Work-Life Solutions: Manage Your Workload So It Doesn’t Manage You

Create investment committee analysis report, interview job candidate, schedule dental appointment, negotiate new lease, pick up toothpaste along with the dry cleaning, and the list goes on and on. And when will you ever find time to plan your dream trip to Venice or write your first book?

Do you want to learn how to manage everything on your daily to-do list and still have time for your bucket list?

Fortunately, there is a way. Several authors have tackled the topic of work-life balance, time management and productivity, and their books are a great place to start. You can read David Allen’s “Getting Things Done,” Sally McGhee and John Wittry’s “Take Back Your Life!” and Stephen Covey’s “First Things First.” Each of these books is a helpful and easy read that will provide you with a system to manage it all.

But I know what you’re thinking: “Who has the time?” So here’s the short version.

First, begin by writing a list of everything that you’ve committed to doing, need to do and want to do. Create your list based on David Allen’s “Horizons of Focus” milestone structure. Start at the 50,000 ft. view of your life by asking big picture questions like “what do I want out of life?” You can then work your way down to the “Runway,” listing the things
you need to do to get you through today, such as picking up the bottle of chardonnay you forgot to get last night or organizing the planning meeting that you need to schedule before the end of the week.

Each of the time managementproductivity systems described in the books above relies on this first step of capturing or collecting everything, which is then followed by a series of simple steps.

Here’s a summarized graphical overview of the five phases you will need to learn and master in your quest to manage it all: Capture, Process, Organize, Do and finally Review.

Capture – Collect everything that has your attention or needs your attention. Use only one or two collection tools (e.g., notepad, smartphone, tablet, laptop, apps)
Process – Is it a project or task? Is it actionable? If so, what is your immediate next actionable step?
Organize – Sort your action items into categories, such as what, how, when, where, personal and professional.
Do – Make the right choices about what to do now and execute according to your plan.
Review – Stay on course with regular reviews.

During the Organize phase of this system, you can use Stephen Covey’s Urgent/Important Matrix to help you build useful categories and understand the priority of each item on your list. The Urgent/Important Matrix is a powerful way of thinking about priorities. Using it helps you overcome the natural tendency to focus on urgent activities, so that you can keep clear enough time to focus on what’s really important. This is how you shift from “firefighting on the runway” into a position where you can achieve goals and grow personally and professionally.

If there’s a toilsome sector in this simple system, it would be the Review phase. The Review phase is the commitment phase. This is where holding fast to a routine 15- to 30-minute daily review, 1- to 2-hour weekly review, 1- to 2-hour monthly review and an annual review of the big picture items on your list comes into play. This is also where you get to crossing off (which feels really good) tasks or projects that have been completed. The difficulty in this phase is not the actual steps of doing it, but getting into the habit of doing it.

How does the review process work? What exactly should you do during those 15 to 30 minutes per day?

Daily – You should be reviewing your Runway’s action list and your calendar.
Weekly – Spend an hour or so (possibly on the weekend over a glass of wine) focusing on your current projects and areas of responsibilities, both personal and professional.
Monthly – At the top of the month, end of the month or even somewhere in between, review your 1 to 2-year goals.
Annually – Review the higher-level goals and issues of your life and work.

If you commit to this system and approach it as a holistic solution for finding that highly sought-after balance to work and life, then you will be able to focus on the important things, and you will greet life and all of its tasks with what David Allen calls the “productive experience.” You will feel in control, calm, focused, and inspired, and most of all, you will be getting things done!