#ACTIVITY AUDIT PRO#
#ACTIVITY AUDIT SERIES#

What are the risks or costs associated with this activity?.What is my improvement plan for this activity? How do I get better at it?.What is the ideal pace for this activity (or output or rate of production, if applicable)?.What the ideal amount of time I would spend on this activity each week?.How much time do I spend on this activity each week?.

When during the day or week do I engage in this activity?.What’s my method or system for this activity? What is the approach or regular practice?.

What my mission statement for this activity?.

What is my strategy or game plan for achieving this main objective?.

What’s my main objective in regards to this activity? (Answering this question in seven words or fewer adds an additional challenge.

Why do I do this activity? What are the benefits and potential benefits?.

How does the activity support my life purpose (my best understanding of what I’m trying to contribute to the world in this life)?.

Here are the questions I asked myself in regards to each activity: I still use quotas and have production targets, but I don’t rely on those for motivation. If I’m clear on my purpose and intended direction in life, and how the things I spend my time on fit into that picture, distractions are less of an issue. In the long run, the activity audit was more effective than any other productivity technique I tried, like locking myself out of certain internet sites, or depriving myself of coffee until I’d started writing. It also improved my focus throughout the day (especially my ability to resist distractions), and helped me decide what to do each day, and in what order. Honing on in the what, why, and how for each activity gave me a great deal of clarity.

#ACTIVITY AUDIT SERIES#

After listing all the major activity areas (database/coding work, fiction writing, music production, household/parenting, etc.), I asked myself a series of questions about each activity. I’ve had similar opportunities in the past, and squandered them, losing whole days to video games or trying to read the entire internet. Those of you who are self-employed may be able to relate.Ī few years ago, in response to my own “Where does all the time go?” question, I ran an “activity audit,” a detailed analysis of all the activities in my life that require work/effort. Pretty much my ideal weekday schedule.īut large swaths of unstructured time can be dangerous. In the afternoon I head to the studio and make beats, or work on Loöq Records, or do whatever needs to be done around the house.

#ACTIVITY AUDIT PRO#

It’s fun! I’ve been writing fiction in the mornings (with more optimism these days–I recently had another story accepted for publication at a pro rate, bringing me that much closer to SFWA active membership). For the moment (and as long as I’m comfortable with how much I have in the bank) I can pretend I’m a full-time artiste. That is, working on writing and music as much as I want to, without a heavy load of client work. It’s given me the opportunity to experiment with my ideal schedule. December and January brought more freelance coding and database work than expected, but now I’m in a quiet stretch.

Activity audit