Getting It All Done by Doing Less
How I increased my productivity
Whether it’s fancy online calendars, timed work sprint methods, or a new way to view our to-do list, freelancers are obsessed with how to get more done faster.
And it’s not just a freelancer problem.
Ask any author with a day job what they would change if they could, and they’d say they needed more hours in the day to get their writing done.
All of the authors I work with struggle to meet their (usually self-imposed) deadlines.
We all want to be more efficient, so how do we do it?
I’ve seen my productivity skyrocket in the past few months, all because I stopped trying to be so productive.
Here’s how I did it.
Recognize you can’t do it all
You can’t.
At some point we must admit we are mere mortals.
If there were some magic formula for getting everything we wanted done, productivity wouldn’t be one of the most addictive rabbit holes on the internet.
The painful truth is that you can’t do it all.
You can do some things well.
You can do other things well enough.
And some things just don’t matter. (Really, they don’t.)
Ditch the living to-do list
My to-do list used to be a mess.
I use a physical academic planner, with the week layout on one side and a page for notes on the other.
Yes, I know there are a ton of fancy tools out there, but this works for me.
On the lined page for notes, I wrote down everything I needed to do that week.
Notice I said needed. For the longest time, I thought I needed to knock out every item in my life that was unfinished.
I listed business projects, my own writing projects, reminders to make doctor appointments, and aspirational items like completely redoing my office to make it a more ergonomic and efficient place to work.
At the end of each week I would have checked some of those items off my list, but I always added others.
The list kept growing. And whatever I didn’t get done got carried over to the next week.
It was a a living document with no end in sight.
To break the cycle, I stopped making a to-do list altogether.
(Listmakers: Stay with me, there will still be a list!)
Focus on priorities
Instead of to-do items, list your priorities.
You can’t have sixty equal priorities. You can have a top priority, and maybe one or two below that.
So which are they?
What must you do to move toward your goals?
What comes with consequences?
Those are your priorities. Everything else must fit in the remaining space.
And it will.
My priorities were:
- My health
- My business
- My writing
If a task didn’t fall into these three categories, I wrote it down in a document saved on my computer.
All those things that “needed” to be done are written down, but out of sight so I don’t stress over them every time I open my calendar.
Now this may sound counterintuitive, but I’ve completed more of those hidden tasks than I ever did when they were right in front of me.
Pick a focus each week
Health is my constant priority. If I’m not healthy, I can’t run my business well and I cannot write.
Each week I established one health priority, a small goal I wanted to achieve.
Then, I scheduled time on my calendar for both my business and my writing.
With the time blocks clear, I decided what task for the week would get me closer to my business or writing goals.
Every day I want to move closer to those goals, but not every day has equal time available.
And that’s the key: choosing a focus helped me know what to do when I sat down at my computer.
I didn’t sit down and try to do everything at once . I didn’t spin in a circle of indecision.
I got stuff done.
It’s like the advice often given to authors — know what you’re going to write before you touch your keyboard and the words will come faster.
Once I started knocking out my “required” tasks, the ones written in my planner, extra time in my day seemed to magically appear. I was spending less time thinking about doing and more time doing.
I have more focus for each task, and I get more done overall.
So those doctor appointments I never got to? Made and done.
And the complete overhaul of my home office? Complete and exactly the way I wanted.
I even sometimes get all the laundry folded right out of the dryer. (But no promises.)
It may sound completely counterintuitive to do less to do more, but it’s easy to underestimate the amount of mental clutter we carry.
Most of it doesn’t matter.
Focus on the things that do, and you’ll find the path to productivity a lot clearer.
