No matter what our role, it’s increasingly a challenge to fit everything in.
Multi-tasking is great but it often means we get less done even though we manage to start and attend to a lot of things that need progress.
I was reminded today of Charles Schwab’s enduring formula for managing productivity:
The “Big 6”
1. Make a list, before the start of each day,
of the things that need to be accomplished.
2. Identify your "Big 6" and put a star (*) by them.
Commit to accomplishing the top six that are
CURRENTLY most important to your goals .
3. Begin work on the one that is most important.
Continue working until that task is completed
(or something else became more important).
So as simple as it sounds, it is effective.
1. Write your list
2. Prioritise your "Big 6"
3. Take Action !
The difficulty for most of us is getting the undisturbed time to focus on those six things. That might mean scheduling them one by one. Maybe even start with just your most important four tasks.
The trick is to not make the tasks mammoth projects in themselves. Making progress on a major project by completing 10 tasks this week is way better than fiddling around the edges and not getting any concrete results towards it. The old ‘chunk it down’ principle.
Personally I’d rather reach the end of the week and have definite progress that I can ppint to than lots of analysis and ideas that I still haven’t got off the ground.
What do you think of the big 6 system?