Most people don’t realise that whatever you don’t do, determines what you can do. We all do similar things that bring added and uncalled for stress that can be avoided quite easily. Keeping check on these few points of the not-to-do list that Tim Ferriss has shared, just as you would on a to-do list, could go a long way in improving your daily performance. You don’t need to get started on all simultaneously, just focus on one or two at a time – depending on your own comfort and ability – and you’re good to go.
1. Do not expect to fill a non-work related void with work
Your work is not your life, Ferriss himself says so, and neither should your co-workers be your only friends. Learn to make schedules, follow and protect them just as you would with your work-related appointments. Don’t push everything for the weekend, if you haven’t yet, read up on Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek so you learn to make the most of your per-hour productivity. You will learn to build more focus to get critical work cleared enabling you to find free time.
2. Do not stay glued to your cellphone/s
Keep one day in the week where you can stay away from your cellphone, at least for work-related things. Try leaving your phone at home when you go out for a dinner or even just a walk at minimum, it’s perfectly alright to not be ‘available’ 24/7. Maybe it will even help you be more available and definitely more focused toward the people around you.
3. Do not work without priorities
Without prioritizing, everything seems important or urgent. At the beginning of each day, define the single most important thing to do and the rest of it will consequently seem less important and urgent. It is understandable that you may not always be able to follow through on a ‘plan’ for the day but it doesn’t need to be as haywire as it currently is. Sometimes, it is better to let a small bad thing happen than to cram up your time, health and life in order to attend to everything. Introspect and define the few major things that will have the biggest impact and set out to do those first.
4. You don’t need to constantly check mails, you could ‘batch’ check it
You waste a lot of time and mostly brain-juice when you’re constantly checking mails. While you maight not be acting on it just yet, it plays in the back of your mind. Very often mails do not require immediate action, thus you can give it zero attention while you’re executing something more productive and important. You could batch-check your mails two-three times a day, hourly or even half-hourly – depending on your personal requirement – but definitely not in ‘real-time’. Focus on the execution of your to-do list of priorities and not manufactured emergencies.
5. Do not latch on to low-profit, high-maintenance customers
First off, this does not apply to just business and specifically ‘customers’. While the path or secret to success is not predefined, the path to failure does include looking to please everybody. Practice the 80/20 method, wherein you identify who the 20% of your customer base is that produces 80% of your profits and which 20% consumes 80% of your time. Once you’ve figured that out, you can place the least productive lot on the lower priority shelf. Else, if you can afford it, you could even place revised terms and conditions and risk their business – it might be worth it.
6. Don’t chit-chat
Sometimes we do need to take a break from sitting in front of our screens and it makes sense to look away or even get away. There are constructive ways of taking a break that does not include idle talk and meaningless gossip. If someone calls or asks for your attention momentarily, you could say “I’m in the middle of something but what’s going on?” or something similar. That will let them know you really are doing something on priority which should make them get to the point quicker. Also, learn how to ask to ‘get to the point’, always.
7. Avoid meetings and calls with undefined agendas
When the desired outcome or objective is predefined and there is an agenda with listed topics or questions to cover your meeting could wrap up in under 30 minutes. One way of trying to make sure of this is by requesting for this information prior to agreeing telling them that it would allow you to “best prepare” for the meeting so as to make good use of both/all of your time.
8. Don’t take calls from unrecognized numbers
While some people like freelancers, etc might receive a large portion of their business coming in from unrecognized numbers (at least initially), as mentioned earlier, you do not need to be available round the clock. Put it this way, the person calling you may not appreciate you taking business calls that aren’t of importance to them while you’re together. It also might leave you in an underprepared position to negotiate and the interruption, if it goes awry, could seriously break your flow. Voicemail is a simple way to take care of this.
9. Do not email as you wake or before you sleep
In fact, stay away from your electronic devices for as long as you can before going to bed and when you wake up. Set a routine of sorts to automate what time you should pick it up in the morning and put it down at night because, among other negatives, the former could mess up your plans for the day and the latter leads to insomnia.
It’s great if you manage to follow through with your to-do list, however, that too is only possible once you filter out the unwanted distractions. If you face trouble in doing the things you should be doing, start by analysing what it is you should stop doing. If you feel the need to start working out to improve your health but can’t seem to get started, maybe laying off junk food is good first step in that direction. In other words, one way to create a good to-do list, is by starting with a not-to-do list.
