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Blogging from A to Z: Reflection

5/4/2015

Part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge tradition is to write a “reflection” about the April experience. Participants can post a reflection on their blogs any time this week.

Reflection

Having survived last year’s challenge, this year I wrote all my posts ahead of time. What I lost in flexibility, I gained in peace of mind and preparedness. I don’t think I would have finished otherwise.

One of the nicest parts of the challenge is visiting other blogs and corresponding with other bloggers. I tried to be more organized this year in my approach to this, but I still didn’t have enough time to visit as many blogs as I wanted.

One thing I wished for: after the theme reveal, I would have liked a list of participating blogs along with their themes. Seeing the themes upfront would help me choose some of the other blogs to visit.

I helped with A to Z this year by being a minion on C. Lee McKenzie’s “Muffin Commando Squad.” It made me appreciate how much effort goes into running the A to Z Challenge, but it also added to the time I spent on A to Z this month. (A shout-out to my fellow muffins Carrie Butler, Patricia Lynne, Tyrean Martinson, Donna McDine, Tammy Theriault and Tara Tyler.)

I really enjoyed researching and writing about my productivity theme. If you’d like to read my A to Z productivity-themed blog posts, here they are. (I also gathered them on a Pinterest board.)

A is for Analyze: How Do You Spend Your Time?
B is for Beginning: Wisdom from Newton, Hemingway, and Others about the Power of Getting Started
C is for Ciotti: Interview with Sparring Mind's Gregory Ciotti
D is for Digital Procrastination and the Illusion of Productivity
E is for Exercise
F is for Focus and Flow
G is for Getting Things Done
H is for How to Procrastinate
I is for Important Things First: Prioritizing Tasks
J is for Julie: A Calendar Trick from Author Julie Lindsey
K is for Killing Time: An Unscientific List of the Best 5 Ways
L is for Lifehacks and Links
M is for Myths about Productivity
N is for "No"
O is for Open Loops (Unfinished Business)
P is for Pomodoro Technique
Q is for Quit Bad Habits
R is for Routines and Rituals
S is for Sleep
T is for Technology Tools
U is for Unclutter: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
V is for Vanderkam: Interview with Productivity Author Laura Vanderkam
W is for Will Power (Which Isn't Enough)
X is for Xeriscape
Y is for Yours Truly: Productivity Advice from Yvonne
Z is for Zig Ziglar Quote

What were the best parts of the challenge for you? Will you participate in the challenge next year? Share a link to your own reflections in the comments if you’d like.

Z is for Zig Ziglar Quote

4/30/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Hooray for Z! I've enjoyed providing this alphabetical guide of productivity strategies and techniques. I hope you found the blog posts helpful. I'm creating a Pinterest board of all the A to Z posts here.

In case you missed my W is for Will Power post, be sure to read about another Z idea, the Zeigarnik Effect.

In May, I will (slowly) get back to my regular schedule, blogging for teen writers on Teen Tuesday and writers of all ages with the Friday Five.

I'll end this challenge with a quote from "Zig" Ziglar (Hilary Hinton Ziglar), a motivational speaker:

Make the most of your time!

I love motivational quotes. Please share your own favorites in the comments.

Y is for Yours Truly: Productivity Advice from Yvonne

4/29/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

I've really enjoyed reading books, researching articles, and interviewing experts for these productivity-themed blog posts. Since the end of the alphabet is near, I'd like to share a few bits of my own advice.

Keep an accomplishments list.

To-do lists keep track of what needs to get done. But to balance that, it's helpful to keep a list of major items that have been completed. For example, when my novel was about to launch, the days were filled with activity, yet at the end of the week I couldn't always remember what I was so busy doing. I started tracking my accomplishments each month and the habit stuck. Over time, these monthly lists can be a boost to morale--look at everything that is getting taken care of!

Group difficult tasks together.

Reduce grumpiness!

One thing I dread doing is calling or emailing people to ask for interviews. I have to psyche myself up to do this. If I have three requests to make, I could do one a day for three different days, or I can group them together and just "ruin" one morning. This is a very specific example, but I think you can see what I mean. If certain tasks make you grumpy, group them together and do them all at one time. Then you can be cheerfully efficient the rest of the week.

Keep a kindness list.

So many people have done kind things for me during my writing and publication journey that I decided to jot them down. It's a simple list with a name and a few words that remind me of the niceness in the world. An author takes the time to blurb my book. A teen reader emails me about how much he enjoyed Pandemic. A friend tells me about an upcoming book festival I can apply to. Is there a scientific link to productivity and tracking these kindnesses? I have no idea. But it creates happiness and that has to be a good thing!

Do you have any favorite or unique approaches to productivity?

X is for Xeriscape

4/28/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

X is my favorite letter of the A to Z Challenge, because it really forces creative thinking. I scoured the X section of my dictionary, looking for something related to productivity. . . and so I give you Xeriscape!

Not my yard

According to the New Oxford-American Dictionary, xeriscape is a "style of landscape design requiring little or no irrigation or other maintenance, used in arid regions."

To relate this to productivity, let's focus on the "little or no other maintenance" part. If you've been reading my other blog posts, there are a lot of ideas about improving productivity. But at the end of the day (and the challenge!) the idea is not to worry about how much you're getting done, but to set up habits that work and require little maintenance.

For example, maybe you'll use the Pomodoro technique whenever you have a large task that needs broken down into concentrated times of focus. Maybe you've set up a ritual to help trigger success and reduce transition time when you start a new project. You can add in Julie Lindsey's calendar trick for whenever you have an especially busy week. And you can practice closing "open loops" to reduce mental clutter.

However you combine these ideas, create a Productivity Xeriscape with the "little maintenance" concept in mind. Spend your time doing real work, not managing your productivity.

If you've written an X post for the A to Z challenge, include your link below. (Last year I used Xenocryst for my Writing Inspiration theme.) Or share your favorite "X" word, but nothing X-rated, please!

W is for Will Power (Which Isn't Enough)

4/27/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

In just over three minutes, the short video (below) manages to inspire and educate us about productivity. It helps explain why will power is not enough to reach our goals, because "some studies suggest that will power is an exhaustible source that can be entirely used up." Instead of relying on will power to improve productivity, a few other simple methods are offered.

I love the concept of the Zeigarnik Effect and almost saved it for my "Z" post. In case you didn't watch the video, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines this effect as "the psychological tendency to remember an uncompleted task rather than a completed one." This makes intuitive sense to me, because I find that unfinished items tend to rattle around in my brain, clamoring to either be completed or written on my to-do list.

Does the Zeigarnik Effect (or another concept from the video) resonate with you?

V is for Vanderkam: Interview with Productivity Author Laura Vanderkam

4/25/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Laura Vanderkam is the author of some of my favorite productivity-related books, including What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast and 168 Hours. I was thrilled that she made time for an interview to be shared on my blog. Here's what Vanderkam had to say when I asked if she had any life-changing advice, and what tips she could offer people who work in creative fields.

Advice from Laura Vanderkam

Keep track of your time for a week. Many of us think we know where our time goes, and we may even have a pretty good handle on this with work, but the rest of the 168 hours that make up the week can be quite surprising. I’ve done this exercise multiple times over the years and I learn something new every time. If you want to spend your time better, you need to know how you’re spending it now. So get a notebook, or download a time-tracking spreadsheet, or get a time tracking app, and record what you’re doing, as often as you remember, in as much detail as you think will be helpful. You can start whenever. Monday morning is good. Wednesday at 2 a.m. is fine as well, as long as you keep going for 7 straight days. And remember, there are no typical weeks. Labeling weeks as “typical” and “atypical” contributes to faulty impressions of our lives.

Kept your time log? Great. Here’s how to use this knowledge to be more productive.

First, one of the upsides of self-employment is having control over your time. So use it! Figure out when you work best, and protect this time for your most important work. For many of us, we’re most productive in the mornings after that first cup of coffee, but if you do your best work late at night, that’s fine. Just make sure you figure out what work requires your most intense concentration, and schedule this work during these peak blocks. Schedule phone calls, meetings, and marketing work at other times.

Make sure to work enough. We can all be more efficient. We should be more efficient! But creative work, like all work, takes time to execute. Make sure you’re scheduling enough time for it, and not getting distracted by other things, just because your work might be flexible.

That said, don’t view creative work as all-consuming, either. I always laugh at those lines in book acknowledgments when the author laments all his missed dinners. If you’re chronically missing dinner to complete your projects, don’t blame the artistic life. You’re better off looking at your own time management instead. Don’t wait for the muse to strike. The muse can be trained to strike between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. if you’re disciplined. The muse can then disappear for a few hours while you hang out with your family, and revisit after the kids go to bed.

Thank you for taking the time to share your advice with us! I like the idea of scheduling work time during peak periods. Blog readers, let us know in the comments if you've tracked your time yet or if this type of scheduling is something you do.

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. She's also the author of a novel, The Cortlandt Boys. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and four children, and blogs at www.lauravanderkam.com.

U is for Unclutter: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

4/24/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Confession: I'm happier and more productive when my house is neat. I've been known to completely organize closets in between major creative projects. I love to read books and magazine articles about organization, even if I already know many of the techniques.

Because of this, I was excited to find a new book which offers a somewhat different approach to organization: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.

Kondo says, "Sort by category, in the correct order, and keep only those things that inspire joy. Do this thoroughly and quickly, all in one go." (Caveat: "one go" can last several months if tackling a whole house. ) This is very different from techniques that suggest getting rid of one item (or one garbage bag) a day, or the fifteen-minutes-at-a-time strategy.

I also like her criterion of keeping what inspires joy. It seems like an interesting way to decide about saving things, instead of "have I worn it in the last two years?" I'm not sure about folding socks instead of rolling them, or emptying my purse completely each night as she suggests, and I definitely need my uninspiring tax-related documents. But organizing by category makes sense to me. For example, she recommends organizing all the books in the house at one time, instead of by room, because otherwise you don't have a complete sense of what you own. She also suggests touching each book, instead of letting your eyes skim the shelves. I haven't tried this yet but can see how it would lead to getting rid of more because you have to carefully consider each one.

Having less clutter can make it easier to find items, but it can also be transforming because Kondo believes "being surrounded by things that spark joy makes you happy."

Have you ever done a purge by category or do prefer to do it by room? What items inspire joy for you?

T is for Technology Tools

4/23/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

My productivity theme continues!

Here are some free technology tools that might help you be productive and organized. You can pay to upgrade some of these, but the free versions seem pretty effective.

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is an app to create and track items on your to-do lists, grocery lists, etc. It can run on your phone and your computer, which I like, because you can update lists wherever you are and keep them in sync.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck allows Twitter users to set up columns to read tweets from certain groups of people separately. For example, you can follow agents and editors in one column, friends in another, and the #AtoZChallenge hashtag in a third. It's an easier way to read through streams of data than paging through hundreds of sequential tweets. (Hootsuite is a similar tool.)

Talkwalker

One productive way to research is to have search results sent to you automatically. Many people are familiar with Google Alerts, but I like using the free version of Talkwalker, too, because it often provides different results. When I was writing Pandemic, for example, I had alerts set for "emerging infectious diseases" and "avian influenza." You can receive alerts on any topic of interest.

Evernote

I just started using the free version of Evernote after a technology glitch in AOL caused most of my 17+ years of favorite places to disappear. (The ones that were left would randomly reorder themselves each time I logged on. Maddening.) Evernote has a lot of functionality, but for now I've been using it to save blog posts and article about say, productivity, and keep them organized.

I'm sure there are other helpful free programs out there -- please share your favorites! Have you survived any technology glitches recently?

S is for Sleep

4/22/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

I'm blogging from A to Z this month about productivity.

Sleep might seem like an odd topic for a productivity theme. But two of Gregory Ciotti's productivity tips from my "C" post--manage health and manage energy--both relate to sleep.

How much sleep each individual needs can vary. There is no magic number, according to SleepFoundation.org. "While you may be at your absolute best sleeping seven hours a night, someone else may clearly need nine hours to have a happy, productive life." And a February 2015 article at LiveScience.com says that ". . . although the NSF [National Sleep Foundation] recommends that adults ages 26 to 64 sleep 7 to 9 hours, it may be appropriate for some people to sleep for as little as 6 hours, or as long as 10 hours, the guidelines say." (See Infographic below.)

Sleep like a baby?

According to 5 Things You Should Know About Sleep Health and the Workplace, sleep deprivation affects not only productivity, but creativity as well. "Lack of sleep affects the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the area that controls innovation, self-control and creativity. A 1999 study found that just 24 hours of sleep loss impairs innovative thinking and flexible decision-making."

If you don't get enough sleep at night, naps can help bridge the gap. (See my previous post, How To Procrastinate.) Either way, being well-rested can help you do your best work.

How many hours of sleep do you need to feel rested? Do you regularly sleep that amount of time?

Source:LiveScience

R is for Routines and Rituals

4/21/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Routines and rituals are a great way to trigger our brain that it's time for a certain task. We can use our habits to set ourselves up for success.

James Clear says, "The power of a ritual . . . is that it provides a mindless way to initiate your behavior. It makes starting your habits easier and that means following through on a consistent basis is easier."

Here's an example: as a writer, I spend lots of time imagining, creating, and revising. But there comes a point in every project when I need to proofread what I've written, word by word, comma by comma. I always proofread in a separate place from where I write. When I sit in that room with my printed manuscript, it's like my brain knows: It's time for focused, meticulous reading! I don't need to spend time transitioning to this task or gearing up for it. The ritual does that for me.

It's time to make a routine!

When establishing a new routine, Clear says that "the key to any good ritual is that it removes the need to make a decision: What should I do first? When should I do this? How should I do this? Most people never get moving because they can’t decide how to get started. Having a ritual takes that burden off your shoulders." (By the way, Clear has lots of useful information on his site, including two short books you can download for free.)

Do you have routines or rituals that make you more productive? Please share!

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Blogging from A to Z: Reflection

Reflection

Z is for Zig Ziglar Quote

Y is for Yours Truly: Productivity Advice from Yvonne

Keep an accomplishments list.

Group difficult tasks together.

Keep a kindness list.

X is for Xeriscape

W is for Will Power (Which Isn't Enough)

V is for Vanderkam: Interview with Productivity Author Laura Vanderkam

Advice from Laura Vanderkam

U is for Unclutter: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

T is for Technology Tools

S is for Sleep

R is for Routines and Rituals

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