Hi Brooke.

I’m finding this months time work interesting. I think getting things done is a real strength on mine. However I am now writing down time to shop, prepare meals and what I’m going to eat (my goal is weight loss and I’m now only have to 5.5kgs to go)

I have also had two key general insights which are helping more broadly

1/ I don’t always keep commitments to myself. Your advice to expect that we won’t want to do what’s planned when the time comes but to go ahead anyway is great. It definitely means I’m getting more done earlier in the day and week

2/ I also don’t always plan for the most important things to me. II understand and teach staff to use the idea of Big rocks (ie. The most important things) as a way to achieve more. But I do need think about this in the context of my own life.

I also wanted to share a really simple productivity tool I use – the pomodoro technique. It’s name is the Italian word for tomato. Named for a tomato shaped timer. It’s a great tool to keep focus when you’re sitting down working on something. Especially to handle your brains distractions and mine has a lot.

The idea is you choose a task and work on it for 25 mins without stopping. I have a notepad near me and just jot down any idea or thing to remember that pops into my mind. At the end of the 25 mins you take a 5 minute break. And after 4 pomodoros you take a 15 minute break.

I particularly like it if I’m working at home (can’t put washing in dryer or get more coffee until break). There’s some really simple free apps that time the lots.

It’s also great if I’m procrastinating- just do one 25 min to get started. I also use them to set limits if I have organising ‘busy’ work to do or multiple chunks on a project.