Most people will agree to the fact that nobody has more hours in the week than any other people do.
Even though this is a fact most people go home from work Friday thinking, “what the heck did I get done this week” or thinking something similar.
Most of these do get stuff done, but not enough or perhaps more correctly put, not important enough stuff to move them forward in the right direction.
If you have a lot of speed but no direction often you get nowhere, it goes the same way if you have a lot of direction but no speed. Most people live their live with either speed, direction or neither but a select few has both – speed and direction.
People who has speed and direction like Bill Gates do not have more hours in the workweek; they do not have more brains, more hands or more feet than anyone else has but even though they get more done and most importantly they get stuff done that accumulate to something greater.
One way you can move towards the same efficiency as Bill Gates is by making a small change in your weekly routine, it’s a change that in the beginning will feel small and insignificant, and easy to do and then over a period of time this change will accumulate into something bigger.
Do the following next Monday morning before you start doing actual work.
Step 1 – Define your tasks
First write out the 5 most important ½-1 day tasks for this week, if an important task takes more than a whole day divide it into smaller sub-tasks of ½-1 day worth of work.
For each day in the week, you plan one of these tasks, and remember to leave enough room to check email, phone calls and other work you have to do.
Step 2 – Plan your week
Then print out this weekly plan and hang it beside your screen, visible to you and everyone who tries to disrupt your work, and if someone asks you to do something here and now, refer to your task list and judge if you are done for today and/or if you have time to do what you is asked about.
If it’s your boss and you will get behind on your important task, refer to the weekly plan and ask him what task you should drop to do his “important” task.
Step 3 – Commit to the plan
Then email the weekly plan to someone at the office you trust will hold you accountable, and let them know that this is what you will get done this week.
The following Monday you repeat this process.
Did it work?
Try it and let me know what effect it gives you at anders@timeblock.com
