You get to work determined to focus on the one task that, when completed, will bring you so much closer to achieving your most important goal for the week. But then life happens…or work happens. You discover a mistake, or a problem that will take you several hours to fix.
With slight frustration, you push the important task off to tomorrow. The next morning, when you open your laptop, you are inundated with emails marked urgent. As you begin to reply to the messages, the excitement you felt about finally tackling your important task begins to fade.
By the time you finish answering emails, it’s time to go to a meeting, and you haven’t even tackled your chat messages yet. You feel discouraged because now you’ve fallen so far behind that you’ll need to adjust the timeline for the project. You’re left to wonder, “Why can’t I get more done? Why can’t I be more productive?”
5 Habits to Help You Accomplish More
Here are five strategies you can use to help you be more productive at work and at home. These strategies will help you complete the tasks on your list with less friction and more joy.
1. Clearly define tasks on your task list.
Problem: When you describe tasks using vague language, such as, “Review the document,” it’s difficult to know where to start, leading you to procrastinate on getting started in the first place. You need clarity.
Solution: Transform chaotic lists into a streamlined, effective action plan by defining tasks with specific action verbs. Include detailed, measurable outcomes to ensure you know exactly what success looks like before you begin.
Instead of, “Review the document,” write something more detailed on your task list, like: “Review Pam’s revision to the budget to look for discrepancies with the Q1 forecast.”
Also include in the task a link to the document (which is easier to do on a digital task list than a paper one.). This makes the task sound a little easier, perhaps providing the motivation you need to get started. And in addition to adding a link to the document…
2. Gather any missing information before you enter an action item.
Problem: If you see a task on your list that requires you to hunt down details before you can even begin, you are already facing a significant roadblock. This will likely cause you to put off that particular task over and over again.
Solution: Take the extra few minutes to ensure your task descriptions include all necessary details upfront, such as resources, contacts, and deadlines. Before adding the task to your list, ask yourself, “Do I have all of the information I need to complete this task?” If you have questions about how to approach the task, seek clarification before you set aside focused time to begin work on it. These few minutes of proactive work can help you prevent procrastination.
3. Break tasks into smaller subtasks.
Problem: Another reason you might be less productive than you’d like is because of the sheer complexity of actions you need to take. It’s much easier and more common to do the easy things first, but those don’t give you the same sense of satisfaction. Your brain is naturally drawn to less complicated tasks that are more clear-cut.
Solution: Break down complex action items into smaller, more manageable steps. This will reduce the perceived difficulty and reduce the friction you have around starting them.
Instead of writing, “Draft the book chapter,” put a limit on the task. For example, you might write, “Draft the three main ideas of the first chapter.” Or create a time limit, such as, “Spend 10 minutes drafting the book chapter.” I chose 10 minutes because that sounds fast and easy. It’s enough time to create “activation energy,” which is a little like Isaac Newton’s first law of motion: “An object in motion is more likely to stay in motion.”
4. Limit your daily task list to a realistic number of tasks.
Problem: An overflowing to-do list triggers feelings of overwhelm and avoidance. Too many things mean you’ll never feel accomplished because there will always be a lot more tasks that you didn’t do than tasks that you did.
Solution: Limit your task list to a realistic number. This strategic approach reduces cognitive load, allowing you to focus and achieve results.
In my experience, most clients using my System (and me!) typically average between 3-5 tasks on their list per day. This doesn’t mean you’ll only do a few things. You’ll likely do dozens of things, but most of them will have been reactive, and not on your list at all.
If you also make time to be proactive, and can check off 3-5 things you’ve been meaning to do, that will contribute to your feeling of accomplishment.
5. Keep all commitments on the same task list.
Problem: You have several ways of tracking your tasks. You have one list for personal commitments and another list for professional ones. You also likely have other methods for storing tasks and commitments, such as sticky notes, notebooks, apps, and calendars.
Solution: Manage one life, not two. You are most effective when you treat personal and professional responsibilities as part of a whole. If it’s feasible, I recommend using a single task list to store all your action items that do not have a strong relationship to time. (Those belong on a calendar.) When you can see all of your tasks and commitments in one place, you’ll finally be able to see the whole picture and relax more.
How to Turn Productive Behaviors into Habits
While I could share so much more with you about how to manage your task list in order to boost your productivity, I’d prefer you start with just one of the tips above and turn it into a habit, which is simply a behavior that you do automatically.
In my Empowered Productivity training program, I teach about effective habit change. This is such an important part of the training, because I could give you all the best strategies for boosting your productivity, but if you don’t have the skills to make them stick for the long-haul, it will be so much harder to accomplish your most significant results.
Recognize Cues
The key to changing unwanted habits and developing a new habit is to become aware of the cues that lead to subconscious behaviors. These habitual cues typically fall into five categories: location, time of day, emotional state, other people, or the immediately preceding action. Once you become mindful of these cues, you can begin to create a connection between them and the new habit you want to develop.
When adopting a new approach to entering items on your task list, you’ll need to both disrupt an existing habit (like just jotting down one or two words, or grabbing the closest pad of sticky notes) and remember your new habit (using a detailed description of the task, and entering it into your comprehensive task manager).
Make It Easy
Then you’ll want to adopt another principle of behavior change: make the thing you want to do easy, and make the thing you want to avoid a little harder, until over time and with practice, the new behavior becomes automatic. For example, keep your new digital task manager open and visible on your computer desktop, and make a template task with the following prompts:
- What’s the specific task? (Start with an actionable verb and make the outcome clear.)
- Do I have all the information I need to complete it? (Enter all relevant information into the task.)
- Add any relevant fields, like category or label.
- Add the due date. This could be arbitrary; given everything else you have to do, what seems like the appropriate date to complete this?
Productive Habits Lead to Significant Results
The bottom line is that when you are truly productive at work and at home, you feel it. The good energy builds on itself. You are able to unleash your genius in service of achieving more of what’s most important to you, so your days feel energizing and engaging, instead of discouraging and depleting.
Even one small change to how you approach your task list can yield big benefits to your overall productivity, so why not give it a try?
If you’re ready to boost your productivity even more, read my book From To-Do To Done: How to Go from Busy to Productive by Mastering Your To-Do List.
