New year, new to-dos.
It’s hard to get everything done every day. And as your tasks keep piling up, the load can feel overwhelming.
Eventually, you end up with a to-do list that involves responding to 50 emails, drafting four new campaigns, hiring new contractors… and you have no idea how to do it all.
Oof. Been there, done that.
So here is a simple method we often use to stay more productive.
How to stay productive?
Start by dividing your daily tasks into three buckets:
- Busy work. Anything that does not require deep thinking. This includes emails, most meetings, responding to messages, organization, and more.
- Creative work. Anything that requires deep, concentrated thinking.
- Personal tasks. Running errands, calling friends, cooking—you know the drill.
Next, do these tasks based on their separate buckets.
For example, you might set aside 30 minutes to check off as many of the busy work tasks as you can.
Then you might set aside a few hours to focus exclusively on creative work. And so on.
Why this is effective?
Busy work, creative work, and personal tasks are three very separate buckets. Yet most of us don’t treat them that way.
As a result, everything melds together. We start replying to emails mid-way through a creative project, we get distracted while we’re trying to organize projects, etc.
And this combination of excessive context-switching is a buzzkill for productivity.
Productivity, here we go
Productivity systems like this aren’t for everyone, but we’ve found that this one in particular can work magic.
Give it a try this year, and let us know how it goes for you!
