Many people feel like they’re facing an unending list of to-dos. It’s like the mythical Hydra – you cut one head off and two more grow back.
This comes down to prioritization. When everything is a priority… nothing is a priority.
Here’s the simplest way to finally take control of your to-do list:
• Grab a pen and paper
• Write down your to-dos (this is your “long list”)
• Pick 3 to 7 of the most urgent and most important to-dos
• Write those on another piece of paper (this is your “short list”)
• When you have time to work, keep your focus on your short list of priorities
But another harmful habit is…
Does this sound familiar?
You have a lot to do. You start working on one of your tasks.
Your day flies by in a blink of an eye. You felt busy, but at the end of the day, you realize you weren’t productive. You vow to do better the next day. You go to sleep, you wake up, and… the same thing happens.
So why does it happen? Likely because you aren’t yet managing your time very well.
The easiest way to do this is by managing your time in advance. Here’s how:
• Grab a pen and paper again
• Write down the commitments you already have tomorrow (and their times). This could be things like meetings, calls, classes, work, going to the gym, picking the kids up from school, and so on. Write them all down in order.
• Create a few time blocks of 15 to 90 minutes in the open spaces between the existing blocks
• Label those time blocks with a specific thing you want to work on – or label them “Priority deep work”
• Then, when you get to one of those blocks, spend it focusing on your short list of priorities
Put all of your work blocks on your calendar so you don’t forget them. Google Calendar is the most underrated productivity app – and it’s free.
This is often easier said than done. Why? Because we often find ourselves…
We can separate distractions into two categories – internal and external.
Internal distractions include things like thoughts, fears, ideas, questions, and impulses. The best way to help prevent internal distractions from derailing your productivity is to do a quick brain dump about them.
Brain dumping is simple – grab a pen and paper and write down everything on your mind. Your mind will be clearer, you’ll be able to focus better, and you’ll be more productive.
External distractions include things like:
• People interrupting you
• Noise in your environment
• Your video games, phone, or other distracting devices
The best way to reduce the impact of external distractions is to modify your environment.
• Ask people to only interrupt you if something is urgent
• Wear noise-canceling headphones to block out the sounds around you
• Store your gaming consoles in a closet until it’s an appropriate time for you to use them
• Silence your phone, leave it in another room (or in a bag), and/or use an app blocker like Freedom
One of the worst types of distractions is…
Multitasking seems like it makes us more productive. We’re doing two (or more) things at once. Doesn’t that make us more efficient? Unfortunately, no. The brain can’t productively focus on more than one thing at one time.
Say you’re playing a video game while you’re listening to a Zoom call. Let’s call the game Task A and the call Task B. What actually happens when you’re multitasking like this is:
• Your brain focuses on Task A for a split second
• Your brain switches to Task B
• Your brain focuses on Task B for a split second
• Your brain switches back to Task A
This is called context switching. It continues until your brain doesn’t have to focus on Task A or Task B – meaning you stop playing the game or you leave the call.
Each context switch costs time and energy. Over the course of something like playing a game while on a call, you could have hundreds or thousands of these context switches. This means your multitasking cost you a lot of time and energy because of the context switches.
To make matters worse… attention is sticky. It doesn’t cleanly (instantly) switch from Task A to Task B.
It takes time – research shows up to 25 minutes – for our attention to return to 100% focus after we get distracted. This is called attention residue. Multitasking is like keeping yourself perpetually distracted. So what does this mean?
Multitasking isn’t making you more productive. It’s costing you extra time and energy and you’re never reaching peak focus on any of those tasks. This is another reason why you have those “busy but not productive” days.
Focus on one thing at a time as much as you possibly can. It may seem counter-intuitive, but I promise, you’ll be more productive.
I’ve worked with over 250 entrepreneurs and executives. People typically come to me because they’re frustrated about things like:
• Their current situation
• Their slow progress (or lack of progress) toward their potential income, success, and/or fulfillment
• Their mindset, habits, and/or energy
One of the biggest common factors I’ve found among people who are underperforming is they neglect their self-care.
They put other things before themselves. Things like their content creation, clients, customers, friends, family, pets, hobbies, interests, etc. It seems noble to make everything (and everyone) else a higher priority than yourself. But as your self-care falls, your ability to take care of everything and everyone else falls as well.
For example: Back in early 2021 I was working at my full-time programming career. I was also doing calls with my coaching clients, managing my social media, running a weekly Dungeons & Dragons group, and more. What happened?
I let my nutrition go. I started drinking more. I skipped gym sessions. I got less sleep. I stopped doing things for fun like playing video games or watching Georgia Tech sports. I sacrificed those things so I could keep taking care of everything and everyone else. So then what happened?
I gained weight. I was chronically fatigued. I was frustrated, unhappy, and resentful. I was yawning on calls with clients. I quit learning about my craft. I didn’t have the energy to write good content. I was a worse friend. I had my first – and only – negative performance review in my career. My Twitter account started to die. I quit getting new clients for my business so my income dropped. I was a worse son to my mom.
The less care I took care of myself, the less I was able to take care of everything and everyone else.
It took me a while to turn things around and start taking better care of myself… but it finally clicked that I had to put myself first or else I wouldn’t bring my best self to every situation I needed to. It sounds selfish – but this is actually called altruistic selfishness because it benefits other people.
So how do you start? Well, that’s the topic for another article. But you won’t go wrong by starting with the fundamentals:
• Sleep 7-8 hours a night
• Minimize drug use (including alcohol)
• Exercise daily (walk every day, lift weights 2-4x a week)
• Eat a nutritious diet (high protein and low processed junk)
• Give yourself downtime (meditation, video games, making music)
Thank you for reading - and take care of yourself.
Joey
A purple brain here to make your brain better.
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