HOW TO BE EFFECTIVE WHEN YOU'RE TOO BUSY TO GET ANYTHING DONE (September 14, 2017)

It’s the end of the day, and as your mind looks back over it you find yourself struggling to think of anything meaningful that actually got done. Come to think of it, the same applies to the day before, and the day before that… sound familiar?

It seems we’re always fighting fires and making endless decisions according to researchers at Cornell University (Wansink and Sobal, 2007) we make 226.7 decisions about food alone every single day  it’s no wonder we feel like we’re treading water day in and day out.

Goals have been around a long time and can be a cause of frustration in themselves. How many times have you set a New Year’s resolution or dreamed up grand ambitions while sunning yourself at the batch in late December, only to see them slip away without a trace the moment you got back into the office.

However, some new thinking around time management and goal setting suggests that goals themselves can be an effective time management tool; a device to actually achieve something meaningful and constructive.

In its simplest form, a goal is a device to help control an outcome or achieve a result.

A common mistake is to set a goal even loosely in your mind or on paper and tell yourself that you”re committed to clearing some space to really get your teeth into the goal. It never happens. All or nothing usually ends in nothing.

Tip #1 Slow and steady wins the race

Commercial Marketing Director at Microsoft, Helen Tupper, suggests setting destination goals she calls zoom out goals and step goal which she calls zoom in a goals the small steps that will take you to your destination.

For example, if you wanted to write a book (your zoom out goal) a hundred words a day (your zoom in goal) will get you there eventually, which is a lot better than never arriving at all.

Tip #2 Limit your goals to two or three

I currently have three active goals, but this is where I have stopped, says Tupper. It’s very important that you have a realistic number active at any one time to avoid goal competition. Goal competition is a significant barrier to achievement as you risk spreading your limited focus and attention too thinly.

Instead, set a maximum of three active goals to work on and have a bank of other goals you can swap in when you’ve achieved them. Accumulating goals can feel attractive in the moment, however your wish list can soon feel like a motivational deadweight if you don’t start to make progress.

Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and co-author of The Progress Principle says most managers just take on too much.

If you don’t keep an eye on the commitments you’ve made or are making, there is no time management technique that’s going to solve that, she says.

Tip #3 Accept that you’re never going to catch up

The idea that we can get it all done is the biggest myth in time management, says Peter Bregman, the bestselling author of the books 18 Minutes and Four Seconds.

There are two main challenges in doing the right things: identifying the right things and doing them. Most of us manage our time reactively, making choices based on the needs that land on our desks. To determine the right things, we need to make deliberate choices that will move us toward the outcomes we most want, Bregman says.

In other words, pick your battles.