The days I’m most efficient are the days I plan my day before I sit down at my computer.

Here’s a story of two twins – Silly and Sally.

• Silly’s Day: Silly gets up, grabs a cup of coffee and sits down at her desk. She thinks “Hmm… I wonder what I should work on today?” and then wanders off to check email and Twitter while she continues to decide what to work on. Several hours later, it’s time for her to get off the computer and she thinks “I didn’t get anything productive done! There’s never enough time in the day. I just don’t understand. I was busy all day!”

• Sally’s Day: Sally gets up, grabs a cup of coffee and sits down at her desk. She picks up her action list of 6 items that she wants to get done for the day, and determines which one to tackle first. She then spends some focused time and finishes 5 of the items on her list. After that she decides that she’s almost out of time for the day, so she quickly checks email and Twitter. Then, she makes her list for the next day, making sure to transfer the item that didn’t get done to the new list.

Which one of those days looks more productive to you? It doesn’t take an efficiency expert to see that Sally is much more productive and gets more done (and probably makes a heck of a lot more money than Silly does.)

It’s very easy as women to think we’re being productive when in fact we’re just doing busy things.

Some ideas on how to be more like Sally:

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