Productivity: Putting in Time

It has become clear to me that success is a factor of three things: choosing the right focus, getting lucky with that choice, and putting in the time to make it happen.  The crux of this matter is the follow through of the third step.  The decision making and luck are both quick and fun parts, but putting in time is hard work.

The greatest thing I’ve found about putting time in is that if it happens regularly, it is hard not to succeed.  From playing the piano to learning the latest technology, all that really needs to happen is to allow focused time for these activities.   To ensure that the time does get put in, I’ve come up with a few devices to make it happen.

Schedule a Task

Repeatedly doing something at the same time everyday ensures that time is going to be allowed for the activity.  Scheduling my technical training for 7am every morning gets me up and at it at the same time every day.  Within just a few weeks I can plow through a training program.

Use a Timer

A kitchen timer comes in handy for many areas of productivity: avoiding procrastination, getting over hard tasks, and definitely, putting in time.  When practicing musical instruments, doing push-ups, or even timed study sessions, it puts an arbitrary limit allowing focus for this individual time slot.  With the timer stepping down, I can look at it and say to myself, just another 12 minutes on this, stay focused and it’s done.

Keep a Time Log

Using a time log not only commits actions to paper (albeit digital), it also serves as a good progress meter.  Creating a time log that records the task, the estimated time to completion, and the actual time, gives a good overview of the progress towards the end goal.  Using a spreadsheet can help by automatically adding up time put in and subtracting it from the estimates, displaying the estimated time remaining.  Suddenly mastery of a topic or completion of project becomes obtainable.  Updating my progress every day serves as a reminder of just how far I’m coming along.