I have a post-it note stuck to my monitor at work. It says “Get shit done”.
Work is always busy, and when you’re passionate about what you are working on, people are depending on you, and there is an imminent launch – it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of working too much.
There is a chapter in the Being Boss book about setting boundaries, and it made me think. Why do I feel the need to work more? There is no one telling me to go home and check my email so why do I do it?
Worse though, was the thought, how much of this is busy work? How much of the time I spend at home is actually productive? How much of it really can’t wait till tomorrow?
So I have started an experiment on myself (another idea from the Being Boss book). Every morning at work, while drinking my coffee, and before I get stuck into my email, I write a list of feasible things to complete by the end of the day.
Often I come up with more than three things, so I rank them, and then whittle them down.
Throughout the day I check the list in my notebook, which I leave open at the side of my laptop. I score things out as I complete them.
That’s it. It takes 5 minutes of my day, and I always know what the highest priority things are. If by the end of the day I haven’t done them, I know what I need to do when I get home.
But I’ll let you in to a secret, last week I completed my list 4 out of 5 days.
This is certainly an experiment I’ll be extending.