Dearest Darling friends,

 

“How to make the day PRODUCTIVE?” is a question that many of us ask ourselves.

 

Most people find themselves running short of time, almost every time.

 

Besides delegating work and doing things efficiently, the following ritual has often helped me.

 

My Morning Productivity Ritual

 

I sit with a piece of paper asking myself what will make this day a ‘remarkable’ day? Before turning on my computer, before making any phone calls, before starting any meeting, I compulsively make this list.

 

In this list there are four columns.

 

1. Love to accomplish – The first column has things that I would ‘love to accomplish’ today. This list has all meaningful things to be done.

 

Doing even a single thing on this list makes me feel good. Doing all the things on this list makes me very proud of myself.

 

It gives me an amazing sense of achievement. It increases my sense of self-pride. It gives me a sense of control over life.

 

It makes be believe I can do MORE.

 

2. I MUST accomplish – The second column has things that ‘I MUST accomplish’ today. This list includes a few emergencies. It includes things that may be trifles but necessary to be done.

 

It also has things that may be unnecessary for me but it will help someone else emotionally without me losing anything in the process (seeing someone is hospital etc).

 

While some things are progressive, some are headaches, some are emotional duties. Human beings, like you and me, search for a holiday as a reprieve from THIS list.

 

3. Things that can be postponed – The third column has ‘things that can be postponed’ but I would be glad to see if a few of them are done.

 

It could be buying new shirts (God knows I have enough. But then, I saw one that I just WANT to have).

 

It could be enrolling for a hobby class that I MAY be interested in.

 

It could be cleaning my desks. I have no idea how I stuff so many unnecessary things in them.

 

4. I will NOT do today – I also have an interesting fourth column. This consists of things ‘I will NOT do today.’ Most of the activities in this list are interesting to me but they are NOT necessary at all.

 

Avoiding them helps me to create time.

 

It can be ‘no afternoon nap’.

It can be ‘no counseling sessions’. It can be ‘not watching world cup cricket’ etc.

I avoid these things for THAT day.

 

Some thumb rules that helps in productivity

 

*To make the most of my day, I do my best to schedule important things at the beginning of the day.

 

* All things that require peak intelligence, I schedule them right at the top of my day.

 

* I also ensure two things on column one are not scheduled back to back. This ensures I am relaxed for every important thing during the day.

 

* For some reason when I am not able to schedule time for things that are on list one and two, I just shift them to list three.

 

* I have noticed that things on column three rarely get done. This teaches me that when I have FIXED a time and place for a thing, chances of it getting done are very HIGH. Otherwise, it rarely gets DONE.

 

* If anything is on column three for three continuous days, either I shift them to column one or two or I take them off this list for some time.

 

This ‘Four Column LIST’ helps me to get the best of the days. It has worked fantastically for me. I am convinced it is worth giving a shot.

 

These small thumb rules + the 4 column rule will make you push your boundaries and make you achieve your remarkable dreams. It will certainly help you to get MORE out of every day.

 

Reply with any emoji if you believe, these rules make sense to you.

 

With love, prayers and best wishes,