- Copyright : Stuart Miles|in3RF.com
I always hear the same advice from productivity experts: Do the hard stuff first. It’s a good strategy. However, it’s not the only one. Sometimes doing the easy stuff first works well, too.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been working an inordinate amount of hours. I am going away for a week. I’ll be speaking at the Book Expo America Blogging and uPublishU conferences in New York and then taking a quick trip to visit my mother afterward.
For me to miss work for seven days means I must get a ton of work done before I leave. I write six blog posts per week. All of those posts have to be done and scheduled prior to leaving, as well as a few extras, so no days are missed upon return.
This trip falls just before the launch of my new book, the second edition of How to Blog a Book. I have set up an extensive virtual blog tour that includes 13 guest blog posts written by…you guessed it…me. I had to write six of these posts before I went out of town (in addition to the six to nine “regular” posts). I also had a guest post I regularly write for another site that was due last week.
Plus, I have presentations to prepare, work for clients, and I’m moving my mail and my websites to new hosting companies. Of course, every day there are phone calls, emails, and other little tasks that need to get done.
ACK!
Tackle the Easy Jobs
As the overwhelm hit me hard (and I wondered why I had planned my schedule this way), I knew I need to buckle down and get some things done fast. I tried to dig into the big jobs first—the blog posts, presentations and preparations for my trip. But the small tasks distracted me, and, as they remained unfinished, they caused me more stress.
Too often, I found myself trying to get something done on this big jobs in short blocks of time—blocks too short to make headway.
And the small tasks remained undone.
Then I created a new item on my to-do list: Small Jobs. I placed all the little tasks there.
Each time I found myself with a five to 25-minute window of time, I tackled a small job, like a phone call, email, or blog post revision. If I had 30 minutes or more, I took on a large job, like writing a blog post from scratch or working on a presentation.
In just a week, I reduced the Small Jobs list to one item. I felt less overwhelmed and less distracted. This allowed me to focus much more time on the Big Jobs.
What Works
You have to know yourself and how you work as well as what works for you. Some days I can block out the small items on my to-do list and focus all my attention on the hardest job first. That can reduce my overwhelm and stress considerably, thus making me more productive for the rest of the day or the week. Other times, clearing the clutter of the small tasks first works better. It opens a space for me to concentrate on the bigger or harder jobs.
Test these different productivity strategies. See which one makes you most productive. And if you have a different method, tell me about it in a comment below.
