The Best Productivity Technique
I’m a co-founder of the Way North Writers group in Concord, NH. (If you’re in the area and would like to join, please e-mail me at lindaformichelli@gmail.com.) At our monthly meeting last week, life coach Star Dargin gave a great talk about goal setting. As we discussed the topic, one member brought up a productivity tip she had used in the past: Get together a group of friends who are working towards a goal. For one day, every hour the group connects via conference call for five minutes to talk about what they accomplished in the last hour and what they plan to do in the next hour.
I loved this idea, so my goal buddy and I decided to try it out for three hours one day last week. I called my buddy at 1 o’clock; my goal was to finish an article revise, and her goal was to work on her book proposal. At 2, I called to check in; I had finished the revise, and my buddy had written the sample chapter for her proposal. Success!
By the end of the three hours, not only had I done an entire article revise, but I’d also written and sent off a query to a parenting magazine and written five news shorts on assignment for a health magazine. That’s more than I typically get done in a whole day — or maybe two!
I tend to be scattered and do ten minutes of one project here, ten minutes of another project there — with some web surfing or tea making in between. I do manage to get all my work done this way, but it doesn’t feel productive to work in dribs and drabs and is quite stressful. I found that checking in with my goal buddy for five minutes every hour gave me a focus for the next hour — and it was fun to try to beat the clock and get my projects done before the next call.
The experiment was so successful that we’re doing it again — today!
What do you think…would this technique work for you? Do you have any productivity tips you’d like to share? Please post in the Comments section below! [lf]
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Mar 25, 2009 Writing
I think this makes sense and the technique certainly helped me to complete my novel, which was written as part of a postgraduate writing course (so alongside others). Really though, it’s about working to deadlines. In your case, I guess you didn’t want to let your buddy down or be the first to ‘miss’ the goal you set. It’s a really useful way of working if you can get someone else to commit to it with you.
This is basically the proof, that you (we, humans, etc) are just way to indisciplinate to do anything (important, not fun) for ourselves. That is why we need bosses, reverends and so on…
But, to be a sheep is easy, so I’m not complaining…
My closest colleague and I live several states apart so we’ve devised a similar plan: we have a standing Facebook date each week. That way it’s always on both our calendars and we keep it as a priority. We start by IMing each other our “to do” lists & making adjustments. Then we check in each time one of us completes a task. We also check in by phone–probably too often!
I spend each Monday on domestic stuff (groceries, clean, pay the bills, etc.) as well as planning my week for my business. When Tuesday morning rolls around, I know how much time I need to spend on each client (I’m a virtual assistant) and what needs to be done. I also plan an agenda dedicated solely to growing my client base, which includes time for networking on sites like Twitter and Blellow.
I work with a life/career coach and she helps me identify goals, set realistic deadlines, and keeps me motivated when I feel like I’m spinning my wheels.
Cheers!
Amy
What a marvelous idea! I might get my own writer’s group to consider this. Thanks for posting
Thanks for all your comments! We did our buddy day again yesterday and I wrote a pitch, wrote a blog post, and cleared my inbox and did miscellaneous tasks.
Love this idea. I used to have a writing buddy & having a friendly means of accountability made a big difference. He ended up getting a ft job, though, and for a future article I hope you’ll consider how to find writing buddies. We met in a local writing class, the good thing was that we wrote on completely different subjects & so we weren’t competing…
Hi,
What I want to know is where you find a “goal buddy”?
I used to have a virtual assistant and I did find I was much more productive knowing I had to get materials etc. to her by a certain time.
I’d be interesting in pairing with someone for the fall when I really start focusing on my writing.
Lee
Lee, post a message on freelance boards you frequent asking for a goal buddy who’s doing something similar to what you are doing or you want to do. I’ve seen requests like this on Freelance Success (http://www.freelancesuccess.com), which is $99 per year. As for me, I buddied up with a writer I’ve been friends with for years.
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