Happy Sunday! Tomorrow’s the start of a new week, and to celebrate the upcoming launch of my productivity eBook, I wanted to start a new series on my blog. You see, I’ve spent many, many hours of my life reading productivity blogs and books, listening to lectures, etc. But there’s a difference between knowing all of the fabulous productivity advice that’s out there and actually using it. And since I’m trying to get this eBook done and out to you all as soon as possible, I thought, what better way than to do a series where I actually take my own advice and chronicle my progress?

The guide is (for now) separated into nine sections: “Health,” “Workspace,” “Scheduling,” “Prioritizing,” “Starting Your Day,” “Ending Your Day,” “Efficiency,” “Beating Procrastination,” and “Accountability and Inspiration.” For my blog-along experiment, I’ll be picking one item from several categories to test out for the week. It sounds like a lot, but I’ll balance small items in some categories with more significant items in others.

This week’s challenge

Health

I definitely spent last week in a dehydrated haze, so this week I’m going to focus on drinking water — I’ll bring my one-liter water bottle to work and work toward filling it up (and draining it) twice.

Workspace

This is going to be my major challenge for the week. One tip that I’ve been really intrigued by (courtesy of The Minimalists) is the idea of getting rid of WiFi at home. I work at an office, but I do my personal projects (like this blog, my eBook, etc.) elsewhere, so at first this sounds totally crazy. But the idea is not to live without internet — the idea is to force yourself to use the internet mindfully. If you need WiFi, then you have to go somewhere to use it, and you’ll use the time you have with more awareness.

I live with my family, so it’s not like I’m going to unplug the router or anything. What I will do, though, is use the app Freedom to hold me accountable, which blocks access to the internet (or certain sites) for as long as I tell it to. I can also use the app on my phone, though likely what I’ll do for that is just not use internet-requiring apps.

I’m hoping that the result of this is that I won’t spend my morning buried in my Instagram feed and when I open my computer to write, I’ll have to actually write. I’ll let you know!

Scheduling

I’ve done a time journal before, but since the tasks I’m doing now are significantly different now than they were then, I’m going to attempt it again. I’ll be recording what I do every day for the next week in thirty-minute increments so that, at the end of the week, I can see where my time wasters are and when I was most productive. It should also be a good tool for writing a follow-up post at the end of the week!

Prioritizing

Knowing your endgame is vital to prioritizing what’s important — the “why” gives life to the “what.” A great way to do this is to journal about your ideal life, or, as Nerd Fitness puts it, “determining your Level 50.” At some point this week, I’ll post about what the leveled-up version of myself looks like, and I’d love you to do the same!

Starting Your Day

Making your bed seems to be the productivity magic bullet — lots of writers swear by it getting their days off on the right foot. This is a tiny habit I’ll be incorporating this week.

Join me

I’m taking on a lot, and I’m not necessarily advising you to do as many experiments as I am! I just want to give you a decent preview of the eBook (and finish writing it faster!). But if you want to take on any of these experiments alongside me, or just want to tell me about some of your own experiments or strategies, drop me a line! I’d love to hear your story.