srj.susanjohnson@gmail.com
www.thrivingamidstchaos.com
Agenda
• INFRASTRUCTURE
– Get clear
– Choose your work consciously
– Track your work
• PLANNING
– Weekly plan
– Daily plan
• EXECUTION
– Strategies to keep moving forward
– Better email management
Get clear
Choose your work consciously
Track your work
INFRASTRUCTURE
GET CLEAR
I have to apply for
re-certifcation
Is my credit card payment
due this week?
When am I
going to do
my taxes…
Where is that article that I need to
get ready for the Friday
presentation
What am I going to do about my
problem with my mother?
WHERE should I go
on vacation?
Get everything out
of your head
7
CHOOSE YOUR WORK
CONSCIOUSLY
The sane person’s motto
I may be able to do anything
but I can’t do everything….
Say Yes! to your own goals, and
…to work that pulls you away from them
11
TRACK YOUR WORK
Keep one calendar that includes all your
time commitments, plus: reminders,
deadline notices, and tasks that must be done
on specific day.
Simple, single master to do list
Master to do list
*
Ideas for later list
All work that is
currently in progress
Record on a List
Or on the Calendar
Sample list manager programs /apps
Free, any OS
If this is what you use at
work
iOS only
Wunderlist
Outlook Tasks
Reminders
(coupled with Touchdown
for Android, Reminders for
iPhone)
Remember the Milk
Things ($$)
Toodledo
(premium version $)
OmniFocus ($$)
Todoist
(premium version $)
… and numerous others
Weekly plan
Daily plan
PLANNING
WEEKLY PLAN
Weekly planning
1. Set boundaries for work and personal
time
2. Review / update your inventory of work both job and personal
3. Identify three high priority things to
accomplish
Set boundaries for work and personal time
Week of:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
0600
0700
0800
0900
1000
Your
child's
birthday
party
1100
Work
1200
1300
1400
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
2100
dinner
dinner
dinner
dinner
dinner
Sunday
`
To reduce bleed over: plan personal time, set work boundaries
Week of:
Monday
0600
Exercise,
meditation, etc
Tuesday
Exercise,
meditation, etc
0700
Wednesday
Exercise,
meditation, etc
Thursday
Exercise,
meditation, etc
Friday
Exercise,
meditation, etc
Saturday
Personal
time
0800
0900
work
1000
1100
Work
1200
Your
child's
birthday
party
1300
1400
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
2100
dinner
Movie
dinner
work
work
dinner
dinner
work
Social
event
Sunday
Family
time
`
Review / update your inventory of work:
– Empty your inboxes (email, paper)
– Lists
• Up-to-date?
– Calendar
• 1 week back, 3+ weeks forward
Identify ~ 3 high priority things to accomplish
Work on project budget
Work on 12/1 conference call
work on birthday party plans
And even better 
Define as outcomes
(A SIGNIFICANT “CHUNK” OF A PROJECT THAT YOU WILL COMPLETE)
Work on project budget
 Get agreement on project specs
Work on 12/1 conference call
 Make a distribution list, and send email to group to get
agenda input with 11/10 deadline
work on birthday party plans
 finalize the guest list and send invitations
Schedule time to work on these outcomes
using “time blocks”
Mon
8
12
5
8
Definition:
A block of time, of any
length, that you set aside
on your calendar to do work
by yourself
Length?
No rule. But, we work more
effectively in intense 90
minute spurts, followed by
a short break.
DAILY TASK PLAN
Daily task plan:
Must* be done today
* The deadline is today
–.
–.
–…
Aim* to do today
1. .
2. .
3. .
* “It will be so great if I
get this done today but
nothing bad will happen if
it don’t.”
Must be done today
–.
–.
–…
Aim to do today
1. .
2. .
3. .
Must be done today
– .
– .
– …
Aim to do today
1. .
2. .
3. .
Triage new to do’s that show up:
 Must this be done today?
 Is this more important than remaining Aim to do tasks?
If “no” to both, record at the bottom of the list to deal with later
– .
– .
– .
Daily task plan using an index card
Strategies to keep moving forward
Better email management
EXECUTION
Strategies to keep moving forward
Manage distractions
1- Multi-tasking
2- Continuous Partial
Attention
3- E-mail / device
addiction
4- Interruptions by
other people
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uBDVqLOx6EY/S5g2FzIvcxI/AAAAAAAAAA4/uvUtPzl7l4s/s400/the+isolator.jpg
Do something related
to the high priority
work before you look
at email (or do any
other routine work)
Write down what you are
going to do
25 + 5
25 + 5
25 + 5
25 + 15
Repeat as needed
Manage
interruptions
Francesco Cirillo
http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
the Pomodoro technique
Pomodoro apps
• Web /desktop
– Tomato Timer
– Focus Booster
• iOS
– iPhone Pomodoro Timer by Navel labs
• Android
– Pomodroido by Artifix
• Blackberry
– Pomodoro Helper by Chin
• Your local hardware store….
BETTER EMAIL MANAGEMENT
INBOX
ZERO!
Empty e-mail inbox
If you have more than ~ 200 messages in your Inbox….
Create a
“backlog”
folder
Sample folder structure
Projects
Reference
• Decide the first time!
 Delete
 File
 Store in “Optional reading” folder
 Do / reply now
• Decide the first time!
 Delete
 File
 Store in “Optional reading” folder
 Do / reply now
~ 90% completed
Defer?
First, ask WHY?
 Then, what is the next thing you need to do to move toward
completion?
The path to “empty”
• Don’t: “Check”
• Do: time-limited “Batch”
• Don’t: “Skip”
• Do: complete as many actions as
possible for each message
Books (selected)
• David Allen
– Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity (2002)
– A popular, effective complete system
• Kerry Gleeson
– The Personal Efficiency Program, (2008 version)
– An alternative complete system
• Julie Morgenstern
– Time management from the Inside Out
– The original detailed description of “time mapping”
• Jason Womack
– Your Best Just Got Better: work smarter, think bigger and make more (2012)
– Includes many strategies for assessing your work habits and for how to make changes