In the early days of my startup, I thought that working long hours was required to build a successful business.
But everything changed in 2018 when I had 9 months to prepare for the birth of my first child. I needed to figure out a way to cut my work hours from an average of 50 per week to 35.
Ditching my to-do list and switching to managing tasks in my calendar helped with this.
Calendars are better for task management than a to-do list
However, many founders find it hard to let go of their to-do lists.
Common fears about not having a to-do list:
- I won’t be able to keep track of everything I need to do
- I won’t have somewhere to jot down tasks as they come to me
- I won’t know what I need to work on each day
All of these concerns can be addressed by using your calendar to manage tasks.
#1: Start by applying the 2-minute rule to processing your email
Action every email that takes less than a few minutes.
For remaining emails, batch them into similar tasks and then allocate time in your calendar to work on that group of tasks.
I also 'snooze' these emails, so they arrive back in my inbox at the time I have scheduled to work on that group of tasks.
#2. Planning your schedule in advance
Every Friday I do a calendar review and plan my tasks for the week ahead.
This doesn’t mean I sit down on Friday and start from scratch. Throughout the week I have been adding tasks to my calendar as they crop up.
#3. Buffer: build in at least an hour a day for the unexpected
Building in a bufffer prevents your day from being derailed by the unexpected.
#4 Give yourself tight timelines
Parkinson's law - "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"
I like setting myself challenges to see how quickly I can get through certain tasks.
#5. Have a 'someday list'
Creating a ‘someday list’ reduced the guilt I felt around unactioned tasks. It made it ok to not tackle these tasks right now.
I review the ‘someday’ list as part of our quarterly project planning process.