- Say “No” or “Not now” more often.
- Write down (or at least have an idea of) the top 3 things you want to get done today.
- Free up time to get those things done. I put “focus time” on my calendar in most mornings and don’t accept meetings (auto decline) unless I decide to prioritize them.
- Time is always prioritized, the question is whether you control the prioritization or others control it for you.
- The calendar should reflect your prioritization.
- Review next week’s calendar ahead of time at least once and prioritize it according to your needs.
- Free up your mind. Don’t try to remember. Write down everything.
- Find a process to get things done that works for you.
- Every task I need to get done will go to my backlog (a simple list of tasks).
- Medium and Large size tasks that I prioritize get to my calendar (specific day and time), usually in my focus time.
- Small size tasks get done whenever I review my tasks backlog and emails (usually every day, focus time or between meetings).
- For follow ups and monitoring, I use the Snooze option a lot.
- Whenever I must remember to do something in a specific day or time, I put it on my calendar and mark it in red.
- Chat/messages/notifications should be turned off by default. Open only when you want to see or reply to messages. Otherwise it’s a distraction – especially in focus time.