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Don’t Let Work Get In The Way Of … Work

Being productive doesn’t necessarily mean working harder

By Hermes Camacho

I’m a busy guy. Not saying I’m busier — or less so — than you, but that I’m just busy. I teach lecture courses at a liberal arts university 100 miles from my home. I teach and coordinate music classes (orchestra and band) as well as private lessons at an El Sistema program 30 miles from my home. I write content and take the general lead at an edtech startup I co-founded. I’m also (very happily) married and a proud dad to a 5 year-old and 2 year-old. I’ve been asked how I manage to stay sane through everything that I do.

The answer is simple: I don’t.

To do all the things that I do, you can’t be sane. You’ve got to be just a little bit crazy. But I manage my way through it somehow and I love it (that last part has to be true, otherwise it’s time to give something up).


1) THE BASIC RULES

I say “no” more than I’d like to.

The power of “no”. It knows no bounds (see what I did there?). I’ve had to cut a lot of things out so that I can balance work and the things I do and honestly, I’m much better for it. The initial excitement of saying yes to a little extra cash or for a little longer leisure time fades away fast when you realize that you won’t complete everything you meant to do for the day.

I plan meticulously and change quickly (as needed).

Because I’m not in an office throughout the day and have to run between hundreds of square miles of locations, I know that I have to allow my day to be flexible. I carefully plan everything I need to do and want to do and then reorder as things come up. I also don’t try to cram everything into the day and have learned to prioritize. But I DON’T OBSESS. I limit my meticulous planning to 30 minutes.

I put a due date on all my to-dos.

The amount of pre-planning it takes to put a due date on something doesn’t take much time, but the payoff can be (and is almost always).

This helps a lot in order to plan my day by making a conscious decision to complete the task by a particular date. If I can’t hold to it, I’ll move it, but I always put a date on everything. Speaking of which…

I list pretty much everything in the day on my to-do list.

It seems crazy (which I’ve already wholeheartedly admitted I am), but I sometimes will put the most mundane things on my list, and the crazier the day, the more mundane it might be to help things moving along. Lunch? On my list. Getting coffee? ALWAYS on my list. It helps me visualize all the little things I also do throughout the day to a) make me be more aware of how much I do while b) adding a little cathartic and endorphin-ic (that’s not a word) release by crossing off something that was easy but otherwise took some time to complete.

I don’t skip around my to-do list.

I really try to complete tasks in order and/or within the given day. I’ll move things around if I need to, but I won’t skip something assigned for today for something assigned for tomorrow.

Do 2–3 of the really easy things first.

There’s a lot to be had from just getting something done, quickly and easily. Quick credit card bill? Done. A couple of yes/no emails that need a quick response? Do it. Clearing a couple tabs from your browser that just need to moved into a read later pile? Easy-peasy.


2) THE GEAR

I use a simple to-do list.

I use a pretty simple app called Carrot to track my to-dos for the day. It’s basically just a list of tasks that I swipe when completed. It buzzes every time I cross something out, which is cathartic in itself. Did I mention it gets mad at you if you don’t do enough tasks in a day? Yup. That’s fun.

I don’t go overboard with my to-do app.

I’ve tried more complex apps but realized they weren’t for me. I tended to get so bogged down with all the cool features that I spent more time planning and less time doing. The fact that Carrot is so minimal and basic allowed me to keep things simple and focus on just crossing things off the list.

I use Google Calendar, but I’m not obsessive about it.

If I forget to input items for the day on my Google Calendar, I don’t fret. I have a to do list that takes care of most things. When my day is going to be exceptionally busy or I need to plan out the week a little more meticulously — those times are most often when I pull out my calendar. Like I said, works for me.

I always keep a small, Moleskine notebook next to me with a pen.

This has been a great little extra in order to keep me from getting off task. If I come across an idea while I’m working on something, I’ll allow myself a moment to write it down, maybe make a couple notes, but then go right back to the task at hand. Helps me to get that initial feeling of “I’ve got to do this right now” off my chest and then get back to work. Plus since it’s a Moleskine, so it feels more important because it cost three times more than a cheap memo book, which makes me think that it’s worth having around.

I use Instapaper.

This has been a huge help. For anyone else who enjoys the distraction that social media provides, it’s easy to lose valuable minutes — sometimes hours — reading through the latest interesting article (or let’s face it, the string of cat videos we all watch).

It helps keep my tabs clear, but it also prevents me from tumbling down the rabbit hole/clickbait hell (I know, a mixed metaphor, but the slash makes it less annoying, right?). I allow myself to check Facebook, but I don’t read a longer article or anything longer than a quick status or headline, limiting myself to just 3–5 minutes to give my brain a break.


3) UNPLUGGING

I turn everything off most days by dinner time.

Quality family time. This is a must and has been a great way to ensure I get more completed during the day. If my wife works after we put the kids to bed, then I’ll allow myself to sneak in a little extra catch-up or get started on something for the next day, but generally I’m done by 6pm every day.

I turn my brain off.

Do this.

Really.

DO THIS.

If there’s one thing you get from this absurd list, it’s this one. Relax. Enjoy the rest of your day whenever you can. Watch a terrible tv show or just lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling (yes I’ve done this). Better have a productive 8 hours of work in the day than overworking your brain for 12 or 15 (or often times more).

I keep a journal, Doogie Howser style.

Those of you who might be old enough to have seen Doogie Howser or watched reruns (for those of you not old enough, it’s who Barney was before he was Barney on How I Met Your Mother) know that he ended every episode by writing in his computer journal. It wasn’t a review of the day so much as lessons learned, very poetically written (read: cheesy) for television. I do this, sort of. I review the day in abstract, highlighting only positives and constructively writing out improvements, but I never disparage myself in an entry. I also try to think of the lesson(s) I learned in the day and ultimately try to keep the entry to a paragraph or less.

I go to bed at a reasonable hour so that I can get up at a relatively unreasonable one.

I’m in bed by 10/10:30pm and up at 5:45am (a little earlier on days I’m teaching my college lectures). I even go for a run and find a little time to do some quick exercise to get myself going. But getting up early, if even only to slow down the start of the day and find some time to spend a little more waking hours with the family is well worth trading in an extra hour of sleep.


This is certainly an imperfect list. I’ve tried a number of other approaches —  pomodoro, planning a whole week on google calendar, a hierarchy of tasks, Jack Dorsey’s give a day a theme — but this seems to work for me the best. Is it a struggle? ABSOLUTELY. No matter what you do, it still takes discipline to accomplish just the task of task-making. (If you’re wondering if I add “create to-do tasks” to my to-do list, then you haven’t been paying attention.)

Whatever you find works best for you, do the thing that allows you to make “busy” manageable so that it’s a part of your life (because you think the things you do are worth doing) without it taking over your life.