What To Do When There's Too Much To Do Read Online Free PDF

That’s a have-to. If you’re in the hospital, on the operating table, you could probably get out of the meeting; if not, forget it. Perhaps you have an ops briefing at 7:30 A.M. You may also have to fill out the weekly time sheet that accounting uses to charge your time to various projects every Friday before you leave. Your son needs his allergy shot Mondays at 4:00, and so on. You rarely have control over have-to tasks, so you might as well plug them in so you can work around them.
    Next, plug in your regular daily tasks. This includes things like any statistical or data tracking you’re required to do as part of your job, time you block off for client calls, and checking on the status in your area of responsibility. These tasks are a regular and necessary part of your routine. If they aren’t, then why are you doing them? If a regular task isn’t helping the organization fulfill its goals, get rid of it. If you have to let something slide, you could ignore this appointment in a pinch.
    What’s that? You’d
like
to get rid of it, but your boss makes you do it? Well, have you written any sort of document to present to your boss, explaining what the task actually costs, and how little return the organization is getting for the cost? Have you tried to convince her that the organization is wasting money by having you do it? If not, why not? Even if your boss assigned you the task, proving it isn’t in the best interest of the organization is the best way to get her to change her mind.
    Once you’ve filled your schedule, stop. You’ll always have more tasks than time.
    Now that you’ve gotten the have-to and regular daily tasks on the schedule, it’s time to start on your to-do list items. Keep in mind the relative priorities of the tasks you’ve decided to include on your HIT list, and stay focused on the few high-priority tasks (P1 and P2). Don’t put
everything
in your calendar and attempt to plan your entire day to the minute, or it will blow up within the first five minutes. But do schedule the most important tasks, especially if one requires a larger block of time. Find a balance between importance and size of the task when trying to fill in your schedule. Leave open some time for interruptions and e-mail (more on this later).
    I can almost guarantee you’ll get to the end of the time available on your schedule before you get to the end of your HIT list. So, what are you going to do with the rest of the stuff on the list? Triage it and reduce, reduce, reduce! Otherwise, you’ll never recapture that extra ninety minutes a day that you need to help you recharge for tomorrow’s tasks. Don’t make the common mistake of shortening your estimate for some tasks, so you can squeeze a few more in. Cutting the amount of time you allocate to a task won’t get it done any faster.
    Similarly, adding extra tasks to your schedule won’t ensure they’ll get done. There’s always more work than there is time to do it. So, you’ve got to determine what you’re able to do, what piece of the project you’re going to complete, and then STOP! You’ve already plugged the most important stuff intoyour schedule. Everything else is just going to have to wait until tomorrow or next week.
    Remember those secondary tasks you cut during the triage process? They should drop off the list, because in reality, even if you put them in your schedule, that’s what’s going to happen. So be honest with yourself and recognize that some tasks won’t get done, and just take them off your HIT list. Remember, you’re trying to reduce your commitment load so you can produce more. That’s your primary goal. At the end of the week, you’ll say, “I got this done”—unlike most people, who can only say, “I worked lots of hours.”
FURTHER REDUCING YOUR COMMITMENTS
    Even within the constraints of your established schedule,