Complete This Chart to Help You When You Are Overwhelmed.
Today is Tuesday, around 11 a.m. and you are almost eaten. You have a bunch of documents on your desk, 10 emails to reply to, and a Slack message or two from your boss asking when she can expect an updated draft of your project proposal. It doesn’t matter if you need to remember to stop at the grocery store on your way home, update your payroll deductions, and finally subscribe to this password management system that has been a perennial marker on your to-do list.
It’s a lot.
Sean Blanc, founder of Sweet Setup , details a simple strategy to calm your mental frenzy and focus on your most important task at any time.
First, make a list of the following
- What urgent questions do you have now?
- What areas of responsibility do you manage?
- What projects are you working on?
- What do you think you should be doing but not doing?
Then create the matrix below and place each task in one of the fields:
Here’s how he explains how to prioritize:
- The items in cells 1 and 4 are the things you must choose to take responsibility and make them a priority in your life.
- What’s in Box 2? It’s great that these are the things you love, but make sure they don’t get in the way of being in Block 1.
- What’s in box 3? This must go! Pass them on to someone else. Get help, find out how to automate the process, ask your boss if you can be relieved of these responsibilities, etc.
For the fourth block, Blanc recommends implementing “systems to help you automate these things. Habits and routines help keep important areas of your life on track, even if you can’t or don’t want to give those areas your full attention. ”
If you put things in drawer two in front of drawer one, you know it’s time to make a change. Then breathe in and focus on “only you can do.”
The very definition of suppression | Sean Blanc