“Efficiency is intelligent laziness” - David Dunham
I’m sure you’ve been there. It’s getting late in the day, and you’ve been pushing your tasks off… just for a littttle while longer. You finally realize that you’ve accomplished next to nothing today, and you’re suddenly hit with a feeling of being overwhelmed! There’s just so much to do, and not enough time to do it, right?
Wrong, you’re just way too inefficient, probably more than you realize. I’m going to share with you five hard-hitting tips to make sure you can avoid this situation and have more time to hang out and relax.
Make A What Did I Do List
Perception can be deceiving. You may think you’re being productive, but most people end up using crutch activities to get through the day.
A great example is checking e-mail – this is an activity that somewhat simulates forward movement, but if you were to be honest with yourself, you’d probably realize that there’s very little momentum to be built in your inbox, and it usually leads to distractions.
So face reality. At the end of the day for a few days, write down everything you actually ACCOMPLISHED and, even better, how much time that took you (including your procrastination time). Seeing that you finished 1.5 hours of productive work in a 10 hour day may be a bit of a shock, but that’s a fairly typical ratio.
If those numbers alone don’t motivate you, show a friend and compete to see who can get more work done in less hours. Wouldn’t it be nice to finish twice the work in half the time? What if you could do 3 hours of productive work in 4 hours of work time? These next tips will help you with cutting your total time down.
Most Things Aren’t Worth Doing
“The essence of genius is to know what to overlook” – William James
Before we can look at how to get laser focused on the list, we need to make sure we’re focusing on the most important things.
The often quoted 80/20 rule comes into play here – 20% of your activities will lead to 80% of your results, and vice versa. If you take an honest assessment of your list, see what activities either give you a low return or are extremely time consuming. Items that fall under both of those headings need to be eliminated. If you have items that are either time consuming or a low return on the time input, then use your best discretion.
When in doubt, ask yourself if the item you’re looking at deleting will have any impact on your life 5 years down the road. The fastest way to get something done is to delete it!
The Most Important Question of The Day
It’s morning, you’re well fed and wide awake… now what? Your list of 57 items is set in front of you, and as you take a quick glance, you feel a little flutter in your heart. Looks a little… overwhelming?
That’s okay! Simply go down the list and ask the following question until you get a strong yes come back to you – If this is the ONLY task I complete today, will I be satisfied?
If you can then get into action on that item, and potentially finish it before lunch time, you’ll set yourself up for some amazing momentum and breeze through the day.
When In Doubt, Do What’s Most Uncomfortable
If you have a bunch of items on your list, and really can’t decide on what to work on, pay attention to what items make you squirm a bit. Items that are challenging you to grow, consist of a lot of work, or have a big payoff usually bring up a feeling of uncomfortableness when we think of them. Do that task.
Get into the habit of embracing that uncomfortable feeling rather than trying to hide it away on a list. The faster you do that, the more momentum you’ll build to blow away your other items, and then relax.
Getting Into Action
If its a big item, no sweat! I could offer some insightful quote, such as the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step… but I’m sure you’ve heard that before 
. Simply ask yourself what the next foreseeable action would be.
Clarity is key here. If you have an item that you want to start, but you feel yourself getting into procrastination mode, ask yourself this – If I was to physically start doing this, what is the first action I would take and where would that be?
When you know exactly what to do, you take away a lot of your mental blocks to doing the activity.
Next time you’re sitting in your pajamas at three in the afternoon and you’re wondering what the hell happened to the day, realize that it’s time to change things. Clarify, eliminate, get focused, and take action. The quicker you do that, the quicker you can get back to lazing around in your pajamas without feeling that guilty, I-know-I-should-be-doing-something-else feeling.
