Power up, get organized, and focus on getting the right things accomplished to achieve your goals.
Key Points
- Learn to focus on the right things and avoid time wasters
- Mindfulness empowers moving forward with purpose
No one wants to become a work drudge. We all know people like that. You were meant for more. Let’s get the right stuff done and have some fun along the way.
1. Plan Your Day
It all starts the day before. Prepare your list of goals and tasks to accomplish for the next day. In the morning, review your list, make appropriate adjustments, and then execute. Yes, unexpected things will come up during the day. You’ll adjust accordingly. Pro Tip: plan your work and work your plan. Hey, there are apps for that.
2. Focus on What Needs to Get Done
Don’t fall into the trap of working on tasks or projects that really can wait until later. Be the Gets the Right Things Done kind of person. Don’t waste your time on random things, no matter how much fun they are in the moment. Pro Tip: Avoid trying to multitask. Do one thing at a time, and do it well.
3. Avoid Distractions
Lock that down! Stop compulsively checking your email. Seriously. Just stop. When you’re in the zone, focusing on the task in front of you, avoid the temptation to answer random phone calls, surf the web, check emails, or scan social media. Lock your phone in a drawer, if you must. Pro Tip: Identify habits that waste your time and work to mitigate them.
4. Batch Similar Tasks Together
Avoid randomly jumping from task to task. Make order out of chaos. Organize tasks into groups to execute efficiently. For example, select a group of emails waiting in your inbox that fall into a similar category for action at the right time. Pro Tip: Fine tune your classification scheme based on how you work best.
5. Important vs Urgent
This is a vital concept to get right. Not everything can be priority #1. It just doesn’t work. Learn how to identify tasks that are important, but not urgent, and that can be done later. In contrast, if a task is clamoring for your attention, quickly triage whether you should get it done right now or if someone else on the team has more bandwidth and can get it done faster. Pro Tip: Be flexible and smart about prioritizing.
6. Work in Timed Sprints
Set a timer for each task or group of related tasks. Turn it into a game of beat the clock. Learn how to shift gears like a professional race car driver at work. Pro Tip: Pipe the right playlist of music into your brain to set the pace. Amp up the music when you need to.
7. Reprioritize Regularly
At appropriate intervals during the day, scan your task list, assess your progress, identify choke points, and reprioritize as needed to get done what really needs to get done. Pro Tip: The right task management app can be very helpful.
8. Develop Restorative Habits
You can’t perform at peak efficiency all the time. Take a break. Clear your mind. Breathe. Learn mindfulness. Go for a walk. Become aware of whatever helps you to refill the well. Pro Tip: Achieve clarity through mindfulness.
9. Learn to Say “No”
There is a bottomless well of human need. You can’t solve everybody’s problems right now. Stay in the sweet spot at the intersection of your core competencies and your available resources. Pro Tip: Say “No” to projects or opportunities that are not a good fit for you.
10. Review Your Day with Clarity
You’ve done your best today. Now, quickly do the post-game analysis. Identify what worked well, and what didn’t. Apply lessons learned to plan for tomorrow. Pro Tip: Avoid the allure of perfection. You’ve done your best. Now give it a rest.
You’re well on the way to becoming a wizard of efficiency and effectiveness. Imagine what you can do with with all the time you’ve saved.
In another article, we’ll take a look at time management apps to help organize and track tasks, as well as streamline your workflow to get the right things done.
Relax. You’ve got this.