Tag 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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Review of my daily log

By Kate Davis | Published: March 3, 2010

Over a year ago I asked for advice on how to keep a daily log and I used a lot of the suggestions when I started my own log. I kept my log from August to October 2008, a few days before I left work on maternity leave. I also started a log at home while I was on maternity leave (yes, it seems particularly odd to me that I did this with a new baby as well).

Before returning to work in November 2009 I reviewed my previous logs to see what worked and what didn’t and thought I’d share my thoughts.

Overview

I have found keeping a daily log at work worthwhile because so many of my thoughts are captured and can be reviewed later. Obviously after having a year off work my mind hasn’t retained all the details of my job and I’ve been able to refer back to my log to help me out e.g. finding the name of a file I couldn’t locate on the server. However, my system was too complicated and as I wanted it to be ‘perfect’ it was difficult to keep up to date. To help improve my system I did a lot of reading and I’ve included links at the end of this post to the sources I found helpful.

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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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Losing technology and losing my way

By Kate Davis | Published: September 1, 2009

Studland beachI’ve had a few problems recently. The most noticeable being the loss of my computer. The battery stopped charging and only occasionally registered the power supply. One theory is this may have been due to my daughter’s fascination with laptops; she had a tendency to pull out of the charging cable and chew on it. I now have a new 17″ latoptop, but have had to reinstall programmes and transfer files which has taken a long time (in fact I’m not quite there). This was soon after followed by a holiday where the internet connection wasn’t working. All this loss of technology, along with some illness, has meant I’ve lost my way in terms of productivity, and unfortunately my blog is one of the things to suffer

During the last few months, my approach to getting things done has been very much based on what is urgent or what is on my mind, so not as productive as using my AutoFocus list. It has also involved using paper so I now have several lists and blog posts I’ve started at different times that I need to locate.

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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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  • 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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