Get Lucky by Playing the Matching Game

You look at your watch and with great excitement you notice that it is 5:oo PM and time to leave the office to head home to relax for the night.  You’ve got a whole bunch of new shows and movies waiting to be watched as you eat your dinner and down a few beers.  You get up from your desk, stretch and head out the door.

Wait a second.  Before you head out the door, play a little matching game with yourself.

Round One

Take out a piece of paper and a pen and fold it in half, directly down the middle.   On the left side, write down each activity you performed that day.  Then write down how long it took you to perform each particular activity.  When you are done, move over to the right side of the page and write down a list of the activities you were supposed to or wanted to perform that day.  Then write how long each of the activities should take to perform.  When you are done, try and match up the tasks on the left and right sides and see how many matches you get.  Good job, you just finished round one.

Round Two

From all of the matches that you have on your sheet, try and match up all the times (the amount of time you wrote down next to the task) between the left and right sides. If the right side is a lower number or equal to the left side, consider it a match.   For more advanced players, feel free to use accomplishments instead of activities performed.

The more points you get, the better you did.

Obviously this game will only work if you are 100% honest with yourself.  You can also play this game at home to see how much time you spend being productive and how much time you end up wasting.

Once you have played this game a few times, try playing the game in reverse by writing down the tasks on the right side before starting your day.   How do you think your day will turn out?  I’m guessing a little more productive.  What about you?