--- title: "Seven Ways To Make A Little Progress Every Day" id: "1746" type: "post" slug: "seven-ways-to-make-a-little-progress-every-day" published_at: "2010-11-26T16:00:21+00:00" modified_at: "2015-03-13T03:54:38+00:00" url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/seven-ways-to-make-a-little-progress-every-day/" markdown_url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/seven-ways-to-make-a-little-progress-every-day.md" excerpt: "One of my goals for the year is to blog at least once each week. Behind that goal is also the desire to become a better writer. I try to make it the first part of my day by getting......" taxonomy_category: - "Productivity" taxonomy_post_tag: - "getting up early" - "improvement" - "incremental" - "morning" - "progress" - "routine" - "writing" --- [Skip to the content](#site-content) [John Poelstra](https://johnpoelstra.com) ### Bringing order to chaos and clarity to confusion - [One Conversation](https://johnpoelstra.com/) - [Podcast](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/podcast/) - [Coaching for Directors](https://johnpoelstra.com/coach/) - [About](https://johnpoelstra.com/about/) Toggle search field - [One Conversation](https://johnpoelstra.com/) - [Podcast](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/podcast/) - [Coaching for Directors](https://johnpoelstra.com/coach/) - [About](https://johnpoelstra.com/about/) # [Seven Ways To Make A Little Progress Every Day](https://johnpoelstra.com/seven-ways-to-make-a-little-progress-every-day/) One of my [goals for the year](https://johnpoelstra.com/2010/10/04/2010-third-quarter-goals-check-up/) is to blog at least once each week. Behind that goal is also the desire to become a better writer. I try to make it the first part of my day by getting out of bed between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m each day. This gives me anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes of core writing and “accomplishing stuff” before starting the rest of the day. It also increases the likelihood that I will do it. Often a good article takes several sittings to write. To keep things interesting I start new articles as thoughts come to me and then work on them round-robin style until one of them is *done enough*. I also use this time to chip away at side projects and other learning I’m doing. Right now I’m spending a lot of time learning WordPress to move this blog to a self-hosted site. It’s also coming in handy for helping a couple of small businesses use WordPress to start a web presence. Here are some ways to make it happen: **1) Pick your workspace the night before**–preferably separate from your regular work space if you work at home during the day. I suggest rotating between several different spaces, even if they are different chairs in the same room. If it is cold and you don’t want to heat your entire house, a portable heater nearby is an added bonus. **2) Decide the night before what you will do when you wake up–**write two or three achievable tasks or articles down on a small post-it and stick it to one of things you plan to use or study, like a book or notebook computer. Put these things in your designated workspace. **3) Pick your clothes the night before**–nothing fancy, a pair of sweats and a fleece will do. Put them with the things you plan to work on. **4) Get out of bed and go straight to your workspace**–dress, and start doing your thing. The kiss of death is doing anything else first… even the most innocent 60 second email check-in or 5 minute scan of Google Reader. Inevitably one thing leads to another and half of the time is gone before you’ve even really started. **5) Do your computer work in an isolated space free of distractions**–a fully maximized terminal window or word processing screen that obscures the clock, applet notifications, etc. can do wonders for staying focused. **6) Be consistent as many days in a row as possible.** Consistency makes it easier to be productive each day, however don’t be surprised if it takes a full week to get into a groove. **7) Take one day a week off**–progress and new revelations often happen from space and distance. How do you start your day and take small steps forward with your projects? #### John Poelstra John Poelstra coaches directors in finance and software. Trained through the Co-Active Training Institute, he has coached for more than 10 years, with over 520 clients and 3,150 sessions, including people at well-known Fortune 100 companies. In over 30 years of professional experience, he spent 25 in technology and finance: software testing, project management and team leadership at Red Hat and Dell/EMC, and finance as a bank auditor at Wells Fargo and a CPA at Grant Thornton. He hosts The John Poelstra Show podcast and is based in Portland, Oregon. [Author archive](https://johnpoelstra.com/author/john-poelstra/) [Author website](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-poelstra-show/id1130635146) November 26, 2010 [Productivity](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/productivity/) [getting up early](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/getting-up-early/) , [improvement](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/improvement/) , [incremental](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/incremental/) , [morning](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/morning/) , [progress](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/progress/) , [routine](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/routine/) , [writing](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/writing/) [Previous post](https://johnpoelstra.com/community-at-community-conferences/) [Next post](https://johnpoelstra.com/distraction-and-empathy/) ## 2 Comments ## [Add yours](#respond) 1. [Dr. Tom Bibey](http://drtombibey.wordpress.com) [November 26, 2010 at 7:37 pm](https://johnpoelstra.com/seven-ways-to-make-a-little-progress-every-day/#comment-375) [Reply](#comment-375) Every morning I get up and go right to the computer ’cause I can’t wait to see what my characters did overnight. Dr. B., author, “The Mandolin Case” [Reply](#comment-375) 2. [Daniel T Chen](https://launchpad.net/~crimsun) [November 26, 2010 at 9:56 am](https://johnpoelstra.com/seven-ways-to-make-a-little-progress-every-day/#comment-374) [Reply](#comment-374) Great points, John. There’s considerable overlap between them, except point seven, and my [daily meditation routine](http://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.shtml) , with perhaps points four, five, and six resonating most strongly. [Reply](#comment-374) ### 2 Pingbacks 1. [Five Recent Resonations | John Poelstra](http://johnpoelstra.com/2011/09/03/five-recent-resonations-3/) 2. 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