Introduction

As someone who suffers from serious work anxiety, I have always tried my very best to stay ontop of what I need to do - the immense fear of letting anything slip through the cracks is real for me. So, naturally, I started writing ‘To-Do’ lists - and I remember starting to do this way back in junior school up until a few years ago. I would dutifully tick off tasks one-by-one, in the hope that I didn't forget anything - but, I always had that sinking feeling that I was forgetting something. And, I felt panicked because everything was due today and I couldn’t get around to ticking everything off the list. Needless to say, it didn’t help with the anxiety! I started looking at ways to optimise my productivity while keeping the anxiety at bay. I was burning myself out as I felt like I had to be on top of everything 100% of the time - all emails, calls, tasks, and be there to help my colleagues - all of the time. Not only was I burnt out, but I was uninspired, and neglecting things that were important to me - things that would fuel my productivity. Righto - let’s get into some of the things I do to be more productive...

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Streamline Your Tasks

You’re getting tasks assigned to you via email, calls, MS Teams messages, or you need to book and pay for your flights to your sister’s wedding next month. We have multiple channels of communication and that means tasks are coming at us from all directions. There is no way you can remember everything all of the time, so, my little trick, is to streamline them all. I use a simple filtering exercise as well as a Trello board for this. I basically treat myself the way I would one of my developers, or designers - I schedule and prioritise my life too! As soon as a task is assigned to me, I do a quick filter, and then I create a ticket/card on my trello board and place it in the ‘to-do’ column. It doesn’t have to be overly detailed and this shouldn’t take more than 2minutes per task. It’s a really nice way to keep track of the things you need to do - and it also helps when it comes to prioritising, knocking off those quick wins and blocking time for important tasks. More on that a little further down.

BUT, before I go ahead and create tickets for every single task - I filter them out as follows:

Do it now (these are tasks which usually don’t take more than 2 minutes of my life and cut down my task list quite substantially eg: respond to a mail for an update, share a document from my saved files etc.)
Do it later (these are tasks that are going to take you a bit of time to complete, so create cards for these and add them to your Trello board)
Assign it to someone else (Delegate tasks to others that are perhaps better equipped to tackle the task than you - you don’t have to do everything! Connect them via mail directly, or if you’re waiting on someone to complete the task, create a card on trello and schedule a follow up with them before the deadline.)
Delete it (These are tasks that you know don’t apply to you, or, tasks that you’ve been putting off for the longest time and you know that you’ll never get to it - delete it!)

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Now, how to setup your Trello board with tasks that you need to tackle:

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Step One - Create a Trello board for your tasks (it’s free btw!)

Step Two - Setup your board with the following columns: 1) To Do 2) Doing 3) Done 4) Never Going To Do It

Step Three - Create a card for each task that falls on your plate (it can be personal tasks as well - eg: order new contact lenses)

Step Four - Label each card with one of the following tags (I use the Eisenhower Matrix for this): 1) Urgent and Important 2) Not Urgent and Important 3) Urgent and Not Important and 4) Not Urgent and Not Important

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Step Five - Prioritise your tasks by adding a due date and shuffle them in order from highest priority at the top of your column to lowest priority at the bottom of your column. Remember to be realistic - you cannot do everything in one day!

Tip: You need to work smart - if you know that you need to complete a report by end of day tomorrow, and you need information supplied to you for that report, prioritise getting that information at the top of your list for today so you can hit the ground running tomorrow, for instance. Remember: Sending off that email requesting the information is a ‘Do it now’ task (something that is going to take you less than 2minutes to do)

Step Six - Move the cards across the board as you knock them off.

Step Seven - Pour yourself a glass of wine and relax! You have done as much as you could have for the day. Tomorrow is another day…

Time-Blocking

Probably the most effective tool out there! I time block my day according to my Trello board and the tasks which I’ve prioritised for the day. This not only includes work tasks, but personal tasks too. Remember, it’s important to do things that inspire you, outside of work - this what keeps your motivation at an all time high, as well as finding that work-life balance. I loathe the expression: “There’s just not enough time to do xyz” because, there is time to do xyz, you just have to make the time for xyz. Here’s an example of how I time block my day:

07:00 - Wake Up

08:30 - Log onto my pc and plan my day (this includes scanning through email, filtering tasks accordingly, attending to anything urgent)

09:15 - Team Awesome Standup (max 15mins!)

09:30 - Account Managers Standup / Project Status Meeting

10:00 - Unilever Schools Programme - Project Planning (Timing Plan, Scheduling)

11:00 - Nedbank Meeting (New Project Briefing)

12:00 - Lunch

13:00 - One-on-one catch up with Dom

14:00 - Project Status Sheet Update

15:00 - Project Managers Meeting (Resource capacity, project updates etc.)

16:00 - End of day catch ups with developers, account managers (MS Teams), and any learning/readings

17:00 - Gym (Kayla BBG Week 6: Arms&Abs)

Now, I’m not saying that it takes me exactly an hour to do each of these tasks: sometimes, it takes me 30 minutes, and then I have 30 minutes free to knock off some other tasks such as: calling the optometrist to order my new contact lenses, or replying to an email, etc. It just serves as a guide to help me structure my day and meet the daily milestones. I always overestimate time so that I can get to those smaller taks which take me less than 15mins. I try and aim to complete at most 3 important tasks per day (Here, I ‘ve done: Project Planning, Reading/Learning, and my one-on-one catch up with Dom) - these are important tasks which add value.

Tip: If you know you have a HUGE deliverable or task due at the end of the week - break it up into bite-size chunks of work throughout the week - assign yourself one hour per day to hack away at it instead of making yourself unavailable for an entire day!)

The Pareto Principle: Make 20% work your priority

“In terms of personal time management, 80% of your work-related output could come from only 20% of your time at work.” - Investopedia on the Pareto Principle

If you absolutely had to stop working after doing only one task today, which would you do?

A typical initial response from anyone working in Project Management would probably be: “For me, it would most definitely be planning schedules and assigning work on Jira - I would’ve done this by going through emails and briefs, creating a ticket on Jira, which details the job to be done, as well as any supporting documentation, due dates, job numbers etc. I’d add this to my team’s work schedule and I would’ve spent 20% of my workday doing this task only. “

However, yes, as crucial as that may be - this shouldn’t be a priority but rather an automated process - this is a daily activity. You should be asking yourself, “Does this add value to everything else I need to do? And does it add value to the company’s strategic business goals?”

For example, I would say my 20% would be researching new processes on how to manage my teams more effectively. This adds value to the rest of the team, and company. It contributes to the long-term goals of increased productivity, mentorship, career-coaching and talent retention.

Conclusion:

Make work work for you. Say it again, slowly this time…

You are in charge of your day, and when you realise that you have the power to control it - things start to change. It also comes with the realisation that not everything needs to be done today, not everything needs to be done by you, and not everything needs to be done. By using simple techniques such as filtering, prioritisation, delegating, and time-blocking - you can regain control over your day and start making time for things that are important to you. Burnout is not romantic, it’s ugly and can have severe consequences on your mental health.