海角大神

How to get work done? Avoid unnecessary tasks.

Urgent tasks can pop up and take attention away from the genuinely important things, Hamm writes. There are a few ways to avoid the needless distractions.

Having a checklist of things to do each day really keeps me organized and focused on my goals, but it doesn鈥檛 solve all my problems. Constantly throughout the day, little things come up that take me away from those important tasks.

I鈥檒l get a phone call or an email about something that seems urgent, so I end up having to pull up notes on something I didn鈥檛 expect and dig into a conversation about it.

I鈥檒l feel absolutely out of focus and perhaps even a bit tired, so I鈥檒l spend some time playing a game of聽聽or something similar.

I鈥檒l go down to the family room with my wife in the evening and get distracted by a television show instead of working on whatever I had planned to finish up.

I鈥檒l go out to lunch with a friend and then convince myself to run a relatively unimportant errand after lunch, even though it eats up that narrow band of child-free time I have to get other things done.聽

Over and over again,聽urgent tasks pop up and take my attention away from the genuinely important things I need to do, leaving me with a hard choice later in the day between two or three important things that need attention.

For me, a few things help me avoid this.

贵颈谤蝉迟,听I simply turn off most communication devices when I need to work.聽My cell phone goes off. I leave my personal Skype number on because that鈥檚 the contact number for my children鈥檚 school, but it鈥檚 only a number used for emergency purposes. I shut down my email program.

Basically, I save all of this communication for one big batch once I鈥檝e completed some of the genuinely important things. I usually go through email twice a day at most 鈥� once a day on many days. If I let it constantly interrupt and distract me, I end up bleeding a ton of time throughout the day. The same is true for phone calls and texts to my phone 鈥� they just serve to interrupt.

厂别肠辞苍诲,听I keep an 鈥渆rrand list鈥� for when I go into the nearest large town.聽Once a week, I鈥檒l go on an 鈥渆rrand run鈥� and take care of all of those errands at once. Otherwise, I simply avoid doing any errands. If I have to go out for a specific purpose and I don鈥檛 have time for a full errand run, I don鈥檛 do any of them and make the specific task go as fast as I can.

I usually keep this list of errands on my phone in a note. When I do decide to go out for errands, it turns into a long period that usually involves a library stop, a grocery stop, and usually a few other stops, and it gobbles a lot of hours, but it keeps those errands from interrupting me at other times.

罢丑颈谤诲,听I don鈥檛 go into the family room if I need to get things done.聽I just simply don鈥檛 go in there because there are too many distractions between the electronic devices and the television. In fact, I basically only go in there about once or twice a week, and then it鈥檚 specifically so that Sarah and I can watch a program we鈥檝e been planning on watching or it鈥檚 for a family movie night.

If you have a location that just distracts you, only go in there when you鈥檙e completely fine with being distracted from things.

贵辞耻谤迟丑,听if I鈥檓 tired, I focus solely on resting.聽If I do important things when I鈥檓 tired or heavily distracted (which is usually a subtle symptom of being tired), I know that I don鈥檛 do them very well. I might do low-focus tasks when I鈥檓 tired (like loading the dishwasher or something), but if I鈥檓 tired and I鈥檓 just facing genuinely important things, I will go meditate or get some exercise or take a nap.

If I force myself to work when I鈥檓 tired, my work output is terrible. I make very slow progress and often that progress is of low quality. Simply put, I鈥檓 wasting my time when I make myself do it. I鈥檓 much better off simply using my time of sharpest focus for the important things and offloading less important and less focus-oriented things to times when I鈥檓 tired.

贵颈苍补濒濒测,听if I feel like a regular responsibility is eating up too much of my time, I admit it to myself and look for alternatives.聽I鈥檓 on multiple community committees and have several different offices and responsibilities. At various times, I have felt overwhelmed by them and I鈥檝e felt that they鈥檙e getting in the way of other things that are more important in my life.

When that鈥檚 happened, I鈥檝e openly admitted it. I鈥檝e told others that I am actively looking to step down and I seek out a replacement.聽I would rather do a few things well than many things poorly.聽It takes guts to say that you want out of a worthwhile organization or responsibility, but when you鈥檙e making choices wheresomething聽of importance is going to lose out, you need to be willing to step away.

I try as hard as I can to avoid unnecessary or unimportant tasks, even if they seem really urgent. This leaves time for the things I consider very important 鈥� my family, the core hobbies I鈥檓 most passionate about, my close friends, my core work, and so on.

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