Topic of the day
Where to Start
Plan > Focus > Execute
Be more efficient at work and spend time doing the things you love.
When you boil it down to its core elements. Productivity or "getting things done", is made up of three steps:
- Work out what you need to do.
- Decide when you’ll do it.
- Then get started, complete the tasks.
However, we all know it’s not quite that easy. It is often more complicated than it needs to be. There are lots of things that distract us. Lots of things that get in the way.
This week, I’m going to examine the basics of point (1) above.
How you work out what you need to do?
The reason this is important is because when you know what to do, it’s easier to get started.
Let me explain what I mean.
One of the main things that stops us from getting on with work in the first place is having a clear plan.
Here's an analogy: If you want to bake a cake, it's much easier to get started if you have all the ingredients weighed out and a clear recipe than if you try to make up as you go along. If you don't have a recipe than you will be more likely to even delay getting started, as you might have to spend time on research and development.
How should you develop your plan of action?
There are a number of steps to this, but the first one is: capture everything. I believe the biggest thing that holds us back is not having a clear plan. Almost everyone I speak to works day to day or week to week. They keep their most important tasks in their head.
While this works for a small number of tasks. It’s disastrous when you try to run a busy life. Our brains our not designed to store large amounts of data or lists.
You can test this out if you don’t believe me. Try this:
- Go to dictionary.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and click a letter to browse.
- Pick a word and write down the next 10 words in the list.
- Try to remember them.
- In two days time, see how many you recall.
Now I don’t expect anyone to actually do this (if you do, let me know). But even when you know what letter the words begin with it will be very hard to remember them. You might get 3 or 4 but that’s less than half.
If you write those 10 words down on a piece of paper. In two days time you can easily note them down.
Now we understand that our brains are not good at storing lists of data. What is the solution?
Make a list of every single task you have to do.
This might sound crazy, but if you do it right you only need to do it once. I learned this from David Allen's book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity [link].
The first step of becoming a productivity master is capture.
Here's how to do it:
Get a big sheet of paper (or a google doc) and make a list of everything you have to do with your time.
Include repeating tasks like:
- Submit expenses
- Produce monthly management report
- Pay credit card bill
Also include one offs such as:
- Arrange dinner party
- Plan customer workshop
- Buy new mobile phone
This capture process can be fun. You may need to block an hour or two in your calendar. But believe it will be worth it.
The second step involves identifying recurring tasks (e.g. weekly, monthly) - note down the recurrence frequency.
Finally, if you have any big projects on the list (like re-design the kitchen, move house, or plan the summer holiday) break them down into sub-tasks.
At the end of your time, you should have a nice long list.
Take some time to review it. Have a read. Think about how it felt to get everything written down.
Once you’ve done this, I’d recommend leaving it for a day before making it digital.
Put it in a google doc or add it to a to-do list app.
If you want to stay old-fashioned then you can put it in a notebook (this is equally valid by the way - there is nothing more satisfying than physically crossing things off the list!)
But stopping there isn’t enough. You have to keep this master list up to date.
Whenever you have a new task add it to your list.
This master list has to become the single source of data that you rely on. That means you should add new tasks on regularly.
To do this, you'll need to build a habit either capture new tasks:
- As they happen
- At the end of the day
- Once a week (this did not work well for me)
I'll cover this in more detail soon!
Completing the task of capturing everything will change how you view your tasks and is the first step to effortless productivity.
Lists work.
With the Xmas holidays approaching, it’s a great opportunity to try this out. Take some time to pause, reflect and make a list of everything you'd like to do.
If you try this out and it works for you, I’d love to hear how you get on.
Did you enjoy this issue? If you think someone else might benefit please consider sharing it with them. Also, if you have any comments or questions then I’d love to hear from you. Either email me or send a DM on LinkedIn.
Thank you for subscribing, have a great weekend, and I’ll see you next week.
Mike
