checklists | 365daysofmarriage

Hurray for productivity and a whole day to celebrate it! I love learning about productivity and practicing things that lead to a productive life. There are a number of ways that I’m currently trying to increase my productivity and achieve my goals.

First, Bret and I had a pretty long (over several days) conversation about what a successful summer would look like for us. We started the conversation on Saturday, technically before his summer break from teaching started. What this conversation has done is set our expectations for the summer. We talked about our bucket list of things to do. We talked about daily habits we want to practice. We talked about our work goals.

This morning, I’m a little behind schedule because I finally sat down, wrote out my goals and printed them out. I have a new checklist to highlight daily habits. I printed out all my goals in my January letter as well as some monetary goals (i.e. when I hit this dollar amount, I’ll do/buy/etc something else). I printed our summer bucket list and some of the big names I want to meet. This isn’t necessary for this year, but I want to start keeping those goals in front of me daily.

I also tried something new this morning. I want to get back into running and I’m taking a different approach. Previously, it was all about going for a 5k or following a plan. It was just too fast for the overachiever in me. So instead, I’m setting a “run three times a week” goal. I am only running a very short distance and only increasing my mileage when I feel ready. This is a big shift for me because I’m all about big milestones, but the joy is in the consistency. The different thing I did this morning was pre-prep my food before my run. I scooped my leftover takeout into the microwave, put a bottle of water and peaches on the counter, so as soon as I came through the door, I could start the microwave, grab the water, and recover. It made a big difference for sure.

So a big part of being productive is setting yourself up for success, whatever that means for you.

How are you going to be productive today?

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This morning, Bret and I were discussing habits. He’s started a few checklists because he was inspired by my checklists. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve flossed pretty much every day (minus about 3-5 days) for a year. Bret has flossed almost every day since June. We have a “Floss Journey” checklist next to our sink to keep track. He’s started a “habits checklist” that he keeps above his computer. On there, he included flossing. I said, “well, why include that? Isn’t it already a habit? Don’t we track it elsewhere?”

It got us thinking, when can you call something a habit? When is it ok to stop tracking it?

For me, I HAVE to track everything I want to grow in. I can’t stop. Even though I do devotions in the morning, and it’s almost always the first thing I do, I still keep it on my to do list. Even though I am in the habit of blogging every day, I still keep it on my to do list. Ha ha, it helps to have to number of days too!

I think that the things on my morning checklist are finally habits. I am so thankful for that! Writing and working out have been completed since 9/4, but it wasn’t until 9/17 that I added in reading through two books, and working on building my pinterest account. I do feel like those are now habits. So, that’s almost a month.

This weekend, I created two new checklists – an afternoon slump checklist (including things like laugh for 5 minutes, have a dance party, and go for a walk) and an evening winding down checklist (prepping for the next day, doing the dishes, etc). I’m looking forward to seeing how they will increase my productivity and energy throughout the day.

When do you think a habit becomes a habit? When do you think it’s ok to stop tracking something because you’ll do it no matter what? Do you have a video that makes you laugh out loud every time? (I’m building a playlist on YouTube!) Let me know in the comments below!