Really simple ways of getting work done

While I was in office, my boss calls up on my extension at 12:00 and I tell him "Hey, I am going home, my work for the day is done!".

Imagine getting a full day’s work done by noon. Sounds impossible, right? But it really shouldn’t be. If you eliminated all the time you spend procrastinating, distracted or stalled, getting a full day of work done by noon could be realized. I have done it, so can you!

But being this productive everyday, day by day is not so simple. Lets try and make this simple. I recall going back to my old school day - THE SPORT DAY! I would always ask my mom "Why do I start running far faster when I see the finish line?". To that, mom would reply - "You can see the milestone far closer to you and achievable". Along the race, I would be all tired and almost ready to faint but when I see the finish line, I wonder where I would get the energy from to cross and win! Hope you are understanding the analogy I am giving here!

Procrastination isn’t mostly about knowing when to start. It’s about knowing when to stop. Most of us, start with a infinitely long TO DO list. This is the underlying stress that comes from feeling that there is too much work ahead, and so any effort won’t make much of a dent in the short term. You can short-circuit this stress by having a clearly defined end-point for your work. With a finish line in sight, it is much easier to summon up the energy to sprint ahead and cross it.

What is measured is improved upon. If I measure my work in hours rather than tasks accomplished, I will improve upon nothing. This was the main reason why the concept of flexi timings was introduced. Why have timings at all in the organization as long as you accomplish your tasks! Isn't that itself a big motivation factor already! What better if I can start my day saying "I will complete 10 tasks today within 2 hrs and then can wind up early and see Siya skating in the evening."

One lecture that I had heard sometime back, completely changed the way I worked. It was on "Channelizing your energy correctly". Many people learn about Time Management to make them more productive. The basic concept is that your energy, not time, is what matters when getting work done. With a lot of focus and enthusiasm you can often get done triple the work in the same period of time. Whereas, working a 16-hour day instead of an 8-hour one is just a recipe for burnout. So manage your work in bursts - extremely productive and high energy followed by energy recover. This is cyclical.

Now how does it work - on every Sunday, prepare a weekly to-do list, every night before sleeping, prepare a daily to-do list, and now simply follow the daily to-do list. Pretend your other work doesn’t exist. When you’ve finished the daily list, you’re done for the day and you’re not allowed to add more work. The fact that you can see the finish line daily, you will be able to put it far more energy and focus. The fact that you will now measure your day by tasks accomplished rather than hours, you will be far more motivated and procrastinate far lesser!

Try it and let me know how it goes!