Get more done with the strategy of ‘3.1 Musts’
Another day gone, and little to show for it.
I’ve had so many of these days I cannot count them.
Why? Because I did not know what I was doing.
Obvious yes, but not in practice.
A lot of us go into a new day thinking we know what we are doing, but usually, we are clueless.
We even have long to-do lists, and we fill them up, and yet still we have no idea, no direction.
We treat the day like an interactive circus. Out comes the clown on his unicycle and we laugh. Out come the shrieking monkeys who climb all over us, and we shake them off. Lowered down are the latex-clad space aliens, and we are mesmerised by their flashing lights.
This is the reactive life.
Seeing life this way sounds fun, but you will make little progress.
Reality is always going to be chaos, but we can carve something out of it when we take charge, and give ourselves clarity.
This means sharpening our tools.
One of my tools is the power of ‘3.1’:
1 x SHORT task that takes five to ten mins.
3 x MUST do tasks that take longer than ten mins.
The first shorter objective should be clear and easy and not take too long. This gives me an incentive to start quickly, and allow momentum to build into the next tasks.
Identify three key things on your to-do list that will likely take longer than ten minutes that simply must get done before your time is up for that day.
Sketch these out the night before and get them on a post-it note that is visible, then dream on it. Be detailed on what each task involves. Procrastination is born of being unclear.
Ideally, the second task of the four will be the hardest. You will have the most energy, and the sense of accomplishment at having completed it will flood into the final two.
After the tasks are done, you can do what you will. More items knocked off your to dos?
You’ll be amazed at your output when you get clear about the few things to prioritise.
Most of all, look away from the latex-clad aliens.
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Originally published at steemit.com on August 17, 2017