Time can’t be managed. I merely manage activities. Each night, I write down on a sheet of paper a list of the things I have to accomplish the next day. And when I wake up … I do them.  – Earl Nightingale

If you Google ‘managing activities for productivity’ – you will get 115,000,000 results.  115,000,000!

When I started out in my career, I used a physical Daytimer to write down all of my activities, appointments and to do’s.   Typically, I would end up carrying over the actions that I needed to complete (or at least I thought I needed to complete) to the next day or week.  Today you have an abundance of resources on your phone that will track the same.  In fact, I have 3 calendars on my phone – and I am not the only person juggling family and work, some may have even more.

But, does having that many calendars keep me productive?  And – when I mention productive, it is meant to convey activities that are moving you closer to your goal.  Years ago it became popular to look at which ‘quadrant’ your activities were in.  Divided under urgent/not urgent/important or urgent/not urgent/not important.  At least it was causing you to think about how you spent your time during the day.

I think Earl Nightingale had the best understanding of managing activities, and not our time.  To expand a bit more – what activities do you need to do today to move you closer to your goal?  That goal can be professional or personal – but every day requires activities to get you closer.

I am not talking about administrative or operational – while those need to be addressed – it is the actions required TODAY.  Do NOT keep moving them forward (that’s a different topic – procrastination).  Give yourself directives to accomplish these activities and hold yourself accountable; or better yet – get yourself an accountability partner.

You don’t need multiple calendars to show how busy you are, you need a sheet of paper or notes in your phone.  Then the 2 most important steps – write down what needs to get done today – AND – do them! That’s it, nothing fancy, but this will make a huge difference in achieving your goals.