What Will You Accomplish This Week?

Karl approached me for coaching because he wanted to improve his productivity. Naturally, I asked him why he thought productivity was a problem for him.

"I'm getting everything done," he told me, "But, nothing's getting done."

Karl worked diligently on his To Do list every day, despite the interruptions and surprise demands that every boss has to deal with. At the end of most days, he'd checked everything off the list, but … but … he didn't seem to be making progress.

Karl sent me copies of his To Do lists for review and they told the tale. He was getting a lot done, but too much of it was trivial. We worked out a solution that improved his performance. It might work for you, too.

Get routine things done routinely. Move the recurring items that don't have deadlines off your To Do list and on to a checklist that you review every day. These things are like the laundry. They have to be done, but as long as you don't let things pile up, they don't have to be done every day.
If you leave those items on your To Do list, they clutter things up and make harder to identify and complete truly important tasks. 

Get the important things to the top of your To Do list. One way (the one that worked for Karl) is to create a weekly To Do list to supplement and guide the daily list.

Every week, Karl lists the three most important things to accomplish in priority order. On Sunday afternoon, he sits down and makes the list and then reviews it a couple of times. It fits on an index card that fits nicely in Karl's pocket. 

During the week, he reviews the card several times to keep the important items top of mind. When he makes his daily To Do list, Karl puts something that helps achieve a weekly goal at the top.

Those simple changes helped Karl remain aware of the most important things he needed to do and channel his efforts to get them done

Boss's Bottom Line

It's important to keep the big picture and the goal in mind so you don't get lost in a thicket of little things that don't matter. Checklists will help you get routine things done without cluttering your To Do list. And a very short weekly To Do list will highlight important items so you can work on them.

Thanks to Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Blog
http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2011/05/31/what-will-you-accomplish-this-week.aspx