How to Get It All Done

This week, I am trying get a massive (possibly unrealistic) number of things done. There is a good reason – (there are always good reasons!)

We have special visitors from abroad next week, and I have planned to take some time off work to spend with them. I have plans for the weekend too – wholesome, exciting things I’m looking forward to, like: meeting new people, showing my activist side some love, and taking quiet time for me.

But all those special plans need their own space and time. And the work that needs done – good, interesting, thought provoking and important work – also needs space and time.

We can’t get it all done

This has been a hard lesson for me, and one that I still struggle to accept. I am the original optimist – and also, to be fair, have refined the art (over the years) of getting an implausible number of things done.

People who know me well have stopped trying to tell me not to overcommit. When they see the telltale signs of overcommitment – over-caffeination and impatience – they just nod sympathetically and try to stay out of my way.

However, the truth is: unless you are a ninja level decision maker and zen master – if you are feeling the pinch, you have probably planned to do more things than you can possibly, humanly do, and step 1 is accepting that you won’t get them all done.

But we can get the important things done

What are the important things? This one is something you’re going to have to decide all by yourself. If you haven’t done this before, it might be an idea to try this little exercise: write down all the things that make for a good life.

The activities that lead those things? Those are your important things.

Your vision for a good life (or living well) will change over time; I know mine certainly has. And that’s okay – everything changes.

To reduce friction when change happens, it can help to make a fresh start on your good life list – and use the new list to realign what you’re doing to what’s important to you, today.

Finding the balance: work vs ‘good life’

You might now think that your “good life” list has very little to do with your list of all the things that need to get done at work, and that is probably quite a common experience. If true, this is a good thing to know.

If you spend a lot of your time on activities at work that you can’t connect to your life goals, that is going to cause tension and may also lead you to handle that work in ways that are not strategic, or efficient, or healthy for you.

However, there is a way out: ninja-like prioritisation and zen master-level acceptance and forgiveness.

Prioritising: the WTF Method

Five years ago, I attended this fantastic course in Dublin for social justice leaders run by Denise Charlton and Dr Grainne Healy – it really changed my life, and sparked more than one great friendship, but more on that another time.

At the end of the course, we had to deliver a TedX style talk and for this, I presented on the WTF method:

• First, identify what are all the things that need to be done.
• Second, work out what are the things that only you can do. These are the things that cannot be delegated, or deferred. That important thing for your organisation that only you know how to do? That has to be you. If my kids are upset and they want a cuddle from me, then it’s only a cuddle from me that will do. This is your list of things that are going to get done.
• Focusing on things that only you can do, also highlights scarcity: of space and time. Over time, your goal is to only be doing the things that only you can do – and for these things to also significantly overlap with your list of “good life” important things.
• Third, what’s left needs to be f* out the window. It needs to be delegated, deferred or dropped.

(*flung, of course. I mean… flung out the window)

Getting the important things done

So you have your list of things that only you can do and your list of things that are actually important to you.

If these lists are shorter than the things you thought you had to do at the start – hurrah and congratulations!

If they are longer, then don’t worry – you’ve only surfaced what was there all along, and now at least the truth is in sight and you can make those decisions about what you do and drop with greater clarity.

This is an important thing to remember: even if you make no decisions, and do no planning, you are still making a decision – it’s just a more haphazard one.

Either way, it’s time to get to the doing – for me, at least!

Wish me luck & if you have some time, let me know what you do to prioritise or motivate yourself when your plate is full, and overflowing…

First published on LinkedIn on 31 May 2024:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-get-all-done-jen-ang-fxj7e/