Do you have a Monkey Bucket task list?
Ever thought of playing Transition Roulette at the end of your work day?
My clients and community are creative. Here are a few intriguing ways they have incorporated health and productivity hacks.
After reading the post Automate to Keep Your Willpower Bucket Full, Jarvis Davis created his own Monkey Bucket Task List.
Last month I started creating my task list based off of the monkeys. I create a bucket for each day of the week. The tasks at the top of the list use the smart monkeys while the task at the bottom can be done by not-so-smart monkeys. Every day, I move the monkey to the new bucket corresponding to that day. I'm on week number four and it’s been helpful. Thanks! – Jarvis Davis, Technical Account Manager
After watching my video on Opportunities, Stephanie Scotti, Founder and President of Professionally Speaking, started doing one set of any exercise every time she got up from her desk to leave her office and when she came back in.
Lisa Wood, artist and co-founder of Moss Robot, attended the Work Well. Play More!® Crash Course workshop. She created a color-coded reward system with each color signifying a different repetitive task or a goal, i.e. light green=yoga, red=running or brisk walk, grey=sketching etc. Every time she completes a task or goal, she colors a flower petal and watches her garden grow over the course of the day, week and month. The markers are in the kitchen near her coffee bar so they are visible. She enjoys the coloring and has an added motivation since her husband knows she is doing it and can see her progressing in visual format. Gorgeous!
When I receive an email with an unclear deadline asking for my action, I always respond with, “I’d love to help. When do you need this?” It’s a powerful phrase. If people don’t provide me with a deadline, I put the “to do” in my queue for when it’s convenient for me…which might jeopardize their deadline. Also, just by asking, I’m sending the message that there IS a queue and that they probably shouldn’t bug me again until the deadline is past. I used to just ask about the deadline, but added “I’d love to help” because it sets a positive tone. – Sara Shelp, Controller, Spectralogics
Wendy Gates Corbett, Founder and Presentation Designer of Refresher Training, needed to keep her Priorities and Tasks front and center. Putting them on her desktop makes them visible first thing in the morning, throughout the day and as she shuts down.
Amy Kuist, Director of Project Management at Graphix Solution, takes a break at a coloring table at her co-working space. “A little therapeutic coloring could be just what you need.”
Melissa Kennedy, Founder and Chief Innovator of 48 Innovate works from home and needs a transition to shut off work and turn on personal time. She created Transition Roulette cards. At the end of her workday, she randomly picks a card to choose from and performs that activity. After doing the activity, she can’t go back to work. She has transitioned to Melissa-time.
Helen Moses, Voice and Speech Specialist at Command Communication, held a volunteer position that took up a lot of time and was starting to make her feel resentful. We moved all the tasks and activities related to this position to Saturdays where she would go to a coffee shop and focus on nothing but this project. The coffee shop made it feel like a treat and doing it all together saved her time by batching it and being able to handle things in a streamlined fashion. She moved from dread to looking forward to working on it!
Tatyana Blankenship, Pharmaceutical Project Manager, keeps her business vs busyness in check with a constant reminder in eyesight at her desk. This helps her consider if she is focusing on the u/you (other people) with busyness or if she is focusing on the i and business.
What creative ways do you set yourself up for success to be healthy and productive?
