4. Ignore tasks
What was already on five lists is either impossible to achieve or completely unimportant. So delete by delegating or ignoring. Of course, no one can manage a software project in their head without tools, but for many simpler things in the office you should also rely on the brain’s natural filtering function. A lot of what we forget, we rightly forget.
5. Simplify priority lists
Fans of effective Excel lists like to work with four to five priority levels. You spend at least an hour every day maintaining these lists and regrouping individual items again and again. This effectively avoids dealing with things at the top of the sheet. We generally know what is really important. Even without a list.
6. Weigh up effort and return
This can also be done without a tool: Should I really spend another half hour searching for the plugin that my colleague recommended to me? Does this really benefit me? Or do I not really know? You can confidently decide such questions based on your gut feeling. The only important thing is to set them fundamentally and to constantly check whether we are spending our time on the right things.
7. Minimize distractions
Unexpected, unplanned distractions are the most disruptive at work. If you quickly check your emails and of course respond quickly to your colleague, our concentration on the project plan we are currently working on will be lost.
Remedy: Switch off your email program (if possible), switch off your telephone or activate the answering machine. End current task, then turn everything back on. Apart from emergency doctors, for very few of us every minute of calls counts.
8. Time to think
If you leave the office alone at lunchtime to eat or do something, you can leave your cell phone on your desk and take a pad and pen with you instead. At lunch you can think about what’s coming up and take notes.
