One of the many amazing organizations we share coffeepots with is The Management Center. They help already-thriving nonprofit professionals learn how to get things done through other people, or in other words, to manage.
And the more responsibility you prove capable of, the more important a role your organizational systems play. With this in mind, Ethan Fletcher taught us the fundamentals of managing our time and staying organized.
The lessons below represent just one chapter of the Management Center's actionable manifesto, Managing to Change the World (from which I stole the title of this post — more info and a free sample chapter here).
Managing Our Time
First, we must create systems to manage our time. These systems are one of the most common denominators of successful individuals in all sectors. Although the system described below might seem obvious, it takes commitment and discipline to maintain.
Step 1: Identify the big rocks
Of all the things you must do this week, which few items are the most important to making meanginful progress in your work? This doesn't necessarily mean the most immediately pressing items. Urgent emails can and will consume your entire day if you hang out in your inbox. You need to take care of your big rocks first. See below for a nice visual parable in prioritization.
Step 2: Specify next actions
You can't eat an elephant in one bite, so don't get hung up on the insurmountable list before you. Break things up into bite-size morsels. The tasks on your action list should be clearly actionable. A good test of this is whether or not you could assign the task to a friend and have them complete it. "Buy house" doesn't qualify. "Call three realtors" does.
Step 3: Fit your tasks into your schedule
Many of us get stuck at Step 2, with a beautiful task list that didn't quite make the leap into action. So we must reconsider how we schedule our time. Your calendar can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Like an intern with all sorts of potential but an addiction to GChat, your calendar needs to be proactively managed. Here's how:
- Schedule work blocks. Clump as many regularly scheduled meetings and calls contiguously and leave open consecutive hours in your day in which to produce actual work. You'll be amazed how much time you can reclaim from transitions alone. If your meetings schedule is at the mercy of superiors, consider pushing for an organizational-wide policy of scheduling most meetings in the morning and leaving afternoons for real work, or vice versa.
- Tackle your big rocks first. This is in keeping with most advice I've seen about checking email: don't look at your inbox in the morning until you've taken down one major task (this is far, far easier said than done). Same goes for tasks. If you go after the hard things first, you'll have more time for the rest. And even if you don't, you've done what really matters. This brings up the work-time paradox, which posits that:
- Work expands to fill the time you allow it. There are clearly exceptions, but this principle is yet another good reason to actively schedule your day (for an extreme, somewhat gimmicky, but ultimately compelling look at this phenomenon, check out The Four Hour Work Week).
Staying Organized
Now that we've identified which part of our work really matters, how we're going to accomplish it, and when we're going to accomplish it, we need a system to stay organized. Proper organization, as Ethan put it, "is the dirty little secret of the modern email era: everyone struggles with this." And as you move up the chain of command, more and more will come at you (so you better have a good system in place).
Why bother? First, there's the pure stress of having it all in your head. You will miss stuff, no matter how good you are. And to be the reliable kind of person who keeps their word, you need a system. Good intentions won't do it. If you're not OK dropping the ball and letting others down, you need a system. Plus, Ethan says, "You can replace the space in your head where they used to live with whale sounds."
The Three Homes
The system that works for you won't work for everyone. But here's one to try adapting to your needs. It's called the Three Homes: everything has a home and a place to go, but you want to limit the number of homes on the street. Any system you adopt needs to be easy to manage and easy to maintain. The point here isn't to enslave yourself, it's to free yourself (too much time on maintenance is one of the big complaints about the Getting Things Done productivity system).
A good system doesn't just drive you through as many tasks as possible. It focuses you on what's important at any given point in time and helps you distinguish between that which is most important and that which is less so.
Here are three potential homes for your responsibilities to live:
Home 1: Calendar.
Used aggressively and strategically, as explained above. Anything associated with a date, even soft dates, like "Fall vacation," should be on your calendar
Home 2: Lists (e.g. daily, weekly, long term).
Maintain a daily printed list of tasks. As much as I love all things digital, nothing beats having a single sheet of paper with your action plan everywhere you go. Here's a Google Doc template you can use. To copy it to your files, just go to File and click "Make a copy."
This isn't just a to-do list!
It's literally a plan for each day, pulled out from your otherwise massive task list. The back page has your weekly tasks and keeps this momentarily irrelevant work off of your radar until it's necessary to pay attention to it. Creating this daily plan also forces you to make hard decisions about what can happen today, and what you'll get to tomorrow or later.
- Cross items off and add new ones as you go throughout your day, and at end of the day revise it all with a fresh piece of paper.
- Bold the absolutely necessary items.
- Keep a "quickie" section for minor tasks you can accomplish while waiting on something else.
- Keep a "Waiting For" section where you keep track of important things you need to get back from others.
Lastly, Home 3: Paper folders
Sometimes it's good to have key documents, files for upcoming meetings, a "to read" folder, and other things you always need on you. Your mileage may vary.
We hope this post helps you get more important work done (and helps you better enjoy some rest when you're not working). The world needs your talents and it needs them applied effectively.
A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2" in diameter.
He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous – yes.
The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour their entire contents into the jar – effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, and your children – Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house, and your car.
The sand is everything else. The small stuff."
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, give a dinner party and fix the disposal.
"Take care of the rocks first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.
The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."
