Episode Details
Back to EpisodesThe Time Management Secret I Wish Everyone Knew About
Description
What are your priorities today? What about tomorrow? Do you even know?
This week, I’m sharing a simple switch you can make that will make prioritising your work almost automatic… Almost.
Links:
Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin
What is Time-Based Productivity?
Learn more and register for the Ultimate Productivity Workshop here.
Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived
The Working With… Weekly Newsletter
Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes
The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page
Script | 415
Hello, and welcome to episode 415 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development, and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show.
How do you decide what to do and when? Do you operate a FIFO methodology (First In, First Out) or is it something more nuanced than that?
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that almost everyone has too much to do and too little time to do it. That’s perhaps the reason you are listening to this podcast.
It’s further complicated by the scope of what we are asked to do. Today, we have Slack or Teams messages that somehow cut through our defences and turn into long, time-consuming “chats” about a minor issue on a project that isn’t due to be completed for another six months, preventing us from doing the rather more important work we had planned to do that day.
Then there is email, treated slightly less urgently than instant messages, but it can again destroy our focus, leaving us distracted and unable to finish the work we need or want to complete.
Every day is a challenge. What to do, what is the most urgent, and what is the most important thing you can do today? And if you can work on the most important thing, will you have enough time to do it? If not, would it be better to do something else?
Agh! It’s enough to drive anyone around the bend. And it’s not isolated. Every day we have to go through the same decision-making process. It’s exhausting and stressful (Is this the right thing to work on, or should I respond to that email I just received from my colleague?) and can lead to a prioritisation freeze and activity addiction, where looking busy is more important than doing work that matters.
This week’s question is about ideas for solving these challenges, so to get us started, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question.
This week’s question comes from Benjamin. Benjamin asks, What are your thoughts on organising work into categorised FIFO-style lists, adjusted for priority, and then using time blocks to work through them without expecting every block to result in a fully completed task unless there’s a real deadline attached.
Hi Benjamin, thank you for your question.
I think you are on the right lines with your ideas there.
Let me give you an example of this working.