Discardia_ More Life, Less Stuff - Dinah Sanders [24]
What’s most important is to stay in tune with what is at the top of the list and keep returning to that instead of to items lower down. The best times to work on lower priority tasks are when you’ve cleared the higher priorities out of the way (or are waiting for other people in order to be able to proceed) or when time, energy level, or resources are inadequate for your higher priority tasks.
In my to-do tracker (using the OmniFocus software), I have a context called braindead, as well as more traditional ones like phone calls or errands, which I use to identify things I can still accomplish when I’m feeling pretty useless. It happens to the best of us. As David Allen said, “When in doubt (or when on one of those politically mandated conference calls), clean a drawer.”
It’s absolutely fine to consider temporal convenience as you prioritize. Respect the undulations in your energy. Sometimes you need to recharge. Let your pendulum swing where it needs to be and always watch for ways you can better support yourself at your less competent times of the day.
The one-week priority exercise
Here’s an exercise you can do regularly to realign yourself to the top of your list. It is geared toward those with a manager and some degree of autonomy; however, even if you’re self-employed or fairly constrained in how you spend your workday, you can use it as a model for consciously steering a small amount of your daily time toward improving your situation. Each day for a week, you’ll be focusing on two priorities.
Day 1
Work (or, for the retired and students, projects you do for others). Carve 20 minutes out of your day somewhere (or stay late, or come in early tomorrow if you have to) to think hard about a few things. Take a few notes to identify:
The projects your boss most wants you to have completed (and which, therefore, can have an impact on your chance of a raise);
The project which nags at you most and which it will relieve you greatly to have completed;
The projects your boss has been waiting for you to complete that can be finished in less than an hour;
The projects that will most help you be more efficient in the future; and
A demonstration of the required skills for the position to which you'd like to be promoted.
You're going to come back to these each day for the rest of the week, so keep these high-level categories in mind as you work through the days.
Home. Find that uncompleted project that is taking up the most space. Spend 45 minutes on it, pack it up for storage with a note to remind yourself of the next steps to do, or officially abandon it and get it out of the way.
Day 2
Work. Today go back to “the projects your boss wants you to have completed.” First, figure out the status and the next step. Second, if you can complete the next step in less than 30 minutes, do so; otherwise, identify what needs to happen before you can move it forward. Third, email a status report to your boss, such as, “Hi, I thought you'd be interested in an update on what's happening with this project …” Make sure it covers current status, next step, any actions required by others to move it forward, and when you expect to be able to do that step or meet with others to get it rolling. Be concise; bosses really like having a clear picture from a very brief message.
Home. Find all the open projects that are taking up more than a shoebox or a binder's space. Jot them down on paper. Mull them over a little. Circle the ones that still matter to you. Put a star by the ones on which you'd enjoy working tomorrow if you suddenly and magically had a completely free day. Draw a dotted line through the ones that don't matter to you anymore.
Day 3
Work. Yes, yes, indeed! The time has come to slap down “the project which