Bonjour, this is Cyril, from Work Smarter, Live Better. In this video I want to talk about the first step to manage your tasks effectively.
I am at the moment in Germany. I’m working in the Munich office of one of my clients. They have this amazing elevator called the paternoster. It’s an old lift with no door. Each carriage turns around non stop and you just jump in and out. Let me jump in.
We just had a discussion with the team here about how we manage our tasks. How do we hear about our tasks? Well, three ways: you can either think about it, hear about it from someone else or read about it. The issue with the two first ones is that they are floating. If you don’t write them down you might forget.
So the first step of task management is to make a note of it immediately, as soon as you hear or think about something to do.
That sounds great. However some people struggle at this first step. They start writing down what they have to do and at the same time thinking about it: when is it due? Will I have the time to do it? What needs to be done exactly? Should I involve other people? And so on.
My suggestion: write down what has to be done immediately but grooming it for later.
Grooming a task is to answer all the above questions. When you write it down you don’t groom. You just brain dump on a piece of paper your thought as it is. That’s it. No more.
Don’t think about it. Just brain dump it. Later on you will review it and groom it. But this is a different step. Do not mix these two steps. Just make a note of it.
This is this week Work Smarter: Live Better tip. I’m going to finish my trip in this amazing elevator and go back working with the team.
A bientôt
Cyril
