[This is a 47hats Tip.]
At the end of every day, I have a little ritual I perform I’d like to commend to you: Clear your work area of absolutely everything that shouldn’t be there.
Rituals are as old and varied as humankind – or put another way, they are proven design patterns with predictable, repeatable results. There are large rituals like weddings and funerals that define new relationships or help a family – or a nation – get on with life. Then there’s tiny, small, micro rituals that help making running a one person business bearable.
I clear my desk at end of the day, arrange what few things I use constantly – my productivity timer, my iPod, my stress ball, Feline Control Device (laser toy) just so, and throw away, file away, put away or shelve away all the paper, tech dvds, notes, books, and other stuff that has accumulated during the course of the day.
No, I don’t chant aloud, or light incense or do it every single day. But the days I do conclude the day this way feel better, and the day that follows tends to be very, very productive.
What do I get of this little ritual?
- A sense that for good or ill, the day is complete. The race has be run, the battle done. Completing today means I can go on and start a new day tomorrow.
- A feeling that I’ve reset. Maybe I was in a lousy, unproductive mood today – well that’s done and tomorrow is a new day with a clean desk.
- A cleared physical space leads to a clear mental space. Yes, I put away a project even when it’s the second one I’m going to do the very next morning because the act of putting the project away naturally sorts out what the Next Action for it should be. (My first project tends to be writing – and Leo got it right when he talks about Creating a Morning Writing Ritual over at FreelanceSwitch.
- Reorientation. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but today, now, I’ve taken a bearing and know where I want to go tomorrow.
- An end to the workday. There is work and there is not work, even if it’s in the same room, day after day, month after month. This is the ritual where I leave work for the day. The only person who never not works is a slave, not a business owner.
What little rituals help you get things done at your microISV?
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{ 3 comments }
Every night I try to add 2-4 tasks to a 3×5 card of what I want to do the next day. This way, I can see the most important tasks to do in the morning and dig right into them.
The idea came from “The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity” at
http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid.html
Where did you get that desk? That’s a nice desk!
Ikea – great stuff, but plan on spending 3 hrs per piece assembling them.
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