Personal Productivity Coaching (Step #3)
If you can't describe what you're doing as a process,
you don't know what you're doing.
-W. Edwards Demming
How can you improve what you're doing?
3) Simplify
What are you doing, and how are you doing it?
What can be simplified, automated, and delegated?
Good systems are needed at the individual level as well as at the organizational level. And if you want to be focused on the big picture (your goals and purpose) while managing the volume of workflow, you'd better have good systems in place that support you in easily executing your purpose.
If you want to streamline and simplify your workflow, systematize it. This means creating systems and shortcuts for handling recurring tasks and activities. If you don't continually review what you're doing and how - so that processes can be continually improved, systematized and streamlined as your office or business grows, work becomes duplicated, redundant, and inefficient. And stressful.
To Begin Simplifying Your Work:
First, do you really know just what you're doing on a recurring basis, and how much time you're spending in each activity? Start by making a checklist of all of your recurring activities. Sort that list by tasks you do on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis.
Then, evaluate the activities on your checklist. How much time do you spend on each activity on a daily basis?
Remember the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle): 80% of our efforts account for only 20% of the results achieved. Most of us are spending 80% of our time in activities that give us just 20% of our results. And 80% of our results come from just 20% of our effort and time. Compare what you're ACCOUNTABLE for (Step #2) to what you're actually doing everyday.
What are the 20% of the activities that you can focus on that will give you the best result? What tasks and projects in the 80% can be: delegated? deleted? simplified or streamlined? automated?
If you supervise other's work, write a Recurring Tasks Checklist for every position. It assures that activities are tracked and completed. People don't have to rely on their memories. And, it makes it easy to train new staff or delegate work.
Then, take it to the next level by periodically reviewing each activity on the Recurring Tasks Checklist. Identify those tasks that are critical, those that can be simplified or automated, and those that require written procedures and policies.
