My Crazy Office Mess Update: Less Mess, More Honesty
Caroline Donahue came over Monday to overhaul my productivity and it was pretty intense. She was in my office (and my kitchen) for about 8 hours, and luckily for me, she’s a doll, or else I’m not sure I could have handled it. But there were no push-ups required and although it made me use muscles I hadn’t used in long time — figurative ones — it wasn’t actually a scary workout. Just an intense, paradigm-shifting one.
So I’m — dare I say it? I’m getting tons of work done and I’m feeling in control of my schedule today — and my email inbox has only 8 messages in it. And in another sign that Caroline’s had an effect on me: I am thinking that’s too many and I want to take care of them right now!!
But I won’t. I have a schedule to keep. I’m to check email only at certain points during the day (obvious, right? But not to me. Not before she made me promise to do it — and she went in and changed the settings so my computer won’t even load up new emails every 5 minutes, like it was doing before… So clever, she is.)
So what else is the Productivity Boot Camp all about? Well, some of it is common sense, like the email addiction remedy she prescribed, and some of it is the new (figurative) muscles I am learning to flex, like being honest about my to-do list (TOO long) and being realistic about my schedule (TOO many things planned at once — and NOT enough hours in the day to do them all). What she does that I couldn’t do all by myself, is push me a little bit (no push-ups, just no email), provide accountability for the 21 days after we’ve finished (she’s checking in on me every day and is available for refreshers if I need), and put it all in a framework I can visualize and work with.
Oh, and I have to apologize for spelling her name wrong last time — oops! D-o-n-a-h-u-e.