I have this question on my mind, ever since I started running my new venture these past 6-7 months:
How do I do it better this time?
Everytime the answer has been different. But there is a common theme: productivity.
I’ve read a few books on productivty, time management, organization, and while they contain great advice, I never seem to actually “follow” the advice.
The reason for this, as I’ve discovered, is twofold:
- The goal, vision, objectives, key results, next steps and so on, weren’t WELL DEFINED, and
- I hadn’t PRIORITIZED the right things
So, to fix my problems I just had to DEFINE what I wanted to do and PRIORITIZE my work.
This is obvious, but you have to dig deeper to understand it better.
Fixing (1) is easier:
- Write down what you wish to do
- Define what needs to be done
- Set up a list of next actions, and
- Schedule/delegate/do them
Fixing (2), at least for me, was harder.
The reason it was harder is because (2) prioritization, depends on (1) organization.
If you cannot prioritize, you haven’t defined the problem WELL ENOUGH.
If you cannot clearly see what’s important right now, you DO NOT know what you’re doing.
Prioritization means saying “NO”, a lot. To friends, to family, to new opportunities.
Avoiding this will fill up your time with a lot of NOT IMPORTANT things.
Again, this is obvious but just list the consequences and you’ll see just how far this goes.
E.g.: If you’ve planned to work on X at a certain time, you’ll have to say NO to anything that might disrupt that:
- A friend calls you up for coffee? NO.
- Someone offers you a new opportunity? NO.
- A meeting gets scheduled? NO.
- You wish to do something else at that moment? NO.
- Someone calls you to “chat”? NO.
- Y happens that wants some of the time for X? NO!
Just look at how many things can STEAL YOUR TIME!
Every day you’ll get at least one of these, which means if don’t say NO, you’ll never get anything done.
Of course there are certain situations that are so urgent, you’ll break the rule.
But let those be the rare exceptions, rather than the rule.
Productivity, for the most part, is prioritizing the important. And sticking to it.