The Daily Review – Crossing the Finish Line

April 29, 2012 3 Comments

More thoughts on deciding what you want to accomplish before going home from work.

Think about the activity of defining what you want or need to accomplish that day as creating a finish line for the day.  Many people continue to “work” after the workday is over — to check email, answer calls, stress about problems at the office — when really what they should be doing resting, relaxing, and giving their full attention to their family and loved ones.

By doing a Daily Review each day and deciding exactly what you intend to accomplish that day, you are creating a “finishing line” at the end of the workday. Once you cross that imaginary line in the sand, you can put the day behind you and start shifting your attitude, heart, and thoughts towards the next part of your day — whether that’s exercise, recreation, or family time.  Practicing the Daily Review allows you to clarify your thoughts, collect yourself, refresh, refuel, and renew yourself by having a feeling of accomplishment.

Since I have started this practice, I am far less grumpy when I arrive home. I feel more in control, and am more clear about what I have accomplished.  Most importantly, it enables me to “switch off” from work when I’m at home and engage fully with the people I love most.  Crossing your finish line each day is something that not only leaves you feeling satisfied and fulfilled, but motivates you to finish well.

Filed under Daily Review

The Daily Review – How to Feel Great When You Leave Work

April 28, 2012 1 Comment

If you follow GTD and have your trusted system up to date it is easy to leave work every day and feel like you accomplished exactly what you needed to do for that day.  This allows you to drive home and decompress by tuning out and watching TV, reading a book, or whatever activity you like to do to relax and refresh.  The ability to forget all the things you didn’t do that are still on your plate is essential to relieving stress.

Successful task management is really agreement management. At the end of the day, how good you feel about what you did (and what you didn’t do) is proportional to how well you think you kept agreements with yourself.  Did you do what you told yourself to do? What you agreed to do?  Did you accomplish what you think should have been accomplished?  Wasting time only means that you think you should have been doing something other than what you were doing. Sleep is not a waste of time if you think you need it. Taking a walk instead of rewriting your strategic plan is not a waste of time as long as you think taking a walk is the thing to do at that moment. It’s when you wind up not having done that which you’ve agreed with yourself should be done that the trouble begins.

Here is how I do this.  At the beginning of each day I reserve 15 minutes for a “Daily Review” where I look at the calendar for the day to get a sense of what my day looks like.  Then I scan my “Next Actions” notebook in Evernote and decide what I want to accomplish that day and I tag them with “Today.”  Then I filter those items with the Today tag so I only have the items I have decided I want to accomplish that day.  Then during the course of the day I delete them as I accomplish those items.  Once I have completed all the agreements I have with myself I can go home and zone out, refresh, and recharge my batteries for tomorrow.

I believe in outcomes and results not time worked or effort.  Once I have completed all the items on my Today list I can go home feeling good about myself no matter what time that is.  It is a wonderful feeling knowing I accomplished all the agreements I made with myself.

Filed under Best Practices, Daily Review, Next Action

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