Hey, it’s Nancy and welcome to my channel.  Today, I am reviewing “The Productivity Planner” by Intelligent Change.  Intelligent Change creates products to help you reach your potential and live a happier more meaningful life. As the name suggests, the Productivity Planner helps you achieve your most important goal for the day. This is just one of many products that they have created.  The Productivity Planner is a companion to “The 5 Minute Journal” which helps bring gratitude into your life.  I have been using both books for the last few weeks and wanted to share with you, my thoughts.  So, be sure to stay till the end of the video.

Productivity Planner Quick Guide

The planner is made up of seven parts.   Now, let’s check out these parts.

Quote of the Day

You start your day with an inspirational quote to help you seize your day.  I used to not even read the quotes as I was so focused on getting to the next step.  Don’t make my same mistake.  After I started to read the quotes, it helped put my mind into a creative mood.

By the way, if you struggle with being positive you should get the “5 Minute Journal”.  I guarantee if you try it for one week you will absolutely have more positive days.  It helped me stay positive even when things did not go the way I thought they should.  For instance, our Internet was down three times on three separate days while I was working on this week’s video.  This makes it extremely difficult to edit videos!  So, I used the time to write another blog article.  It normally would have put me in a bad mood for the whole day, but I did not let if affect me that way.  If you are interested, I recently did a video on the 5 Minute Journal which you can check out in the video’s description for a link to that video!

Most Important Task of the Day

The next segment is your Most Important Task of the Day. This is the one task that will create the most important results that you are wanting.  Your important tasks are things contribute to your long-term goals.  Remember:  Your most important task is the one task that makes you uncomfortable and susceptible to the dreaded state of procrastination!

Here is my Most Important Task of the Day

• Edit the 5 Minute Journal Video.

Secondary Tasks of Importance

Now that you have listed the one task that must get done today, it is time to list the secondary tasks that must also get done.  These are the tasks that also must be completed but are not as important as the most important task.  Think of them as tasks that if completed would make your day even better!

For example, I have a secondary task today to do the following:

• Book Hotel Room for Nephew’s Wedding
• Respond to Client’s Request

Additional Tasks

Next, we will list any additional tasks.  These are tasks that you want to get done but are not as important as the most important task and additional tasks.  For example, I have the following additional tasks:

• Respond to emails
• Review Social Media Posts

Notes

The Fifth Section has a space for notes.  This is a great place to write down any ideas, notes, observations, or reminders.  Perhaps you want to keep track of something daily. It is an excellent place to jot down a quick note or can be used for anything.

Mood Tracker

Do you know how your mood influences your productivity?  If not, you may want to use section six to track your mood.  Tracking your mood is helpful understand situations, people, and other factors that affect how you feel.  That way you might be able to avoid those situations that trigger your negative mood.

Productivity Score

Lastly, the productivity score section is where you will be honest with yourself.  You can learn your productivity patterns and reflect on what you could have done differently to improve your productivity performance.

Those are the seven sections that you will address daily in your productivity planner.  But wait that is not all.  It also contains a Weekly Planning and Weekly Review Sections.

Weekly Planning

You will use the weekly planning section to plan for success by setting the direction and tone for the week.  You will also determine your highest priorities.

Intention for the Week

You will start planning your week by writing down the direction and tone for your intention.  Your intentions are plans that will keep you on track with living well each week.  Your intentions should lead you to have a better week instead of letting the week determine how it is going to go.

Try to focus on your core values and life goals when setting your intentions.  It is what you intend to accomplish through your actions.    You will start each week with your most important task.

Five Most Important Tasks of the Week

You will write down your five most important tasks to be completed this week.  Now, before I go on you need to know about the Focus Time Technique.  I will link to a video that goes into more detail on this technique in this video’s description.  The Focus Time Technique is where you work on your Most Important Task first.  You break down your Most Important Task into 30-minute segments.  When you work on the Most important task you set a timer for 30 minutes and work on the task.  When your 30 minutes are up you set a five-minute timer and take a break.  Then you start the cycle again.

The key is to break down your Most Important Task into subtasks that can be completed in 30 minutes.  I will be honest, and this is the most difficult part for me.  If you know that a task is going to take less than one Focus Time Session, then add additional tasks to that session.  However, if you know a Most Import Task is going to take multiple 30-minute sessions be sure to break it down into its smallest subtask.

Secondary Task of Importance

The next section is where you will list your top five secondary tasks of importance.   You will write one secondary task for each workday.

Additional Tasks

The next section is writing down your top additional tasks for each day.  Remember not to do these tasks before your Most Important Task.

That is, it.  You have completed your Weekly Planning!  Congratulations.

Summary

Overall, the productivity planner is great for those that need a little help structuring their weeks.  It does help keep you on track.  I have been using both books and found that that work well together except for one thing.   In the 5 Minute Journal it asks what would make today great and I end up putting my Most Important Task in that spot.  I am not sure if anyone else ended up doing that or not.  Please leave me a comment below and let me know your thoughts. The Productivity Planner is a great for those that tend to procrastinate.  It really helped me get me back on track.

I was just using a to-do list and found that it was not as structured as I needed it to be.  It did not let you view your productivity in a global way.  Whereas, just using a to-do list you view each day and can get lost on your long-term goals.  I think that is why I have not been achieving my long-term goals.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.  Also subscribe to the channel and until next week as always be safe.

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