What does your daily to-do list look like? Are you working ON your business or are you mired down in make-work details that distract you from the tasks that help build a better business? Sometimes we don’t realize how much time we’re frittering away. We miss the forest for the trees.
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great touts creating a “Stop Doing” list. He says one key decision about what to stop doing can have as much impact as five new initiatives.
Here are some suggestions for your Stop Doing List:
Stop being a perfectionist
Wanting it to be perfect makes us spend more time than necessary on a task. If we wait for the perfect moment, by the time it arrives, we’re probably too late.
Start setting priorities
Do you really need those 30 tasks on your To Do list? Take a ‘less is more’ approach and begin focusing on doing the tasks that contribute directly to your mission and goals.
Follow the 80/20 rule
Only 20% of what you do each day produces 80% of your results. Eliminate the things that don’t matter in your workday – they have minimal effect on your overall productivity. Break your next project into steps and systematically remove tasks until you end up with the 20% that gets 80% of the results.
Tackle your challenging tasks before lunch
Knock out your most challenging work when your brain is fresh. If you have busy work or meetings, try to save them for the afternoon.
Improve your email etiquette
Email can be a valuable tool or a productivity killer. Do you allow email to distract you from tasks that actually matter? Checking your email every 10 minutes stops you from getting into your “flow” because you’re constantly interrupting yourself. How often do you really need to check it? Only you can determine that frequency, but the important thing is to stop making yourself a slave to your email
Stop Multitasking!
It doesn’t work. The science has proven it. Focus instead on completing the “one task”. Eventually what is in reality micro-switching, will become a bad habit of the past.
We don’t become more productive overnight.
Like everything worthwhile in life, it requires practice, perseverance, and focus.
What can you stop doing right away?
The road is easier together,
