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LIFESTYLE

The good news is you don’t have to accept this into smaller deliverables that align with the
as the status quo. Here are six simple principles report’s table of contents, i.e. “Create strengths

to get better control of your work and be more and weaknesses analysis for each competitor.”
deliberate about what you get done:
2. Ensure your calendar includes everything
1. Make your to-do list a “done” list - It’s that consumes time in your day, not just
commonplace to keep a to-do list. My approach meetings - I’ve seen countless examples of
is to apply four changes to the prototypical to- people only putting meetings with others in
do list: their calendars, making their days crammed
with meetings, then burning the midnight oil to
Express what needs to get done in terms of the get non-meeting work done. Any activity that

final deliverable, not the action to produce it - For consumes time in your day--meetings, work
example, instead of saying, “Research hotels in time, personal time, professional development,
Venice,” say, “Decide and book hotel in Venice.” The or other activities--deserve time scheduled in
wording focuses on a definitive end to the activity, your calendar.
versus something which has no defined end.
3. Schedule a recurring Friday afternoon
Add a date the to-do needs to be done - By adding progress and planning meeting with yourself -

the due date, you by default prioritize when Near the end of your day on Friday, block out 30
something needs to be done, which is the same as minutes on your calendar to do three things:
prioritizing the list.
Review what you committed to get done - For
Add an urgent/not-urgent indicator - By adding those items you committed to do in the prior
the urgent/not-urgent indicator, you are forced to week, look at what you actually got done. For
think about not only those things which need to those items you either didn’t get done or spent
be addressed right away, but also those which are more than your allocated time completing, ask
important but not required immediately. yourself why. Were you too optimistic? Did you

Subdivide dones into deliverables that can be let yourself get distracted? Was there legitimate
completed within a normal work week - For bigger activity that was higher priority? Doing a
deliverables that may take longer than a week to retrospective analysis on your planned vs. actual
produce, break the deliverable down into smaller done activity will help you be more realistic in
deliverables that can reasonably be completed future planning.
in a week. For example, if you have a done called
“produce competitor report,” break the deliverable Plan out your calendar for the upcoming week

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