Tommy's Blog

Do you use a todo list? Are you happy with it? I use the task list in Outlook and flag items with due dates. But for a while now I have found myself at the end of the day moving dates on a bunch of unfinished tasks. Some of them move day after day until I finally get to them or they age so much that they are no longer relevant.

A couple of weeks ago, I tried something that, in retrospect, seems obvious but that has made a big difference. Instead of just assigning tasks to a specific day, I actually schedule time on my calendar for them. 8:30-9:45 to the reminder messages to all the people from whom I need information that day. 10:00-10:05 to update the team Web site with pointers to the latest builds. Maybe fifteen minutes at 15:00 to propose the new branch plan and RI schedule.

It’s had a huge effect on my productivity but I am not necessarily getting more done. Why not? And why is that useful? When I block out time to do the work, I find that there is not nearly as much time in the day as I used to imagine. So I have to make conscious decisions each day about what I will do–and, perhaps even more importantly, about what I will not do.

I have always had a problem delegating work, either because I think I can do it better or quicker, or because I feel guilty asking other people to do things that I am able to do. But now that I am explicitly scheduling time for everything that I need to do during the day, it has been much easier for me to share work.