14 Tech Tips For Managing Day-To-Day 'Business Chores'
1. Review Tasks The Night Before
My trick is starting the night before by going over my most important tasks for the following day and prioritizing them. The following morning, I check my emails quickly for emergencies and if nothing comes up, I start with the hardest task first thing in the morning.
2. Have A Dedicated ‘Focus Hour’
I set aside a dedicated hour each day to review email, to-dos and other small tasks. I block this hour on my calendar and use it for these daily tasks. This focus hour has allowed me to dedicate more time to higher-priority projects without interruption.
3. Hold Daily Scrum Meetings
Email messages and other distractions often wedge their way into your daily to-dos and keep you from focusing on what’s most important. To overcome this, my team and I hold daily scrum meetings to hone in on priorities. Not only do they allow us to answer any pending questions, but they also let us identify and map out solutions to project obstacles so that everyone can have a productive day
4. Create A Weekly Plan Each Sunday Night
On Sunday night, I decide on priorities for the week and then execute that plan. This keeps me from getting distracted by every email and every conversation. I do scan emails periodically, but I only act on those requiring immediate attention or aligning with my priorities. Every night or early morning, I clean up my inbox by responding, snoozing or archiving emails to an organized label structure.
5. Schedule Day-to-Day Tasks In Specific Windows
This became much simpler for me when I began allotting three specific times throughout the day to address day-to-day activities like checking email. Before doing this I would get stuck bouncing back and forth and slowing down progress on big projects.
6. Turn Off Notifications During Your Focus Time
Every day I have a set amount of time to deal with such day-to-day tasks without any distractions. I turn off my notifications and give my full attention to it. I believe that it is important to stay organized even while dealing with something as simple as answering emails.
7. Pick Your Top Three Priorities And Delegate Everything Else
Delegating aggressively is the only way to get everything done. When I’ve delegated aggressively I make a list of my three priorities for that day. I do this on paper, as big as it needs to be and right next to my keyboard so I see it all day long. Reducing my list to three priorities ensures they (eventually) get done.
8. Measure Your Priorities
If your priorities are sound (“biggest bang for your buck,” “gamechanger,” etc.), then you should have a list of measurable priorities that are important enough to act on. It’s important to have the idea of playing offense and defense. Your “chores” are your defensive plays, while your priority-list/game-changing tasks or decisions are your offense. One cannot exist or progress without the other.
9. Index Your Files
Locating meeting notes and design documents from archived folders can be time-consuming, especially when they are kept in multiple directories and use various naming conventions. Instead of filing each individually, a good trick is to leverage Windows’ native indexing option to create indexes for properties such as file name, file path and text content to vastly reduce the search-lookup time.
10. Schedule Your Downtime
For writing, drafting ideas, strategizing or just alone time, block off time on your calendar where you focus on dealing with chores like emails, reviewing reports, etc. Even things like social media and catching up on news should be scheduled to avoid having them creep into your productivity. This leaves you room to focus and prioritize tasks while still having enough downtime.
11. Categorize And Eliminate As Much As You Can
To better manage your day-to-day “chores,” it’s key to reduce the amount as much as possible. The best way to do so is by categorizing them and finding which mundane tasks can be completely eliminated if certain changes are made. For example, if you discover that half of your mails are regarding a broken working process, focus on fixing that process and then address each of the emails.
12. Spend The First Part Of Your Day Planning And Prioritizing
Finding uninterrupted time is difficult for many people. Getting an early start to the day gives me a couple of hours of uninterrupted time to focus, plan and prioritize tasks. After getting ready for the day, I like to spend the first hour answering questions and emails and completing miscellaneous tasks. Then I switch gears and plan and prioritize projects that need immediate attention.
13. Prioritize Ruthlessly
Two tactics really help. First, schedule time for the small, but necessary, tasks such as checking email. Build time for them into your calendar specifically and enforce the time limit. This forces you to focus and prioritize completing those tasks. The second tactic is to push more time-consuming items into your task list so you can better prioritize or delegate that work.
14. Maximize The Time Within Your Control
Most of the time in my day is not under my control due to externally facing commitments or other meetings. For the time I do control, I try to separate out periods of checking email and Slack from periods of singular focus on a deeper task. During focus time, I may turn off notifications, put on noise-canceling headsets and not allow my mind to multitask. Mixing both means I get little done.