HOW TO INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY.

Here's a 5-step process:
1. Write down EVERYTHING that’s on your mind on one piece of paper (use more than one piece of paper if you need to).
2. Create three columns on a second piece of paper, and label them:“to be done," “maybe later," and “delete." Sort all the items on the first piece of paper into the three columns on the second piece of paper.
3. Take each item on the “delete” list, send it off into space, and tell it never to return (with a corny little ceremony if that helps).
4. Take the items from the “maybe later” column and put them on your “maybe later” list. (If you don’t keep a “maybe later” list, start one).
5. Take the items from the “to be done” column and put them into your planning system. (If you don’t have a planning system, then get one).
And when I say "EVERYTHING" in step one. I mean it. Not just everything you have to do, but every thing that's on your mind, including:
• unfinished tasks
• trips you want to take
• people with whom you should touch base
• skills you want to develop
• subjects you want to learn
• areas of your life in which you feel inadequate (such as your physical appearance, your knowledge, or your skills)
• regrets about past choices
• daydreams about what you would do differently if you could re-wind the clock and start over again
• ways you feel trapped in your life
• interpersonal conflict issues
• home repair issues
• home renovation ideas
• things you’re dissatisfied with and want to change
• goals other people want you to pursue
• worries about the economy
• worries about loved ones
• habits you want to establish or break (but have had little success with to this point)
• and pretty much anything else that has come to mind at some point over the last few days.
If you do that you should get about 2/3 of the things that were on your mind off your mind completely. And the other 1/3 will be in your planning system, ready to work on.