My biggest personal frustration is lost productivity, time I waste every day that cannot be gotten back that I did not want to waste on purpose. I am not talking about vacation days or reading a book or taking a walk or playing with the dog here. I am talking about work time when I cannot figure out where the day has gone and I have nothing to show for it. Nothing off my To Do list, no planning for the future, no prospecting, no website redesign, nothing that makes me feel like I did something useful at the end of the day.

Most days I can pound out the action items I plan for myself but sometimes I just cannot figure out where the day goes. I have started keeping a paper day planner for what I work on. Yes, I said paper, but I do like it for some things. Whether it is talking to people, responding to email, reading e-newsletters, lunch, cleaning off my desk, upgrading software, running virus scans, figuring out why my computer blue screened (driver issue) or sending out proposals. Whatever it is I write it down in a little book I carry with me. I do this every few months for a couple of weeks at a time.

What I typically find is that emails and phone calls tend to absorb most of my day that is unplanned time. Necessary, in most cases, but unplanned time nonetheless. That does not mean I can skip the stuff I have planned. In some cases it drops tasks to a lower priority but if I have properly filtered the things I have on my lists they are all things that need to get done. The tough part is that often planned tasks get dropped for days as I am responding to perceived higher need.

Notice I used the word perceived here. Just because it is a new task does not mean it is more urgent, but of course when you answer that phone and a client or teammate needs help we often tend to drop all plans to help out in that moment. Thus it is perceived. Don’t feel bad if you have to say, "Can I get back to that as soon as I finish what I am working on?" Use your judgment. Most times people will understand and say, "Call me back when you can." Or better yet, is it something that can be delegated to some else? I myself have a hard time delegating because it is always "easier" to do it myself.

What I have done to minimize productivity loss is turn off email alerts, sounds and pop-ups on both my droid and my office computer, and I have added a second monitor in the office. This lets me focus on items from my daily plan but have access, when I choose, to my inbox and voicemail logs. I added visual voicemail to my cell phone as well so that I can see who left a voicemail. This lets me triage and listen to critical customer or staff emails first. Or my mom or husband. If I am waiting for a call it is much easier to listen to that voicemail first rather than page through the ten I may get in an hour or so.

At the end of the day I move what did not get done to another day’s list, being careful to triage what had been planned for the new day. The last thing I want to do is overload myself or double-book because then I find I get nothing done due to overwhelm. I also schedule, in my outlook calendar, time for proposals, outbound calls, follow-ups, email, etc whenever I know my day will be crazy. These times are not always set in stone but they do help me see what I need to get done and they pop up reminders so I don’t forget things.

At the end of the day results are what keep us going for the next day. If you have some tips or tricks on improving personal productivity , send them to me at latchison@slpowers.com. The best one will get a prize!