I was chatting with a friend the other day about productivity while my friend’s 11-year-old played in the background. In the middle of the conversation, the child interrupted and asked, “Why do you have a ketchup day? Is that all you eat on that day? That sounds weird.”

After a moment of confusion, I laughed and responded, “No, it’s not a ‘ketchup’ day; it’s a ‘catch-up’ day!”

Leave Catch-Up Day Open

Do you have a catch-up day?

A catch-up day is one day a week where you have no appointments and no tasks pre-scheduled to do. It is a day onto which all of the things that surprised you during the week get dumped and taken care of.

For me, catch-up day is Friday. My Monday through Thursday are very structured, and each day has pre-planned appointments and tasks as determined by my strategic plan.

Move Unexpected Tasks to Catch-Up Day

However, during the week, all sorts of new opportunities and to-do's spring up. Rather than dropping my planned activities during the week, I stay focused on my plan and move the new things to catch-up day.

On Friday, I’m highly motivated to work through the task list since, as soon as I do, I get to start the weekend.

How could you work a catch-up day into your weekly plan? If you can’t schedule a whole day, could you start with a catch-up hour at the end of each day and keep adding to it over time?

Learning to create a plan and stick to it without allowing “bright shiny objects” to pull you off track is one of the fundamental keys to success. Give it a go, and let me know how you do with it.

If you need some help getting a plan together, this free webinar will show you the process and tools to make it happen.

Victoria Cunningham is marketing communications manager, Ingram Micro. Guest blogs such as this one are published regularly and are part of The VAR Guy's Business Acceleration InfoCenter.