Moving into an extremely busy time of the year with two dozen balls in the air, I have focused on increasing my productivity. If I can squeeze an extra hour out of the day as a result of being more efficient, that’s 6 extra hours a week. If I work 50 weeks in a year, that’s 300 extra hours. That’s the equivalent of accomplishing an entire extra month of work in a year. That’s pretty powerful, especially considering that right now I’d settle for an extra 15 minutes.

A solid foundation is the key for any structure to have a hope of withstanding it’s first storm, so I’ve spent February focusing on my productivity foundation. I am using the highly efficient Lee Milteer’s system (and Dan Kennedy’s advice for the month) to measure how I spend my time. Not only am I measuring how I spend it, but I’m also measuring what I spend it on. Are they tasks that are moving me towards my goals or am I spending an inordinate amount of time on “busy work” or tasks that merely maintain the status quo?

I’m already realizing benefits from practicing this first stage of measurement. The simple act of recording what I’m doing on paper has made me more efficient. Who wants to write down, “mindlessly surfed Facebook and Twitter for an hour”?

When I move on to Stage Two: Scheduling, in March, I should reclaim even more time. The idea is to make appointments with myself to work on those tasks which have the highest value in moving me towards my goals. Stage Three in April will involve the culling of every low-value task through either delegation or elimination.

Another suggestion from Lee Milteer I’ve implemented this month has been creating a wall in my office dedicated to task organization. A picture of the wall is included below. On the far left is my “storyboard”. It’s a visual representation of my to-do list, both short term and long term. Also, it was fun to make. Next to the storyboard is my whiteboard, which I use whenever I’m brainstorming. On the far right I have my calendars, laid out so that with a quick glance over my computer monitors I can see the week, the month, and the year all at once.

Along with the gains in productivity I’ve already seen, I’m forced to admit – the illusion of control has been intoxicating. Thanks, Lee!