy around what I'm doing and I welcome that.

How it will turn out I don't know and I don't really care. I'm publishing this book because I'm somehow compelled to, so I'll ride it out for its duration.

I'm not invested in the result because I know there's something of value in the entire thing.

I'll see where it takes me.

But I will give myself every fighting chance I can to hit my target.

An important part of that is my self-organisation and management of my time efficiently. So this morning I want to share what I'm doing with you.

Here's How I'm Organising My Time

From the outset, I must point out that this stuff or any other self-management material will NOT work if you and I are not already straight about what we want.

This stuff is an accompaniment, and aid to help us stay organised. It's not something that will fix a sinking ship so let's keep that in mind.

I first read about daily dockets, as they were termed, in this article on Medium by Shaunta Grimes and it felt like a good idea.

So I made my own.

The Daily Schedule

I've got a couple balls in the air and limited time in this physical world of action to do what I want to do.

So I've got to focus.

The Daily Schedule document is a tool that helps me do that.

Left Of The Document

On the left-hand side of the document, I include a short description of things I need to do in the major categories;

• #1 Priority today
• Daily Article topic
• Chapter I'm working on
• Today's Reading
• Today's Study
• Daily Workout
• Today's Marketing

Right Of The Document

On the right-hand side of the document I have my timeline for the day starting at 05:00 (if I manage to get up!), and finishing at 21:00.

I have a well-established habit of squeezing as much time under the duvet as possible so I'll be working as best I can at breaking that.

I might not always follow this as regimented as I'd like but it does help me focus on what I need to do.

On The Bottom

On the bottom of the document, I have a space for notes during the day.

The Weekly Schedule

The Weekly Schedule document is my week at a glance. It shows me all the significant appointments and events for that week including family, college and work.

I complete this document on a Sunday night and include the following elements;

• The 7 weekly main priorities related to my writing
• My weekly exercise
• Study topics for the week
• Notes on writing
• Book I'm reading this week
• The week's key events

When I complete each day I'll save it in my folder under the weekly schedule document.

This is what I'm doing to stay on track for 2nd April publication of The Artist's Manifesto

Another Way To Stay Organised

Last year I bought a BESTself Journal. The SELFjournal is a nicely designed and made daily journal designed to help us plan and schedule important daily tasks.

Now, I'm one of the first people to suggest that planning to the end degree rarely works because circumstances never remain constant or dependable.

The target is always moving and therefore we need to move with the flow of it.

Remaining rigid to a plan doesn't work. It must be capable of change so I prefer to plan weekly.

Having a week look ahead helps me stay on track without losing myself in the detail.

A month or more is too long for me to plan with confidence so the thing tends to get a bit fuzzy the further out it is.

And that's how it should be. The closer it is to me the more detail it has, the further away from me the less detail.

The SELFjournal allows you to set key dates in the month view and track your progress on a daily/weekly basis towards your goal.

Read more about the SELFjournal.

How To Be More Productive: Final Word

Like I mentioned above, there's no silver bullet in getting organised. There's no one system that will make things happen for you and me, we simply need to find what works for us.

And that takes time, trial and error.

Use these documents if you think they might help you but please understand they will not help you if you are already in a negative place.

These tools are complementary to the creative process, they are not meant to be an engine.

The engine must be up ahead of us so to speak. It must be drawing us into it, rather than us driving towards it.

You and I have to feel energised and excited about our work. We must be compelled to make the thing, then these productivity tools can work.

They take practice though.

Try it out, see how you go.