There is a temptation with work to head for the quick ‘to-do’ and the tasks that seem straight-forward, dare I say easy.
We feel that we can quickly get them off our ‘to-do’ lists and then get on with the bigger and what we perceive as the harder or more time consuming tasks.
We start our days with enthusiasm and tear through the list getting stuff done and at the end we look at a long list of things we’ve done, all nicely ticked off, or I some cases scribbled off with a real sense of achievement, as we cross out another task.
Often though at the end of the day, feeling a little mentally frazzled and tired from all that activity, there is a sense that there is still lot’s to do and we still have those larger tasks hanging over us, weighing us down mentally.
Well there is a reason for that.
I have learnt the hard way, which is often the case with me, that you need to change the mindset on daily activity.
It is not about having giant ‘to-do’ list of things that need doing, as often you will spend the day doing lot’s of low value tasks and then not have the energy to start, or complete, the more important and higher value tasks.
Learning from experience and from various people like Debbie Huxton, Bernie Mitchell and reading a superb book by Brain Tracy years ago called ‘Eat That Frog’, I have finally got a system that works. The system also means, that I get on with the important stuff first and I am getting a lot more of them finished, which as a consequence is having a greater impact on my life and business.
Like all things in life, you have to stop what you are currently doing, especially, if like me it wasn’t working, then take a moment to analyse what’s important to your life and business.
Then look at say three things, that will bring in 80% of the results that you want in your life and business over the next year. Despite what I think, I am not super human and none of us are. So you have to be realistic about what you can achieve in any given time period.
I have set myself 3 things that I want to focus on over the next year and they are 3 things that will have the biggest impact on my success in achieving my longer term goals.
I have then broken them down further into 90 day chunks (thanks Bernie) and then looked at the things I need to focus on for the next 3 months. From that I can plan each week.
Now I no longer have a ‘to-do’ list filled up with low value tasks, I have instead an action list, usually of 3-4 things that I need to complete that day, that will take me forward on the important things that I am focussing on.
Brain Tracy talks in his book ‘Eat That Frog’ about seeing tasks as frogs you need to eat each day. So he says to take the biggest ugliest frog and eat that first and continue eating it until you have finished it.
That means, look at your action list and take the task that will have biggest impact on your life and business, which you have already worked out, and do that thing first thing at the start of your working day.
The big task should then be broken down into more manageable chunks, a bit like cutting up the big frog in order to eat it in bite size pieces. No good trying to swallow that big frog whole.
Since Debbie Huxton talked to me about an action list, I have been so much more focussed on the important things each day and combining that with the things I learnt from Brain’s book, I am find myself much more productive.
Sometimes things will crop up that have to be dealt with immediately, so it’s OK to stop and do them, like dealing with an urgent issue. Other than that, once you start one of your items on your daily action list, you should then continue with that until it is done.
This is the hard thing, but if you look at the list of things that need to be done and pro-actively procrastinate on the unimportant and low value tasks, then you will find that you have more time for the bigger tasks.
Now, if this happened every single day it would be brilliant, but I am slowly but surely building the habit to make this happen.
Philip Dodson 