I’ve had this post in draft for over a year. I kept the draft to keep notes and to remind myself of my commitment to a new way to work. After learning about the new system, I jumped in head first and tried it out for a few months,but after discovering the shortcomings I stopped using it.
Today I’m sharing it, because I realised that using this system somehow had me feeling a lot more accopmlished than when I used single a todo list. I think it was the way I think about what I work on and how I use my time.
Two ideas form the foundation of my system: 1. You have limited time so be honest about what you can get done with the time given 2. You have to be deliberate about focusing on what’s important. This gives you flexibility to fill in your time with the things that make the most impact.
My problem is that I have too much hope in how much I can get done tomorrow. To solve that I employ the first part of my system: Everything is on the calendar. If it’s not on the calendar, I don’t do it. That means, meeting, recurring tasks, tasks, lunch breaks, time to reflect. What ever you can think of doing, you’ll find it on my calendar.
Out of everything that comes your way, how do you decide what to put in your calendar? I use a combination of slots, recurring tasks, focused time and open spaces. I keep space on my calendar open so that I’m able to be responsive and not just jump from predetirmined task to task. I keep up to two hours open, if possible, to be responsive, reply to messages, and be ready for any crises.
The second part of my system involves tracking an orgnization system for tracking the things that I need to do. I know this sounds like a todo list, but the difference between todo lists and my system is that I haven’t committed to doing anything unless it is moved ont my calendar. In my organization system (I use notion for this), I have a place for projects/longer term objectives, tasks, categories of tasks (like things to read), messages to respond to and so forth.
I try to clear my inbox every day, moving items into these various buckets/categories. Everything that comes in goes into one of thes buckets. There are exceptions, which are items deemed so important that I skip everything and move it straight to the calendar. This sometimes mean that I move things around, but it’s much better for to know that I have to makes space for something. The alternative of just adding it on top of the pile has always felt like a burdain to me.
For each bucket I have a dedicated calendar slot where I aim to do as many of them as possible. This helps me to not put so much focus on larger initiatives that I drop the ball on smaller/easier to-do items. I’m still working on the right bucket system as I don’t always have the proper focus for a task. Sometimes, when you’re low on energy, it helps to tackle simple, quick-win items, while at other times it might better to concentrate on reading a vital business proposal.
Something I learned from Lauren Smith, my previous lead was, that It’s okay to let unimportant things slip. Sometimes, other people will request things from you at which piont you know that the thing that you deemed unimportant has now become important enough for you to work on. I don’t apply this to everything, but it is helpful to think about it when I’m overwhelmed and I have other important things to get done first.
The most important skill I hope to hone is my understanding of what’s important and how to use my time to get the most value (business impact). I’m don’t feel like I have this under controll yet, but I know it will help me in future, so I’ll keep working.
Finally, after all I my attempts to push through work, it’s important to rest, take breaks and give yourself space to process. I’ve tried to neglect this in the past and it never worked out.
Credits
The first video that helped me think about working in this way was an invterview about ditching your todo list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UneF4tCVHFk
Calender Tetris featured image thanks to Ahmed Sulaiman.