Getting a handle on your task list with a foolproof system is perhaps the most important and strategic thing you’ll do all day today, guaranteed.
Any entrepreneurs out there who own a dog? Raise your hand and keep them raised, if that’s you.
Did you have to housebreak and train your pooch? Absolutely. Your task-list works follows the same logic. It needs to be trained and managed, otherwise, it’ll jump on your couch and start ripping the pillows.
Well, not quite. But you know what I mean. So here are 10 effective task management tips to get your time under control — and use it to work smarter.
1. Turn off your emails & alerts when working — no exceptions
Maybe you’ve noticed you’re most productive in the morning. Or that you work best if you take meetings in the afternoons. Are you going to sabotage your productivity because an email notification came through?
If you’ve allocated a certain time of day for work, stick to it. Block out all social media by turning off your phone and perhaps even keeping it upstairs, if you work from home. Then, do the same with your desktop: use an app like Self Control for Macs and Freedom for PCs.
2. Automatically Move From Task to Task
Okay, you’ve turned off distractions. But how do you keep the momentum going? To motivate yourself to keep at it, you need to make sure you set up your tasks in such a way that you’re moving from task to task.
A useful method is Jerry Seinfeld’s hack for maintaining productivity, known as “Don’t Break the Chain!”
The idea is that, once you’ve set a list of things you want to get done, go through them until they’re done. If you make it through, you’ve maintained productivity. But if you can’t finish a single task, it gets moved to the next day and you have, essentially, “broken the chain”.
This is a simple but amazing motivation and you’ll be surprised how this idea will push you to stretch the boundaries of your productivity.
Overtime, you’ll learn exactly how much time certain things take you and how many tasks you can commit to before being in danger of “breaking the chain”.
3. Chunk Time
Task and team management is ultimately about tricking your brain into creating a habit out of productivity.
The Pomodoro Technique is a neat way of maintaining balance between productivity and reward. Named after the little tomato-shaped timers, the Pomodoro technique (which also comes in the form of a productivity app asks you to use a timer to break up your time into chunks of 25 minutes, with a 5 minute break. Once you’ve completed 4 consecutive working blocks — surprise! You get to reward yourself with 15-20 minutes of break time rather than just 5.
Productive entrepreneurs often find themselves trying to compete with each other, or even simply their own best record, for how many “Pomodoros” they can clock in a single working day.
4. Track Delegated Tasks
Every entrepreneur worth his or her salt knows: the business you build is only as powerful as the people who built it with you and the team management you can put together.
One of the best ways to work smarter and curb your task-list is to cut it down! And to cut it down, you simply delegate to another team member. For some, this can be hard to do — how do you trust someone else to do what you know so well? — but if you plan to scale your business to success, it’s a non-negotiable.
Once you’ve allocated a task to a team member, use productivity and time-tracking software like MoneyPenny.me to check in with hours logged and use their nifty live time tracking feature to keep updated with the progress of delegated tasks and what team members are working on. This kind of snapshot means you don’t have to waste extra time communicating but you can always review where productivity is dropping off or where it could be better spent.
Tracking delegated tasks to completion is ultimately what you want to do in order to practice effective task management.
5. Use Triggers
Task management is a process of using software or methods along with a routine that works when you’re most productive as well as acts as a safety net to catch you when you feel like your focus is flagging.
“If-Then” planning your task list is a really creative way to use triggers and achieve a goal. Here’s how it works. If there is a vast difference between what you want to get done and what you actually get done, the “if-then” method is for you.
Set yourself a condition or ultimatum: if there is a trigger, then you will perform a certain action to curb it.
“If my team members are eating lunch and I’m not, I will close the door to my office”.
You can also use this idea of “if-then” planning in the automation of certain functions of your business with apps that will handle workflows for you, for example: IFTTT.
6. Do. One. Thing
Never underestimate the power of focus in team management. Based on the best-selling book, “The One Thing” entrepreneurs should focus on only one thing at a time, no matter how tempting it may be to multi-task.
Whatever it is that you are doing right now should be the only thing you focus on. The Kanban method is a useful way to set up a simple paper-based chart of what you’ve done, what you’re currently responsible for and what you’ve already completed.
7. Automate & Delegate
In your daily and weekly task list, you’ll see that some things never change. Day after day, week after week, these tasks keep coming back. For entrepreneurs, this is usually items to do like sending invoices to clients, paying bills or perhaps even having team management check-ins.
Using accounting software that doubles as a project management like Moneypenny.me , for example, is incredibly important to being able to both — automating and delegating — and doing them well. Your task management abilities are only as strong as the tools you use to support your task-list, after all.
8. Review, Review, Review
Set one day aside a week to be able to review what went well, where you want to go next week and how far you’ve come. This is especially important because you want your task-list to ultimately have a purpose.
If you’re simply running around, accomplishing tasks and “keeping busy” without a sense of greater purpose, you’ll be running around doing “busy-work” forever.
Use a weekly planning system to manage your task list and give it a bigger purpose, a “why?” so to speak.
9. Keep It Simple
Complexity is the enemy of productivity. The more complex a task seems to get done, the more you’ll procrastinate and the more daunting it will seem.
In this case, go for project management or team management software that is lightweight and lean, while still being powerful. Err on the side of simplicity and if a tool feels too “top-heavy”, or like it has to many extra features with no obvious purpose don’t be afraid to look for a substitute.
10. Unplug
The bottom line is that you are not a machine and, no matter how much Soylent you chug to keep your time as productive as possible, you’re not a robot. You’re a human being who takes pleasure in things like family, friends and eating well.
Honor yourself and your time by taking one full day, or even half a day, to simply unplug and walk away. When you return, guaranteed, it will be with sharper focus and a clearer intent.
