Our everyday life has changed dramatically. What was typical for the years before was either too slow or fast. People struggle daily with the overload of tasks, asks, and demands they receive. Many of us don’t know how to manage those upcoming disturbers of our balance, and often, we see the burnout described in books, articles, and research in practice. The struggle with tasks is moving so fast that many people give up and leave it the way it is until the unthinkable (burnout) comes to their doors. After they face this situation of exhaustion and helplessness, many make the other mistake, often called “turning the other page,” and start acting oppositely to what they have done up to the moment. This often leads to conflicts, missed deadlines, struggles with tasks and relationships, and yelling with authorities.
Does this look familiar to you? Did you experience some of the situations mentioned above? Did you face the consequences of totally redirecting your behavior and engagement toward tasks assigned to you? Well, I can calm you down that some forty-eight percent of people are in the same situation as you.
Turning from one extreme to the other doesn’t lead to a productive and balanced approach; it just turns forces and energies from constructive to destructive forms.
And at the end of the day, everything is just about all the tasks someone else creates for us or we accept as our responsibility.
Many productivity experts in the world are talking about how to manage your tasks better to help yourself move out of the situation where you are overwhelmed and exhausted. Many courses on this topic are offered for free or in a paid variant. Coaches have programs to teach businesses and ordinary people how to handle tasks.
And all these fancy and complex systems and approaches still come to one step – a simple analysis of the nature of the tasks. There is a classical analytical approach toward task management that is easy to implement and resultful. You need to analyze and split the schemes into categories. Many people will say that this is another effort that won’t lead to anything good, and tasks here remind us how helpless we are against them and how much energy we need to put into dealing with them.
I don’t yell that tasks must be finished because their successful execution and finish bring results. But at the same time, I insist you think smartly about how jobs in your pocket must be managed to deliver not satisfying but great results.
A simple system of analyzing tasks can help deliver the best results, no matter the number of jobs you assign.
Doing this intelligent but straightforward analysis of the tasks bucket you have must help you divide tasks into five different buckets:
Bucket 1: Must-do tasks:
These are your tasks. They can be done only by you and no one else. These tasks need your knowledge, skills, approach, and commitment. They are a direct responsibility; you must take and leave with them. The essential functions define your unique personality and professionalism here. Here is where the most significant part of your focus and energy must be focused.
Bucket 2: Should do tasks
Now, let’s be honest; not every task that you get has the same impact on you or the world around you. Tasks should not disappear if you identify them, but they must not become mandatory in your everyday agenda. This bucket of tasks includes those whose fulfillment can add additional value but won’t harm the main agenda of your execution and success. They are for when you have time or are planned with a deadline, long enough not to create such stress as the must-do tasks. There is still time for them, and when you have time, why rush so angrily to them now? SHOULD tasks may become a MUST DO the job, but often, this process happens in time.
Bucket 3: Nice to do tasks
The third bucket contains tasks that are an excellent additional value added to what is happening in your life but do not directly impact your delivery of the primary agenda you follow. The value added with the is somehow complimentary and not necessary for your success. No need to focus on them. Divide them not more than five percent of your time. Look at them as the intricate details that make everything look perfect. And be careful not to invest too much time in this bucket. If, after a simple analysis, you see that the time you spend with this bucket is more than five percent of the time you are distributing toward tasks, then this may be a sign that you are turning into a perfectionist that may turn the productive approach into a negative delivery, delayed with minor elements.
Bucket 4: Tasks you delegate
The first thought here is, “But there is my responsibility.” And this is where you are wrong. In most cases, we get tasks based on someone else’s perception that we may deal with them faster than the rest of the people around us. And part of the tasks assigned may look boring to us. This causes us to act slowly with them and lose precious time for the most critical studies. And our time is limited.
But the good thing is that there is always someone who feels good about a task that is boring or not worthy of us. You must only find that person and give the job to them.
And NO, you don’t give the responsibility for the task completion to the person you identify; it is still in your hands. What you do is use this additional resource (someone else’s capabilities, knowledge, and skills) to deliver your full agenda without having people disappointed around you.
So, no matter your personality, learning to delegate can significantly boost your completion score.
Bucket 5: Tasks you must eliminate
The sad truth in today’s tasks culture of rushing is that almost twenty percent of the tasks are irrelevant on the same day they were given to someone (HBR Article 2022 – “How tasks are killing our productivity”). And the more you focus on those unproductive and time-wasting tasks, the more you struggle with adding value to the real agenda you are following. The simple analysis that shows that a job must be made obsolete is mandatory here. If, after the analysis, the value of the results of the tasks is not confirmed or at least seen in the future, then you need directly to scratch off this task from your list, with the proper explanation to the one who gave it to you. Doing this can free you more time to focus on what is meaningful and what will bring tangible results within a shorter period.
IN CONCLUSION:
Time is a constant that makes many people suffer. Managing it appropriately and distributing it to the most meaningful and value-adding activities is a crucial prerequisite for success and prosperity. Only those who learn how to allocate their and others’ time correctly can take the maximum satisfactory results from that distribution. And all the other people will continue to struggle until they find their unique place for meaningful contributions toward the greater good now and in the future.
The Human place - a path from you to yourself 