About a month ago I committed to doing one small thing a day. I started by writing a list of about three dozen things that can be done in fifteen minutes or less. Then I set to work making sure at least one thing from the list is checked off every day. The list has been added to and a few listed projects have been completed as well.

It isn’t really about the list. It’s about what it stands for.

One day my small thing was researching the kind of screw needed to fix the oven door and then ordering it. A week later, the project was using that screw to secure the oven door. Another day I tidied the bathroom drawers and another time I cleaned out the fridge. Last night I finally replaced the screen protector on my phone. The old one got scratched one day earlier this year because I carried my phone in the same pocket as a couple of rocks. This is so me, by the way – both the rocks and the living with it.

Procrastination – thou art my enemy.

Except I don’t think I’m really a procrastinator. Sometimes I’m paralyzed with indecision. Sometimes I get taken down by good old fashioned complacency. The oven door comes to mind.

However, I notice my life sometimes taking the turn toward the busy. It seems like I’m always busy but am not always productive.

Read that again.

Busy and productive are not the same things.

I know people who are busy running every which way, busy sitting in meetings, busy moving things from one place to another and busy dealing with an avalanche of emails but they have nothing to show for their efforts. It’s like rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.

It’s exhausting too.

If I said I was going to choose a day to clean out all the storage in my bathroom and give everything a good scrub, I would never tackle that project. It sounds like too much. By breaking it down into bite sized pieces, I’m able to point to something and say “I did that.”

One day it was the drawers, another day it was under the sink, someday soon it will be the linen closet. Before you know it, everything will be done.

Productivity feels awfully good.

It feels good enough that I would like to employ a similar system at work after I move through a handful of projects in the next three weeks. I could use a lot more productivity and far less busyness in my days.

Want to read more about my One Small Thing project? Click here!