Confessions of a Productivity Junkie: My Latest Obsession with the 1-3-5 Method!

It's been a while since I wrote a productivity post. Lest you think that I have given up on my productivity junkie ways... nope. That was just the last 4 months of pre-posted blogs! But now... under the gun from having frittered away my 4 month blog buffer... productivity is front and centre again. Which means, of course, that I am re-evaluating my time/energy usage and looking for something that can keep me focused and efficient. Enter... the 1-3-5 Rule!

What the Heck is the 1-3-5 Rule?

A very good question. At it's essence, it's really very simple... in any given day, I should be able to accomplish:

• 1 Big Task
• 3 Medium Tasks
• 5 Small Tasks

Simple, no? But... what does big, medium and small really mean?

1 Big Task

This is the most important and impactful task I need to complete. It could be a major project, an important meeting or something else that requires a good 1.5 to 3 hours to complete. Lately... Tax Preparation has been my Big Task on some days. On other days it's "Clean the Airbnb". 

3 Medium Tasks

These are tasks of moderate importance that still need to get done. They are essential for keeping things moving forward and keeping me on track. They aren't as big as the Big Task. I sort of ballpark them as 30 min to 90 min. Things like writing a blog post, running a daisy chain of errands, posting to our Airbnb's social media stream, mowing the hay field... errrr... back and front lawns.

5 Small Tasks

These are the little things that need to get done but often get overlooked. For me, they take between 5 and 15 min. Things like phone calls, sending emails, cleaning the heat pump filter. Writing or responding to guest reviews.

The thing with the 1-3-5 Rule is... there is only space for 9 (NINE!) things on my daily to-do list. Saayyyyy WHAT? Exactly. Before... I could have dozens of things on my daily to-do list. Talk about overwhelming. And I'd end up snacking on junk food tasks (the little ones) and never getting around to the bigger ones. BTW... updating my to-do list can seem uber important and urgent when there are dozens of things on my to-do list! And that can suck up hours of prime energy time. Sigh.

Anyhow... the 1-3-5 Rule puts an end to an Over-Ambitious To-Do List... there's only space for 9 things... and that's why it works so well...

The Beauty of the 1-3-5 Rule

The 1-3-5 Rule is simple and it's effective. It forces me to have:

Focus

I have to review my tasks and figure out... what's the big thing I need to get done today. Not "want" to get done... but "need" to... like spending a couple of hours on tax prep. Or cleaning the Airbnb because a guest checked out. I can only choose 1 (one!) Big Task so the 1-3-5 Rule forces me to look at my day and go... "OK... what's Priority #1 today).

Clarity

Oh, I get really clear on my priorities very quickly. In the past, I would think I could do 2 hours of tax prep and 3 hours of Airbnb cleaning and write 3 blogs... all in one day. Yeah. No. That doesn't work. I get really clear on what my big task is and I can let go of the other big tasks... for today.

Balance

My day is more balanced... there's room for a Big Task and a bunch of medium tasks and then the smaller stuff too. In the past, I might spend 8 hours of my day beavering away on some big research blog and... neglect everything else. That's a pretty quick road to exhaustion and overwhelm. I might "want" to do more but... there are only so many hours (and energy bursts) in a day so this helps me balance my day.

Achievement

There's nothing better than looking at my 1-3-5 list and going... Done and done and done and done!!! Looking at a list with several dozen items and seeing that I've only marked off 1 or 2... meh. Not very inspiring. While I might not get all of the Smaller Tasks done (they are easier to boot into tomorrow)... the Big Task generally does get Done!

But What About the 1-3-5-7 Rule?

But... true to form... there's a part of me that wants to add "more" to the 1-3-5 Rule. What about adding 7 Tiny Tasks? Things that take less than 5 minutes? Huh? What about that? What if I have a couple of calls to make or a few emails to write and they won't take 5 minutes each? What then?

Sigh. Rather than adding 7 Tiny Tasks to the 1-3-5 Rule... I've started bundling things. So one of my Small Tasks might be "Process Emails" and another might be "Call X and Call Y". But I do spend a moment on assessing if the Calls, for example, are going to be quick and short or if they might need to bounce up to a Medium Task.

Conclusion

So far, after a couple of weeks of this, I'm really liking the 1-3-5 Rule. My online to-do list program (Amazing Marvin) has a 1-3-5 integration. It automatically assigns things to the Big, Medium and Small lists based on the time duration I have assigned to tasks.

I tend to look at my 1-3-5 list for the next day on the previous evening. I assess my upcoming day and go "OK... no cleaning of the suite... tax prep is front and centre... and then writing a blog and then...". The next day, when I look at my list, it's all laid out. I might not "want" to do tax prep but... the list reminds me that this is important... it might not be as exciting as blog writing... but it's more important right now. And I focus and get down to it.

And it works. And that gives me a boost to do more!

Procrastination Nation: A Deep Dive into the Diverse Species of Delay

 Regular readers of this blog will know that I struggle with Procrastination. I know that I'm not the only one, but sometimes it does feel like a lonely struggle. I see so many people around me who seem to function at a higher level. Maybe I'm just not seeing their procrastination? After all... it can be easy to hide... to camouflage... for a while.

A few weeks back, I came across this cute graphic - A Field Guide to Procrastinators - 20px - Twenty Pixels. Every single one of them resonated with me!

Let's walk through them one at a time...

The Cleaner

Well... of course. Let me declutter my cupboard... or clean my desk, or organize my books or... vacuum the house. Any of these things is very productive... and helps me feel that I have done something useful. Plus... cleaning my space does actually help me to feel in control. But... ultimately... it isn't all that productive if it drags on for hours and days.

From 20 Pixels

The Panicker

I don't go here very often, but I do know this one! Leave it all to the last minute and then have a freak-out fit. I do have to say that I don't stay here all that long. There's a part of me that gets fed up with The Panicker and just says "Start Already!".

From 20 Pixels

The List Maker

Yes, yes... I know... this is me to a tee!! When in doubt, make a list! When faced with an overwhelming pile of stuff, make a list! Even better... make a spreadsheet!!! Or... ooooohhhh... find a new, shinier, better productivity app and transfer ALL of my to-do items into this new app and get them nicely organized and colour-coded and... hours go by. And at the end of it, I have done nary a thing on my list but... man... do I ever feel productive!!

From 20 Pixels

The Napper

Mmmm... not really my go-to. I tend to only nap if I'm really tired. But yes, that is what I do look like when I am napping... mouth open and drooling. Although the pet is a cat and not a dog...  But napping as a form of procrastination... not really.

From 20 Pixels

The Sidetracker

Oh boy... yep, this is me. Rather than working on the most urgent thing... I will work on the thing that is not as urgent... but is more fun. Or I'll work on an entirely new thing! And I can work like a fiend on the new thing and feel soooo productive but... then flip over to The Panicker when I realize how close the deadline is for the urgent thing... 

From 20 Pixels

The Social Sharer

OK... this is NOT me. I am not big on Social Media so I'm not going to be posting pics of myself not working. Although... I might write a blog about me not writing and procrastinating! Is that the same thing? Nah... not really? Oh... it is?! Sigh...

From 20 Pixels

The Internet Researcher

OK... yes... I do get sucked into cat videos every once in a while. But on the whole... my internet research is very on-point! I can happily dig around for hours, researching my latest blog topic... or a week or a month of blog topics. Anything to keep me from actually sitting down and writing. Yep... I just need more info, more data, more certainty... before I can commit to having an opinion or moving forward on a project. Research makes me feel sooooo productive!

From 20 Pixels

The Snacker

Noooo... I don't think this is me... is it? No not really. I'm not someone to go and stand in front of the fridge and look for something to nibble on. Not my mojo.

From 20 Pixels

The Gamer

Also not much of a gamer! Although I can see the draw of this one. Soooo much to do in the virtual world. If I was into Farmville (or whatever)... I'm sure I could do this... Actually... now that I think about it... I used to play Age of Empires incessantly as a way to stave off work... even Minesweeper! I was paralyzed by uncertainty and I would use computer games as a form of procrastination. I do seem to have kicked that habit though. Don't play computer games. Have no interest in computer games. But... give me a new productivity app!!! Oooooohhhh... 

From 20 Pixels

The Watcher

Mmmm... yes... I could see this happening. Although we tend not to watch a lot of TV anymore.  But yes, I have done this in the past. The next show comes on and I'm so deep into needing to know what happens that... it's easy to just binge! And the work gets left undone... just one more episode....

From 20 Pixels

The Delegator

Hmmm... nope, this isn't really me either. No kids to pass things off to. No underlings to burden. If things aren't getting done... the buck stops with me. Although... I could delegate to Future Me but... we all know how that works out!

From 20 Pixels

The Perpetuator

Oh yes!!! There's me!!! It's getting too late now... I will just start tomorrow.... Or, even better... I need at least 4 hours of solid time in order to work on this project and I only have 1 hour or 2 hours and... you know... that's really not enough time to do anything meaningful... so I'll push it off to next week!! Yes, because next week is wide open and I'll have tonnes of time to work on it then! Sigh.

From 20 Pixels

Which Ones are You?

Just to recap... these are my Top 5 Go-To Procrastination Habits... ranked in order...

1. The List Maker - let's make a fresh, new list!
2. The Perpetuator - tomorrow I'll have time... maybe next week
3. The Internet Researcher - I need more info...
4. The Sidetracker - oooohhhh... new idea...
5. The Cleaner - must do laundry... must declutter... first...

I don't really do these ones... or only rarely...

• The Panicker - OMG! It's due tomorrow!
• The Watcher - just one more episode
• The Delegator - you do this, you do this... I'll rest
• The Napper - just a quick nap
• The Social Share - here's a pic of me not working
• The Gamer - just one more level-up
• The Snacker - I need something to nibble on...

Soooo... which are your go-tos? And how do you dodge them?

Sweeping vs. Shoveling: The Wisdom of Regular Maintenance

I keep coming back to this lesson in life. In a nutshell, I snow-plough small (and sometimes large) tasks ahead of me until I am faced with a mountain of tasks. All frozen together into this massive ice-mountain.

I stare at it and am so totally immobilized, because at that point, it's hard to even see the individual tasks. It's just this amorphous blob of "stuff to do".

I can't be the only person who does this. And it annoys the heck out of me.

Case in point... I keep our joint finances updated once a week using GnuCash, an Open Source accounting program. It works beautifully.

It takes about 15 minutes a week (give or take) and then a longer spell at the end of the month when I transfer totals into a spreadsheet and produce our monthly financial report.

I know that if I don't do the weekly updates... and push them too far into the future... it's going to get messy, very fast. If I'm trying to catch up on 4 weeks of finances... ugh... it's a massive snow blob! And it takes me hours as I stare at receipts trying to figure out what those cryptic product descriptions are. "What the heck did I buy at Home Depot that day?" In a normal household, this wouldn't be a big deal but since we run a business... I need to know what I bought to see if it's a business expense!

And then there are my personal finances. I might enter my credit card purchases and keep the bank account info up to date every couple of weeks... but... I don't transfer all of that info into my personal financial spreadsheet. Ugh. It's probably all of 2022 that needs to be processed. It's tedious. It's a huge pile of snow-ploughed small tasks. And... I just keep turning away from it... until it's March and tax time is looming.

The thing is... it's easy to hop over the little tasks in life... all of those individual tasks are so small that I can say... "I'll do that later... next week, next month". But I never do. And then I'm facing tax time and... I need to know what I spent last year on various things like website hosting, book purchases, research costs, etc... all of which are tax deductions. Sooo... this is where the pedal hits the metal. I knew this time was coming and I pushed all of those tasks off... and now they have come home to roost.

Our joint finances are usually in great shape for pulling out info for our tax accountant. Yay me!

Personal finances... not such great shape. I've done this repeatedly. Every time, I get annoyed with "Past Me" who didn't do the small steps that would make "Future Me" happy. Nope. And it seems like I forget this lesson. Once tax time is done... I slack off again. It's November and... guess what... my personal finances haven't been updated since... March...

So here's my thought... when I do those monthly financial reports for our joint accounts... I will take 30 min and do my personal financial report as well - transfer all of that monthly info into my spreadsheet. I'm already on a roll from the joint report... so it won't take as much effort... will it?

It's true that regular maintenance takes less time than trying to catch upon several weeks worth of stuff. It takes less work to clean the stove after every meal than to let stuff accumulate there and then you're scrubbing and grumbling and... you get the picture. Same with shoveling the driveway - it takes way less effort to shovel a few inches of snow every couple of hours than to wait until there's a foot of snow on the driveway. Ugh.

Regular maintenance does take some commitment. I'm not sure why this particular task of personal finances is so hard for me. Perhaps it seems less important than the joint finances? Perhaps I don't want to know how much I've spent at Starbucks every month? I'm a little gloomy that it's November and nothing has changed. Although... if I caught up now, that would be better than trying to catch up in March! Right? Right!

Small regular steps... that's the key... you'd think I would have learned and absorbed this by now!

Why is it so hard to "Just Start"??

I am a Master Procrastinator. There are so many tasks that I procrastinate on. "I'll do it later." Later might be in a few hours, a few days or even a few months and... dare I say it... a few years! But whyyyyy???!!!!

When I look at these tasks... the common denominator seems to be uncertainty which makes me uncomfortable. Maybe I'm not sure how to do it. Or I need to phone someone (I hate talking to people on the phone). Maybe I need more information... or think I need more information. Sometimes I just don't "feel" like it and will choose something "easier". Because some tasks are just "hard"... or rather... I think they are hard - which is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash

Although some tasks are genuinely hard and unpleasant... like phoning the telephone company (for the xth time to tell them they are still (still!!) overcharging us by $10/month. Or at least... I think it will be hard and unpleasant based on my experience of the previous x number of calls that have been hard and unpleasant... and long!

But I digress...

Could Four Simple Questions really put an end to my Procrastination?

I'll do it later.

Man, if I had a loonie, or even a quarter, for every time that phrase passed my lips, I'd be set for life!

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the pandemic. Maybe it's middle-age. Maybe it's the alignment of the planets. But procrastination has been rearing its ugly head with a vengeance. Sometimes it's as simple as "I don't feel like it right now. Maybe later." There's really no rhyme or reason to it and it happens with big things and with little things. I know that some things will only take a minute or two and yet... I still default to "I'll do it later."

I'm always on the hunt for an antidote to this procrastination; reading news articles and blogs to see if there is something, anything, that can make me procrastination-proof. I came across a BBC article from late last year which touted Four Keys that could help me Unlock Procrastination. Excellent! Fire away.

Sooo... the gist of the article centres on the idea of asking yourself four simple questions when you find yourself sliding down the slippery slope of procrastination:

1. How could someone successful complete the goal?
2. How would you feel if you don't do the required task?
3. What is the next immediate step you need to do?
4. If you could do one thing to achieve the goal on time, what would it be?
   

I think I'm going to have to print out these questions at some point... no wait... right now! ... OK, I'm back, that took like a minute to copy and paste into a Word doc and fill a page with five sets of the questions. I'm going to tape them to various strategic locations in the house. The bathroom mirror seems like a good place given that the sink and toilet need ongoing cleaning... and showering has become a less than daily ritual. On my office desk is another good place and on my computer monitor, because not filing papers or replying to emails immediately is a pet procrastination peeve. Maybe one in the kitchen by the patio door too, for encouraging a myriad of outdoor tasks. And one by the front door to encourage me to climb Beast Hill in the morning!

Will these four questions make a difference? Well, I already like the first question. How could someone successful complete the goal? For exercise and general fitness, I only have to think about our sports medicine guy who is an avid runner and super lean and trim. He's definitely successful in the fitness/health category. I know what he would do... he'd go up Beast Hill in the mornings, come rain or snow. I know the question says "how could someone" as opposed to "how would someone" but I'll try it this way and see where it gets me.

The second question... How would you feel if you don't do the required task?... hmmm... I know how I feel when I don't do the task... it niggles at me and sucks up brain space. I think about it at various odd moments during the day and feel guilty. Yucky feeling.

The third question could be helpful too... What is the next immediate step you need to do? When I'm standing, brushing my teeth, looking at the bathroom sink which could really use a quick wipe, I always think, "I'll do it later". Because I'll have more time later? Or I think cleaning the sink is going to take too long? Argh. But... ask the question... what is the next immediate step that I need to do? Just get out the rag from under the sink... and then the spray bottle of cleaner.. and a scrappy old tooth brush to clean around the drain. I'm sure I could give the sink and counter a quick once-over in just a couple of minutes. So focusing on the next immediate step might be just the ticket.

As for the fourth question... If you could do one thing to achieve the goal on time, what would it be?... I think the answer to that will usually be "Just get started! On something! Anything!" But... who knows, as I work with this, other things may appear.

Right then, I'm taking my printed sheet, cutting it up into strips and taping these around the house... I'll report back in a few weeks if this has made any difference to my procrastination.

Photo by Brett Jordan from Pexels