How COVID Helped Me Become More Productive

It all came to a head when I had my first bout with COVID. I have no idea why the virus decided to show up after avoiding me for four years, but it had finally infected me! There is never a good time to feel under the weather, but I was in the middle of trying to get unburied from a massive to-do list, and the sickness put me even farther behind. Although I felt awful, I picked up a book on productivity, The Twelve-Week Year, which spurred me on to another book, Organizing Tomorrow Today, and then finally I read, the Steven Covey classic, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I had been feeling like I was running in butter and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get on top of my ever-growing to-do list. I needed a reset and COVID was the very thing that got my attention to start making changes. I enjoyed all the books and the knowledge I gained, and I want to share four steps I started applying to my life, that helped me crawl out of the hole I was in.

1. Find your priorities
Be discerning to find out what is the very best for your goals. Philippians 1:10 says, "So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ."
Identify goals for your roles. What would your roles in life need to look like for the Lord to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Like it states in Matthew 25:23.
Prioritize your economic engine. Proverbs 24:27 states, "Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house."
Choose no more than three goals to accomplish, and then identify the most important activities you need to do to accomplish those goals.

2. Schedule your priorities
Ephesians 5:16 says, "Making the most of your time, because the days are evil." It's not just how much you can cram in your day and cross off your to-do list, it's making the most of your time and doing that which is the utmost priority. Remember the adage, we must never allow those things that matter least to get in the way of the things that matter most. To be most affective with your time, schedule your priorities weekly. Once you schedule for the week, you can then adjust daily. Every day by noon, schedule your three most important things you need to do for the next day. Don’t prioritize your schedule until you have scheduled your priorities.

3. Keep Score
You can only control your actions. Keep track of the actions you have scheduled for the week. You can't control if the prospect will buy, or if a prospect will set an appointment or even if a prospect says "no." You can only control your actions and your attitude. Know your Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) and keep score on whether you complete your actions. Research shows that if you complete 85% of your scheduled actions for the week, you will exceed your goals. This gives great hope to B students like me.
(Reference Proverbs 27:23)

4. Meet with someone to share your priorities/goals
Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Proverbs 17:17 states, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." In a 2005 Fast Company article, entitled "Change or Die," patients who were given a severe health diagnosis that required a lifestyle change, 90% of patients reverted to an unhealthy lifestyle in 12 months. However, there was a group where 80% of patients who attended a peer support group, were able to continue maintaining their new healthy lifestyle, compared to the 10% who tried to do it on their own. Finding someone to share your goals and score will help you to be successful. Spend just 15 minutes going over where you are, where you want to be and the progress you're making to get there.

Find your priorities/goals, schedule the priorities, keep score of your priorities, share your priorities and remember…
God will do His part.
You must do your part.
God won't do your part.
And you can't do His part.