8

Get More Done: Complete Tasks and Projects with Ease

YOU HAVE REIMAGINED YOUR TO-DO LIST, SELECTED AND implemented the best list-making tool, and now have one master TASK list. Now it is time to Fire—to execute on your tasks. It’s the final, crucial step in the READY, Aim, Fire system.

There are two simple steps to tackling tasks and projects more easily and quickly: Determine what to do next, and then efficiently complete the work. Simple, yes—but as always, there are more effective and less effective ways to carry out these steps and to personalize them to fit your own Productivity Style.

I recommend you determine what to do next by considering three variables: your time, the resources and tools available, and your energy level. For example, suppose you have fifteen minutes before your next conference call, you are sitting at your desk in front of your computer, and it is 3 p.m. on a weekday afternoon, which means that your energy level is beginning to wane. Based on these variables, what task or project should you work on next?

First, let’s consider the time available to you—fifteen minutes—and the main resource or tool you have available at this time: your computer.

The default response that I often see from my clients when faced with this scenario is to just check e-mail. However, I strongly encourage you to avoid the magnetic pull of e-mail, unless responding to e-mail happens to be the highest and best use of your time at that particular moment. Instead of defaulting to e-mail, look at your task list and determine which task you can work on that will move you one step closer to your READY goals, using your computer for fifteen minutes.

You may have grouped your TASK list by time and/or tool, in which case identifying an appropriate task might take only a few seconds. If you did not choose to group your TASK list this way, it could take a minute or so.

Let’s say you find on your TASK list the following four tasks that could be completed in this time frame using your computer:

• Scan a document from your colleague Tad describing problems with an important client, and send a reply recommending corrective steps.
• Compare the catering menus of three restaurants being considered for next month’s off-site meeting, and e-mail your assistant to let him know which one you prefer.
• Proofread the slide deck for a presentation you’ll be making in six days at an industry association conference.
• Review the profit and loss statement for your department in preparation for next week’s quarterly review meeting with your division vice president.

Now consider the final variable—your flagging energy level. Looking at the four tasks, which can you best complete with a minimal amount of energy?

The first task—advising Tad about how to deal with a possibly tricky problem related to an important client—may require some subtle, even creative judgment on your part. Unless this is an urgent emergency, it may be better to defer this task until the morning, when your mind is fresh.

The third and fourth tasks are both highly detail-oriented—and in both cases, overlooking a single key detail could be quite embarrassing. (Imagine if the title slide in your deck reads, WELCOM TO THE ASSOCIATION CONFERNCE, or if your departmental P&L contains a sizable red-ink item you are not prepared to explain to your boss.) Since you have several more days to tackle those two tasks, save them for a time when your energy level is higher—and perhaps ask a colleague to double-check your work.

That leaves the important but fairly mundane task of selecting a good restaurant for next month’s meeting. Go for it, and check that item off your TASK list.

By considering each of these three variables when determining what to do next, you will be able to capitalize on all of the minutes in your day, leverage your energy, and complete more high-value, meaningful work.

Now, step two: Efficiently complete the work. There are two sets of best practices you can apply that will help you boost your efficiency no matter what Productivity Style you favor. I call these task execution best practices and project management best practices. They are outlined in the two tables that follow.

WORK SIMPLY: STRENGTHS AND TACTICS FOR TASK EXECUTION BY PRODUCTIVITY STYLE

If You’re a Prioritizer

Your Strengths Are:

• Your ability to accurately complete significant amounts of work
• Your highly effective prioritization of tasks

So Try These Tactics:

• Evaluate your own successes based on the quality of the work versus the quantity of work. What might you need to shift so that you can rate yourself highly on both?
• Batch or group similar tasks to further increase your output and efficiency.

If You’re a Planner

Your Strengths Are:

• Your gift for maintaining accurate, detailed lists
• Your ability to frequently complete work in advance of deadlines

So Try These Tactics:

• Effectively use the reminder systems that are available in your technology tools and apps to keep you focused on the most urgent and important tasks in your list.
• Decide in advance how much time and effort you are willing to spend on a task—then stick to the allotted budget.

If You’re an Arranger

Your Strengths Are:

• Your ability to craft and use visual, kinesthetic lists
• Your strong intuitive sense for which tasks must be completed at any given time

So Try These Tactics:

• Improve your concentration and tune in to your work by listening to music without lyrics.
• Guard against interruptions in your train of thought from visiting colleagues, e-mails, and phone calls.

If You’re a Visualizer

Your Strengths Are:

• Your ability to effectively manage multiple tasks at one time
• Your skill at efficient execution of tasks

So Try These Tactics:

• Just do it! Start by completing the quick tasks that require more speed than perfection to ensure you avoid the black hole of procrastination.
• Stay focused on the task at hand by clearing your desktop of distractions.

WORK SIMPLY: STRENGTHS, TACTICS, AND TOOLS FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT BY PRODUCTIVITY STYLE

If You’re a Prioritizer

Your Strengths Are:

• Your focus on achieving the project outcome
• Your gift for analytical, logical analysis of the project goal
• Your skill at quick, accurate decision making

So Try These Tactics:

• Remember to consider the emotional needs of the project team members and how they may affect the project.
• Invest time in building relationships that will support project execution and adoption as well as customer and community relations.
• Learn to value feelings and take a more relaxed attitude in regard to “proof” for facts that may be in dispute.

And Try These Tools:

• Todoist is a Web-based free to-do and project management tool ideally suited for personal project management. It is easy to sort your tasks into project and subprojects, manage the tasks within the project with further sublists, and assign due dates to everything. As an added bonus, it integrates with Gmail for seamless movement between your inbox and your project management inbox.
• Basecamp is a Web-based project management tool. It is simple, easy to use, integrates with e-mail, and is available for the iPhone, iPad, and Android. Track tasks within projects, upload project files, and view calendars and timelines, all with a few simple clicks.

If You’re a Planner

Your Strengths Are:

• Your ability to craft detailed, sequential project plans
• Your skills at consulting and complying with laws, policies, regulations, and quality and safety criteria when planning projects
• Your strong focus on achieving the project outcome

So Try These Tactics:

• Think about how the project supports the strategic vision; focus on the big picture, the why rationale, and the broad organizational context.
• Learn to value spontaneity and take a more relaxed attitude in regard to tightness of form and structure.
• Consider the length of time that it may take other project team members to complete tasks.

And Try These Tools:

• Tom’s Planner is an intuitive free Web-based Gantt chart tool that works well as a personal project management tool. It is easy to use and you can tweak your charts on the fly.
• OpenProj is a free open-source desktop alternative to Microsoft Project. It is ideal for desktop project management and even opens existing native Microsoft Project files. It has a robust scheduling engine, as well as Gantt charts, network diagrams (PERT charts), WBS and RBS charts, earned value costing, and more.

If You’re an Arranger

Your Strengths Are:

• Your ability to lead a team
• Your skill at partnering with people
• Your intuitive awareness of the next step in a project

So Try These Tactics:

• Be careful not to overlook numbers/data, financial/quantitative aspects, or technical requirements/feasibility analysis that may be crucial to the success of the project.
• Avoid being overly optimistic about how long it will actually take to complete tasks; make sure the time frames you allot are realistic.
• Avoid overcommunicating during the project, which may slow down project execution.

And Try These Tools:

• Collabtive is a free Web application that allows teams to collaborate on projects; manage tasks, milestones, and files; and send instant messages to each other. Receive e-mail notifications on projects and synchronize calendars via iCal task export.
• Asana is a project management, task management, and collaboration tool in one. Conversations, tasks, and files are all in one place, ensuring that you never lose something again. Conversations and tasks are grouped together so you do not get bogged down in e-mails.

If You’re a Visualizer

Your Strengths Are:

• Your ability to think strategically
• Your ability to develop creative, innovative project ideas
• Your ability to see and connect disparate project aspects into a cohesive whole

So Try These Tactics:

• Be sure your project plans are specific and clear; plans that are too flexible may put team members in positions that are stressful, unrealistic, and unmanageable.
• Consider focusing on one aspect of a project at a time.
• Be aware of your tendency to avoid tasks that you find uninteresting or unappealing; combat it by interspersing boring tasks with more interesting ones.

And Try These Tools:

• Things is a Mac OS X and iOS to-do and project management tool. The interface is simple, clean, and easy to navigate. It is well integrated into the core applications of Mac like iCal. It is easy to move tasks, organize them into projects, and link them to the calendar. And it all syncs with your iPhone.
• LiquidPlanner is a robust Web-based project management application. It is flexible, allowing you to handle task management, project scheduling, and team collaboration all in one central place. There is a shared inbox to manage incoming project requests, it integrates with calendar and e-mail applications, and it has integrated documents and comments for quick and easy retrieval.

For a downloadable quick reference guide of task and project management strategies, please go to www.carsontate.com.

PACE YOURSELF FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS

Emily is one of the clients we first met back in chapter 2. Her Productivity Style is Visualizer, and when I began working with her she had been working eighty to ninety hours a week for months. She was exhausted, and the quality of her work was on a downhill slide. Her manager had recently given her feedback that she was unresponsive, too bogged down in the daily minutiae, and failing to communicate effectively with her team.

Ouch! How could this be true? Emily was working so hard!

That was exactly the problem. Emily was mentally drained, sleep-deprived, and attempting to overcome her mental and physical depletion by working more and more hours. It clearly was not working. She needed to learn how to pace herself for long-term success.

I first learned pacing from my college cross-country coach, Jim Phemister. Coach Phemister was a wise, thoughtful, kind man who enjoyed a vibrant legal career as a prosecutor before moving to Lexington, Virginia, to teach future litigators at Washington and Lee University School of Law.

During my four years running for Coach, he taught us many life lessons disguised as running and racing tips. For example, we trained in the Blue Ridge Mountains, so we ran hills all the time. When running up a hill, Coach taught me to always look two to three steps in front of me rather than at the top of the hill. I discovered that this practice enabled me to stay focused in the present moment and maintain my pace during the hard work of climbing hills. Life lesson: When the going gets tough, stay in the present moment, take the next step that is presented to you, and do not get too fixated on the end goal, because that will only make the run longer and harder.

One of our favorite traditions was a final run with Coach and your teammates on the day of your wedding. On my big day, I woke up feeling a bit worse for wear due to a wonderful party the evening before, but I put on my shorts and shoes and met Coach and my friends Kim, Josephine, and Natalie for a final run together. I was about to become the last of our group of four to tie the knot.

As we were running through the streets of my hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, Coach told me what he had told Kim, Josephine, and Natalie before me: “Marriage is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to pace yourself so you can finish the race. If you go hard at the beginning, you might not have the reserves to make it through the long climb in the middle.”

I have heard this advice echoing in my head for years. I have used it as a metaphor not only for my marriage and personal life, but also for my professional career. When work is tough—when the demands from clients feel unreasonable, when my travel schedule is out of control, when a colleague calls in sick or a computer breaks down—I remind myself of the wisdom of Coach Phemister: “My career is a marathon. I have to pace myself, get water when I am thirsty, and refuel with food and rest.” Somehow it helps me get through the day to put the problems I am wrestling with in that kind of bigger, broader context.

Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, offered his perspective on pacing in an interview with Wharton, also using running as a metaphor. “I see all these books for new CEOs about what to do in the first 100 days on the job. It’s nonsense. As a CEO, you are running a marathon. If you want to change, if you want to drive stuff that’s meaningful in life, it takes persistence. Essentially anything you want to do that is meaningful in life must be done over time. If you want to change big institutions, you’ve got to have incredible persistence and constancy of purpose.”1

Today, I approach growing and building my business in the marathon spirit. My projects I’ve identified to achieve the goals I have set for myself are like individual mile markers. I try hard to stay focused on the work that is currently in front of me, all the while knowing where the finish line is. I have learned the hard way that I need seven hours of sleep to do my best work—just as I needed those same seven hours to run my best time back in my days on Coach Phemister’s team. Smart, self-aware pacing has become the secret tool I use to ensure that I am consistently able to perform at my best and not run out of energy before I reach the finish line.

FIND YOUR PERSONAL PACE

Remember Emily, overwhelmed, exhausted, and barely hanging on? She needed to learn how to pace herself for long-term success.

Emily’s primary Productivity Style preference is that of a Visualizer, so her pacing strategies were vastly different than the strategies I prefer as a Planner. Like other productivity challenges, pacing is highly individual. It requires that you acknowledge and embrace your Productivity Style preferences. It also requires you to be honest with yourself about your physical needs.

Outlined below are pacing strategies by Productivity Style. As always, read and think about all the strategies listed, not just those recommended for your primary style. You may find that a strategy that belongs to a different style is the perfect one to enhance your own ability to develop and stick to the optimal pacing for life and work.

WORK SIMPLY: FIND YOUR PERSONAL PACE BY PRODUCTIVITY STYLE

If You’re a Prioritizer

Try These Self-Pacing Techniques:

• Leverage your goal achievement focus by setting mini-goals for each day, week, and month. Then methodically work toward achieving them.
• Time yourself as you complete routine tasks, and then try to beat your time every few weeks. This will keep you focused and engaged.
• Rest and rejuvenation are essential to you, but you tend to overlook or minimize them in your drive to complete your work. Intentionally schedule downtime, vacation, and rest periods on your calendar and stick to them.

If You’re a Planner

Try These Self-Pacing Techniques:

• You like crossing things off your list, so make this work for you. Track your progress toward your goals by noting how many items you have crossed off on your list each day, week, and month. And if it helps to write down and cross off tasks that you have already completed, go ahead and do it!
• Structure and form are important to you, so establish a regular structure to your days, weeks, and months that allows you to get into a rhythm or flow of work.
• You frequently complete your work in advance of deadlines, so use the “extra” time for rest and rejuvenation—two precious resources that you tend to undervalue.

If You’re an Arranger

Try These Self-Pacing Techniques:

• Laughter is a great energy boost for you, so go ahead and indulge in a few really funny YouTube videos when your spirits are flagging.
• Too much solitary time tends to drain your batteries and reduce your effectiveness. Intentionally intersperse solitary project and task work with pair or group work, which you’ll find energizing.
• Use your affinity for music to help you pace yourself. Make separate playlists to energize you, relax you, and sharpen your focus.

If You’re a Visualizer

Try These Self-Pacing Techniques:

• Novelty is essential for you to efficiently get your work done. Intersperse “boring” or repetitive projects with projects that are new or at least more interesting to you.
• Spontaneity and fun are the juice that keeps you going. Ensure that there is room and space during your day for you to be surprised and to just have fun. If not, you’ll lose steam and may fall into the trap of procrastination.
• When possible, switch tasks or project types every fifteen to thirty minutes to keep your energy high and stay on pace to complete your work.

In today’s business world, we talk and think a lot about the challenges of managing other people, but we tend to overlook the difficulties involved in managing ourselves. These difficulties are real and important. It takes sensitivity, honesty, and self-awareness to recognize and understand the factors that affect your own productivity. And it also takes wisdom and courage to act on that knowledge—to organize and schedule tasks around your unique work patterns, to prioritize activities based on your personal goals, and to say no to tasks that are at the wrong time or place for you. Too often our workplace cultures dictate one way of managing our time and energy—a particular style that may happen to fit a few people while being woefully inadequate for many others. The result is culturally driven busyness that prizes empty symbols (long hours in the office, “face time” with the boss, being seen racing from one meeting to the next, constant e-mailing and texting) rather than real productivity.

Learn to pay attention to the voices inside you—the ones that cry out in distress when you work against your natural Productivity Style, and sigh in satisfaction when you find and follow the structure and pacing that fit your preferences. You’ll travel so much further in work and in life—and you’ll enjoy the journey!