The secret of how to do everything on time

Original author: Lisa Evans
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Do you think that there are not enough hours in a day? Try to remove one item from your plan for the coming day. About this today will tell Lisa Evans (Lisa Evans).

So, give the floor to Lisa!

Looking at a long list of current affairs, we all dream of an extra hour in a day to cope with all the tasks. Maybe after that we can establish a balance between work and personal life , which constantly deviates from us.

In 2010, a coalition of Canadian women said that 24 hours is not enough for normal work and family life. They also called for 25 hours a day.

But since an extra hour is unlikely to appear in the future, an expert in leadership and productivity, Tasha Eurich, argues that this is not required. In her new book, “True Leadership: Happy People, High Results, and How to Combine Them, Ourich said: “The key to striking a balance between work and personal life is not to prolong the day by hour, but to get rid of one extra task every day.”

Ourich bases his idea, "One less task", on the principle of diminishing productivity. “Putting more time into something does not provide a better result,” she notes.

She formulated her principle after the former boss said that in his company, he would prefer even more intelligent lazy people to smart workaholics.

“The lazy ones are not because they are not doing something, but in the sense that they find the shortest path to accomplishing their tasks,” Oyrich explained. “Awareness of the need to stop wasting time and energy is as important as understanding the optimal time to get started.”

It is not so easy to remove part of the tasks from the to-do list. To help with this, Oyrich advises asking himself 3 questions that will help in achieving the goal.

1. Can I spend less time doing this task?


“About 64% of managers believe that they have too many priorities,” says Ourich.
Instead of clutching at all things at the same time, the principle of "One less task" requires taking a step back, reviewing each task and determining whether it has priority over others. Limiting the number of priorities will allow you to focus on important things that will increase the value of the work as a whole.

“People are too overloaded, they become intellectually lazy,” says Tasha Oyrich. “The bottom line is that they will have more room for thought if they ask themselves a couple of questions before work.” Prioritization in the task sheet will help not only to be more productive, but also more successful.

During her research, Ourich found that a group of executives with a growing number of priorities showed lower returns, while a team that focused on a small number of tasks achieved industry growth. Focusing mental and physical energy on key things, and not wasting time on achieving results is the first step to accomplishing only the tasks you need.

2. Can I delegate this task to another person or group?


Ourich notes that delegation of authority is one of the most important skills that we cannot successfully manage. Businessmen, in particular, often have difficulty delegating complex tasks to others.

“Feeling your worth is proud. It’s harder to abandon tasks that have become part of the entrepreneur’s personality, ”says Ourich, who herself faced difficulties in delegating the tasks of her business to partners. “As a rule, the tasks that we need to delegate are precisely those in which we ourselves are poorly versed.”

By hiring an accountant to save her spreadsheets, Ourich was able to focus on the things she really likes to do.

3. Do I have to complete this task at all, or does nobody need it?


In his book, Oyrich mentions, as an example, one director who spent 5 hours each quarter, preparing a report for her four-year period with her team. But in the last year, she noticed that no one at the company commented on her report. She decided not to do it at all in order to understand whether anyone would notice this. What was the result? It turned out that business priorities have changed, and over the past 2 years no one has looked into this report.

The described story demonstrates an example of the fact that adding an item to the list of tasks simply because “you always do it” can be ineffective in a specific period of time.

To understand whether to leave the task in the list or not, ask yourself if it will justify the time spent on its implementation. Weekly department meetings are exactly the thing you can refuse. Ask team members if they consider the practice of such meetings to be effective, or whether meetings are held “by inertia”. Understanding the usefulness of the task will allow you to either save it in the list or abandon it forever.

PS Another article relates to this topic - How to achieve more by doing less . Recommended!

Translation by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult

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