At this point, we've discovered that the work will never be done and it's not up to us to do it all. We don't need to prove our worth (it never was negotiable) and fast doesn't mean full. A life of meaning can come from slowing down, intentional choices, and patience. Now we are free to choose what will be the center of our lives, how we will spend our time, and what impact we want to have.
If you haven't yet, take a moment to choose where you want to go. I've had to accept there is only so much I can do in this life and the more I try to do all at once, the less gets done. If making a contribution matters to you, reflect on what you want that contribution to be.
This might seem fluffy, but if you don't determine where your ship is going, the wind will ensure you get lost at sea. Seriously consider, what is your life about? Then joyfully execute.
For me, it comes down to this:
- Be a high-quality person with standards of excellence by removing my internal and external barriers.
- Provide opportunities for others to heal, grow, and flourish through meaningful relationships, knowledge sharing, and cultural thought revolutions.
Our focus has been defined; now it's time to leverage our productivity tools. Here are some basic productivity hacks I'm excited to share (and have been trying myself)!
- Write down every todo.
- Distinguish between "todos" and "tasks". "Write an article" is not a todo. It is a task and within that task are many smaller todos (choose a topic, outline, research, first draft, second draft, send for review, revise, send for review again, revise, publish). Your brain sees those three words ("Write an article") and calculates it as a small feat that shouldn't take a lot of time. By making each step a separate todo, your mind will have a more accurate time-to-completion estimate for the umbrella task (writing the article).
- Forget everything. Once everything is on your todo list, mentally let it all go.
- Schedule and stick to a regular review. Use this designated time to think about your todos and do your long-term planning. I block off Friday afternoon for my weekly review.
- Have a regular routine. I do the same thing every morning and evening to create stability during the day.
- (If you can) Keep all meetings to 20 or 45 minutes long, leaving 10 - 15 minutes at the end to take care of follow-up tasks, messages, notes, and bio breaks.
- Block off calendar time for deep work (write a presentation) and shallow work (checking email). I now have a scheduled lunch break and 30 minutes at the beginning and end of the day to check all comms (that includes personal comms too so I'm not distracted by text messages throughout the day).
- Add time pressure. We always get things done when we "have to". It's when we don't that they fill all the time we have. Add artificial mental pressure if you really need to get something done.
- Do one thing at a time. Be choosy in what that one thing is. (In our lives we can't read all the books or watch all the things. Be selective. Time is precious).
- Themed Days. Do the same kinds of activities on certain days. For me, all meeting days are Monday and Wednesday, all work days are Tuesday and Thursday, and Friday is an admin and catch-up day, topped off with a weekly review session and prep for the next week.
- Set priorities. Think about your highest and lowest priority. There is one thing that must get done. That's your highest priority. Do it first thing. Whatever your lowest priority is, go ahead and remove it or delegate it. Don't waste your time.
- Turn off all ringers and pings. There is nothing in my work that requires me to respond right away. I turn off all notifications on all devices all the time (unless I'm on call).
- Create a voicemail with a return call expectation.
- Make a running list of things to talk about at your next 1:1 versus sending multiple messages throughout the week. I use Notion to keep my meeting notes because it's accessible across my devices.
- Color-code your calendar based on the mental/emotional load required for each task or meeting. Set a mental load cap for each day and if a day exceeds the cap, move a task or meeting to another day. If you can do an activity (meditate, breathe, walk) that extends your daily cap, pencil in time for that activity.
- Be okay with doing nothing. Leave open space in the calendar or schedule a regular time to do nothing.
- Overestimate how long something is going to take and then deliver it earlier than promised.
- Precrastinate. Instead of doing things "last minute", do things "first minute".
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Serve widely, give greatly, & take care y'all.
QA Engineer | Testing, Researching, and improving users experience is my speciality
2 年Trello is my favorite productivity tool.