Avoiding Death by To-Do List
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
15 Ways to Overcome Overload and Work Smarter in 2012
By Jason Womack
Rather than have a fresh start, 2012 probably began with 20+ tasks to add to your to-do list and an inbox full of e-mails begging for an immediate response. You already feel overwhelmed and incapable of getting everything done — and 2012 is shaping up to be another year of wishing things were different.
It’s true. For too many of us, feeling anxious and overwhelmed has become the new normal in the home office. But 2012 can be the year you finally get a handle on your to-do list and start working—and living—at your best.
The following are essential good habits you can create to make 2012 your most productive year yet.
1. Purge and unsubscribe. Delete and recycle everything you can and reduce what might be coming in. Unsubscribe from e-mail newsletters, magazines, book-of-the-month clubs, perhaps even the ad-hoc committees you’ve joined recently. Try the ‘unsubscription’ for three months; at the end of those 12 weeks, you can re-up if you want to!
2. Block out your time and prioritize. Ask yourself this: How much time do I really spend each day clicking through e-mails and making my to-do list? The answer is probably a lot. When you spend your day making giant to-do lists or flagging urgent e-mails, you’ll never get any real work done. Instead look at your day and figure out where you have blocks of time to really focus and engage on what needs to be done. Time blocking and prioritization are two important keys to daily productivity. Look at your to-do list, figure out where you have blocks of time to act on those items, and then prioritize.
3. Change how you manage e-mail. The moment you click on your inbox, your focus goes and your stress grows, as you proceed to delete, respond, forward, and file the messages you find there. Rather than simply flag e-mails that require action, use subject lines to catalog them and organize them so that you’ll easily be able to go back to less urgent e-mails later on. Also, don’t look at your e-mail unless you have a block of time to devote to prioritizing them and responding to them.
4. Take technology shortcuts. Practically every kind of software you use daily has tricks and shortcuts that once implemented could save you a lot of time. Sit down with those who can teach you more about these systems. The more you fully understand the tools you use the easier it will be to learn even more about their features and how to use them to your advantage.
5. Break inertia. Ever watch a freight train start to move? That first forward jolt takes the most energy; keeping the train rolling is much easier. Do some small things to get rolling on getting caught up at the beginning of the year. Then pace yourself. You’ll probably find it’s much easier to keep rolling along at a comfortable clip. Soon you find that you’re making real progress—and it feels good.
6. Keep your BlackBerry out of bed. Leave your mobile device in another room and use an alarm clock to wake up instead of your BlackBerry/phone. Shower, dress, eat breakfast, and then check e-mail on your train or bus ride to work or at work. This change in routine can give you a higher quality of life with less stress and increased productivity.
7. Always be prepared for bonus time. This is a great strategy for increasing productivity throughout the year, but it will be especially helpful in the days following your holiday vacation (or any break). Bring small chunks of work with you wherever you go. Then, while waiting for a meeting to start or for a delayed flight to depart, you’ll be able to reply to an e-mail or make a phone call. In other instances, you might have enough time to review materials for another meeting or project you are working on. If you’re prepared, you can also confirm appointments, draft responses, or map out a project outline.
8. Reduce meeting time lengths. If meetings at your organization are normally given a 60-minute time length, start giving them a 45-minute time length. You’ll find that what you get done in 60 minutes you can also achieve in 45 minutes. You’ll also gain 15 extra minutes for each meeting you have. All that extra time will really add up and provide you with more time to work toward your goals.
9. Figure out what distracts you. It can be extremely helpful to discern exactly what it is that gets in the way of your focus. Identify what is blocking your ability to give all of your attention to what needs your attention. Is it the constant ding of e-mails popping up in your inbox? Is it employees or colleagues who need just a minute of your time? Once you have this inventory, you can begin to make subtle changes so that you wind up getting more done, in less time, at a higher level of quality.
10. Divide your projects into small, manageable pieces. Take one step at a time and don’t worry about reaching the ultimate goal. Make use of small chunks of time. In fact, a great way to approach this is to break the yearly goals down into quarterly goals. Now that you’re back, there are X number of weeks left in the first quarter. If you worked on a goal only two hours each week (perhaps over four 30-minute sessions), you’ll have a total of X hours to invest in that goal. Set milestones, decide actions, and make progress faster.
11. Identify the VERBS that need attention. (And here’s a hint: Smaller is better.) Organize your to-do list by verbs in order to manage your productivity in terms of action, delegation, and progress. Actions such Call, Draft, Review, and Invite are things that you can do, generally in one sitting, that have the potential to move the project forward one step at a time.
If your to-do list has “big” verbs — those that are mentally demanding or longer term in nature such as plan, discuss, create, or implement t— replace them with action steps to just get started. This will save you time and reduce the sense of overload you’re feeling.
12. Learn to delegate clearly. Come to terms with the fact that you can’t get it all done yourself. Identify exactly what needs to be done and by when. Over-communicate and track what you have given to whom.
13. Hold yourself accountable with end-of-day notecards. At the end of each day, write down (on a 3×5 notecard) basic things about each day: Who you met with. What you completed. Where you went. What you learned. At the end of the month, you can use this inventory of engagement to identify what you want/need to do more (or less!) of. This activity is a great way to hold yourself accountable and make sure you’re really doing the things that help you make the most of your time.
14. Implement a weekly debrief. Take time after every five-day period to stop, look around, and assess where you are in relation to where you thought you would be. Look at three key areas: 1. What new ideas have emerged? 2. What decisions need to be made? 3. How do I track this information? Not only does the weekly debrief help you hold yourself accountable, it allows you to course-correct if necessary and to ask yourself, “Does this still make sense? And if not, what does?”
15. Forecast your future. Open your calendar to 180 days from today. There, write three to four paragraphs describing what you’ll have done, where you’ll have been, and what will have happened to your personal/professional life by then. Identifying what we’d like to experience is the first step in developing the habits and actions that move us closer to our goals.
There is no reason to remain mired in frustration and struggling to catch up. Life can be a wonderfully exciting journey, and it can start whenever we want it to start. 2012 is as good a time as any. HBM
Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA, provides practical methods to maximize tools, systems, and processes to achieve quality work/life balance. He has worked with leaders and executives for over 16 years in the business and education sectors. His focus is on creating ideas that matter and implementing solutions that are valuable to organizations and the individuals in those organizations. Womak offers specific strategies to consistently and incrementally improve performance. He teaches the fundamentals of workflow and human performance and spells out how to get more done, on time, with fewer resources, and with less stress. For more information visit www.womackcompany.com.
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