Eliminating unnecessary tasks

by Jen (August 16, 2007)

Here in the US, a lot of us grow up thinking the more we do and the longer we spend doing it, the more productive we are. Then you get into the real world and find out some of the most successful people work part-time because they know how to get more done in less time.

I’m pretty efficient. I’m organized and I can be very focused. And I can handle interruptions. But one of my big flaws is the tendency to take on too much.

For months, I’ve theorized the solution is not to drop projects (which would depress me, as many of my projects are labors of love) but to trim down my to do stuff in each project. Simplify, consolidate steps, etc. Only I’m not doing so well at it.

After reading a ZenHabits post on eliminating stuff, here’s my plan:

• Neat ideas that aren’t fully formed go in the trash, not in a “Someday/Maybe” file where they just gather trash.
• Eliminate input. I’ve already been trimming my RSS feeds, and I stopped watching or reading news ages ago. Now I need to seriously limit my email and social site time.
• Reflect, and respond more briefly. I tend to start typing my response to emails and forum posts as quickly as I can hit the “reply” button. Because I don’t take 10-30 seconds to reflect on what the post/email is really saying, and then I tend to warble on with every thought in my head, I spend ridiculous time responding to people I really do need to respond to. If I take just a few seconds to think “What does this response REALLY need?” (and also whether I’m the only one who CAN respond, or if someone else is likely to say just what I would have), I think I’ll save myself lots of time.
• Stop doing little tasks the instant they arise. If I realize “Oh, I should do this task that will take 15 minutes” I tend to do it immediately. I really, REALLY need to learn to write it down in my to do list instead, then look at it later. Sometimes I will realize I don’t really need to do it after all. Other times, I may be able to do it at the same time as another similar task, thus consolidating a few steps. Or maybe by the time I get to it, I’ll have come up with an entirely better idea.

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Posted in Organization
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