Five minutes of writing before work
Your brain is a terrible to-do list. Trying to hold everything in your head is like running 20 apps in the background on your phone. Everything slows down.
So every morning, before I look at my phone or my email, I spend five minutes emptying my head onto paper. I do it even on days when I feel on top of things. For me it's a bit like clearing the cache on a computer.
Here's how:
Open a notebook, a blank page or a notes app.
Set five minutes and write down everything on your mind. Tasks, worries, ideas, random thoughts. Don't filter it and don't organise it.
Pick three. Not ten, not seven, three. Which three things would make today feel like a win if you got them done? Circle them.
Start with those. If you can, put the hardest one in the part of the day when you've got the most energy.
I use two small Field Notes books for this, one for work and one for home, and put each thing in the right one. I also carry a pocket notebook through the day for anything I'd otherwise try to remember, and I check it each morning as part of the brain dump.
If you only try one thing from this, make it the five minutes before you open your inbox. Once it's on the page, you can actually think.
Let me know if you give it a go, and what ends up on your list of three.
The one task I must do tomorrow
When I was 24, I worked 12-hour days and still couldn't catch up. One night I got stuck on a problem, so I gave up, ordered takeaway, and went to bed. I woke at 2 am with the answer and wrote it down. Looking back, I'd done three things without realising it: I took some time out, focused on one thing, and saw it through to the end.
That's where my favourite technique comes from. It's simple, and I come back to it whenever I'm stuck.
List your tasks somewhere that lasts. Use a notebook, sticky notes, or a whiteboard. Don't write it in sand on the beach.
Write a short note for each one saying what needs doing. If a task turns out to be four or five things, break it down.
Stop at 15 to 20. Any more and it feels like a forest in front of you.
Step back and look at the whole list. Group things by theme, and spot anything that must happen in a certain order.
Ask yourself one question. What's the one thing I must do tomorrow? Commit to it.
Do it. Focus on it, finish it, tick it off. If that gives you a boost, carry on with something else.
Repeat the next day.
The must-do task often isn't the easy one, or the one you fancy doing. That's sort of the point. Do it two days in a row and, well done, you're being productive.
Once you're up and running, you can stretch it to three priorities a day, or even five. But if you're stuck or putting things off, go back to just one.
The one thing to take from this: tonight, before you finish, write down the one thing you must do tomorrow. Then do that first.
Good luck, and let me know what your one thing is.
Do less, achieve more
After a good break I came back feeling relaxed and recharged, and it got me thinking. Why did a week off feel so much better than a normal week? Part of it was obvious. No work, no emails, no colleagues. But part of it was that I simply did less.
On holiday I only set out to do a few things, and I did them. That felt really satisfying. I also had proper downtime: sitting, reading, watching something, thinking. Holiday really is better than work, so I wondered how much of that I could bring back into a normal week.
For me it comes down to three areas, in this order:
Home and family. I now put family time in the diary. It might sound a bit cold to plan it, but it was always the thing that got squeezed when it wasn't there. The daily dog walk counts too. It's real time outdoors instead of a fitness goal I'd never stick to.
Work. Email notifications off, email in set blocks, one thing at a time. And saying no a bit more often, so I'm not taking on more than I can do.
Me. Without this I'd be a wreck. Games night with friends, a bit of gaming to switch off, creative projects, reading when I need some inspiration.
I plan each of these weekly, not daily, and I set my goals at about 80% of what I think I could do. That way a bad Monday isn't a lost week. If something keeps knocking Mondays off course, I can build that in too.
A few things that help:
Have some kind of plan. Making it up as you go might get you somewhere, but often not where you wanted.
Take two things off your to-do list as soon as you've written it. You probably weren't going to reach the bottom anyway.
Leave gaps. Nobody can run at full capacity all the time. A break between stretches of concentration is like a palate cleanser.
Of everything here, the one thing I'd want you to try is the 80% rule. Plan your week at about 80% of what you think you can do, and see how it feels to actually finish it.
Give it a go this week and let me know how you get on.