How Productivity Pro Laura Vanderkam Does It All
If you’re a productivity wisdom seeker like me — you’ve probably heard of Laura Vanderkam at some point. I’ve followed her for years and recently read her e-book What the Most Productive People Do Before Breakfast and wrote about it.
She’s written several other time-management and productivity books, including the forthcoming I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make The Most Of Their Time (Portfolio, June 9, 2015.)
She was kind enough to post a guest article I wrote for her audience on her own site LauraVanderkam.com about how to create the ultimate to-do list.
But I wanted to know more about her and highlight her as one of my featured List Producers!
Why do you call yourself a compulsive list producer?
I don’t know if I’m compulsive, but I do like my lists! I find lists to be a simple way to organize my thoughts and remember things that I would otherwise forget. That in turn makes life much smoother. With two working parents and four kids, there are a lot of moving parts around here.
What do you make lists about?
Priorities and goals, and then practical matters like what I’m supposed to get at the grocery store. Read more
Why You’re Not More Productive and How to Fix it
Here’s something that might surprise you — all this productivity stuff doesn’t always come so easily to me. I’ve shared this at several of the signings for my book Listful Thinking and people have really been shocked.
The truth is I’m actually a big procrastinator.
I know that working in television under really strict deadlines, with serious time constraints has helped to pull me out of my procrastinator ways. The same rules for productivity applies for many businesses too, as well as personal goals.
I use systems all the time like list making, rewarding myself and making fake deadlines to get more accomplished.
That’s how this blog got started but I want you all to know that I work at it every single day.
Yes I do have an advantage because I like to organize shirts by color and write my to-do list on beautiful stationery. But I have to work at maintaining my lists, keeping my schedule in check and being more efficient with my free time.
I think it’s important to share our productivity struggles as well as our successes. Too often when I speak with people who are struggling they feel like they are the only one.
If this rings true with you — remember you’re not alone!
In fact, the more people I talk to, the more I realize how similar our stories are.
The same phrases always seem to come up:
“I’m too busy.”
“I don’t have time.”
“It’s too difficult.”
I’m Grateful for You…
It’s been just about four years since I started writing this blog. My goal has been to help you become more productive and learn to use lists to get more out of your lives. It may sound a bit simple, but when you write to tell me how much this blog or my book, Listful Thinking, helps you personally — I value it so much.
I’ve written about keeping a gratitude journal in the past. It’s something I really believe in. The act of writing a list of all that I’m thankful for can boost my mood and make me happier. So I’m taking this opportunity to let you all know that you’ve been on my gratitude list for quite some time. Thank you to the regular readers of this blog for all the help and support you’ve given me over the years.
Below are a few of the delightful messages I’ve received recently:
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