Category Archives: productivity

9 reasons why it is important to finish tasks

By Kate Davis | Published: January 23, 2012
Fourth rail bridge

Photograph by flickrtickr2009

I’m a big fan of “little and often” because it helps to reduce the resistance associated with big tasks and means you don’t work on one task to the exclusion of other tasks. However, I have realised recently that my task list is not getting shorter because I work on a task, cross it off and then add it on to the end of the list; if I want to reduce the length of my task list I need to actually complete some of the tasks. The oldest two outstanding tasks I can think of are a dress I was making for a wedding in 2006 and the thank you cards from when my daughter was born; she is now 3 and I’ve had a second baby!

I’ve been thinking about this over the last few weeks and compiled a list of reasons why it is important to finish tasks. In the hope that I’m not the only person with outstanding tasks I’m sharing the list to inspire you to finish tasks.

It is important to finish tasks:

  • so you don’t waste time working out where you were

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What do you need for hotdesking?

By Kate Davis | Published: September 11, 2011

These days hotdesking is not necessarily about moving desks within an office, it could be working between several offices, hotels or at home. It is unlikely businesses will move away from hotdesking or mobile working so it is important to make it work for your advantage. I’ve previously given tips on successful hotdesking, but thought it was worth expanding those ideas.

My first comment is to develop your own method; what works for other people may not be the most effective for you. Secondly work out what you need and thirdly assess how you can use what is provided by the company most effectively (these last two will be covered in a later post).

What do you really need?

I messy deskbelieve you need your hotdesk kit to be lightweight and simple. When you’ve had a fixed desk it is easy to accumulate things that you believe are essential.  Even if you are already hotdesking you may have collected items, for instance looking at my desk I can see I’m currently carrying a project file to my desk each day even though the project was completed several months ago, plus my pencil case should contain just ten items, but over time it has increased to about twenty.

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Learning about achievement from my daughter

By Kate Davis | Published: July 25, 2011

Many fine things can be done in a day if you don’t always make that day tomorrow

As a two year old at nursery it is not uncommon for my daughter to come home with art work in the evening. However,  recently she gave me a brilliant demonstration of the above statement.

While I was talking to the carer about how she’d been overnight and things to look out for during the day, she had sat down at the drawing table and used the stencils to produce a drawing  before I’d finished my 5 minute conversation. As I was on my way to work, it now resides inside my laptop to act as a reminder that to achieve things I have to start, and as soon as possible.

My daughter's five minute artwork

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How I plan my day – update April 2011

By Kate Davis | Published: May 3, 2011

My personality means I like to learn and make improvements, this means I usually have an interest in new things (although I consider if they offer worthwhile improvements to my current methods or items before investing time or money in them). This has resulted in changes to how I plan my day since I last wrote about it in June 2007. It has actually been a gradual process for me, but compared to four years ago the differences are significant.

1. Review my notebook / daily log

Example page in my third log bookMy first task is to review my notes from the previous day. This enables me to add missing information to my notes (for instance I was interrupted and didn’t finish what I was writing), identify actions for other people as well as myself and categorise my notes. This provides a real sense of control that I am not going miss anything.

The actions are:

  • read through notes and in left hand column write a category for notes and actions (in red)
  • transfer actions for me to my task list
  • transfer actions for other people as future follow up reminders in Outlook
  • add the category and page numbers in the notebook index.
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My new favourite productivity tool – paper clip bookmarks

By Kate Davis | Published: January 31, 2011

Sometimes you stumble across an item or idea that increases your productivity. Recently for me, it was a gift I was given for Christmas that I understood would be useful, but did not appreciate how it would help my productivity until the last week.

The official name is Multi-Reference Bookmarks, but they are essentially small bookmarks that work like paper-clips, holding the edge of the page. Originally, I had two plans; bookmarks and reference points within my journals as I reread them. Multi Reference BookmarksFor some reason I put a packet in my handbag and it ended up on my desk at work. In a moment of inspiration I realised they would help me prioritise my tasks.

I currently have a long task that I work through using the rules of AutoFocus by Mark Forster. I use these arrows to highlight the three tasks I want to work on during the day, either because they are urgent or important. They are colourful so they stand out, the little cut out means not all the text is hidden and it is clear when I’m on a different page and not working on my key tasks because the edge of the arrow sticks out slightly.

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Dealing with short term urgent tasks

By Kate Davis | Published: April 1, 2010

There are times when you feel overwhelmed with tasks; everything is urgent.  So what do you do? How do you choose what task to work on? You could choose the task with the nearest deadline, the one you like the best or the one you are being nagged to complete the most.

I’ve just finished a busy time at work and I’ve frequently felt overwhelmed with my urgent tasks as we approached the end of the financial year. Most days my AutoFocus system works wonderfully, but at times times my mind is so preoccupied with urgent tasks the thought of using that list just adds to my bewilderment.

Identifying the key tasks

When I start feeling overwhelmed (it could be first thing in the morning or at any time during the day) I put aside my task list and get another piece of paper. I spend sometime capturing the worries in my head and writing them as tasks. This means giving them an action word such as read, write, talk, so when I reach the action I know exactly what I need to do with no need for further analysis. It also helps to identify all the tasks that are concerning me. For instance, instead of adding blog to my list I would have:

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Using processes to aid efficiency

By Kate Davis | Published: September 22, 2009

I admit I like processes; in fact I’ll go as far as to say I love processes. There are so many wonderful things about processes, here are a few:

  • help explain what needs to be done
  • ensures every stage of a task has been considered
  • helps to identify efficiencies
  • helps to teach other people
  • ensures consistencies

I get a great deal of pleasure from breaking tasks into its component actions and arranging them in an efficient manner. Despite this I’ve never used processes at home; maybe I thought it was too much like work or perhaps I thought it was just too anal!

One of the tasks that is constantly on my task list is to sort through photographs and particularly to put them on the internet to share them with friends and family.  It seems I upload only a small proportion of the events where I take pictures. While I was downloading software to help me sort some pictures from a recent weekend with my parents, I realised one of the reasons I don’t work on the task as often as I’d like is because I have to think too much about what needs to be done.

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Little and often (getting big things done)

By Kate Davis | Published: June 22, 2009

There are some tasks that you really want to do, but are so big that you don’t know how you’ll find the time to complete it, or even where to start. There are two solutions:

  • put aside a day (or longer) and work on it until the task is finished
  • work on the task a little bit regularly over a longer period of time

I’m a big fan of the little and often approach and have used it for yeasr within different organisation systems and it is one of the features of AutoFocus, in fact it is positively encouraged.

Advantages of little and often

  • less resistance to starting the task if you know you only need to work on it for a short time
  • less procrastination as you can stop working on the task when you get tired of it and lose focus
  • means you can progress several tasks in a day, this can reduce stress particularly if you are working towards deadlines (especially if there is a chance the deadline maybe moved forward) or you need to provide regular progress updates
  • your brain has time to think about the task in between sessions and may come up with new ideas
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My AutoFocus set up

By Kate Davis | Published: May 27, 2009

AutoFocus is such a simple system that I think some people find are finding it difficult to get started. When I wrote my review of the system I thought about including some pictures of my set up, but decided against it because after all it is just a list. However after several requests, here is a description of my AutoFocus set up, which is pretty close to following Mark Forster’s instructions.

The book

AutoFocus notebookMy book is an A5 hardback wide ruled notebook. This is a book I already had in the house and from the notes on the inside cover appears to be a book from work that I previously used to track progress as part of my management diploma course. My bookmark was a gift from my sister from Japan and is a cat that clips to the cover of the book and the tail marks the page with my current task.

First page of AutoFocus listOn the first page I have the date I started the list.

Note:When this book is full, my second book will be a soft backed, spiral bound narrow ruled notebook. I prefer narrow ruled notebooks, but they are difficult to find in the UK so I have already bought this when I saw it a few weeks ago.

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Using AutoFocus (as a new mum)

By Kate Davis | Published: April 21, 2009

I’m a big fan of Mark Forster and have all three of his books (pre-ordering two of them). Mark has lots of tips for increasing productivity that do not involve a complex system like Getting Things Done. I have found many of his ideas beneficial particularly rotating through tasks implementing little and often, the concept of a closed list and minimising distractions by not working on incoming tasks until tomorrow.

Before giving birth I developed a new organisation system that incorporated many of Mark Forster’s ideas, as well as some from Getting Things Done. However, I soon realised it was not going to work because of the time it took to set up each day. Fortunately Mark issued a request for Beta testers for his new system AutoFocus in January 2009 just as I was looking to spend time on things other than baby.

AutoFocus

The best way to understand AutoFocus is to read the instructions on Mark’s site and to watch the video of Mark demonstrating how it works.

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  • About

    My name is Kate Davis and I'm working towards a happier and successful life and this blog follows my journey. I work almost full time as an environmental consultant and project manager and I'm the mother to a beautiful two year daughter.

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