To ensure I spend my time wisely and that work doesn’t take over my life, I’m experimenting with putting more of a daily routine in place. Both to help structure the day, but also to minimise decision making at key points where a lack of pre-made decision can easily sway me in the opposite direction.
Like when I’m packing my gym bag before the crack of dawn and for the life of me don’t know what to wear. In those situations where I have trouble deciding (what to wear and hence pack), it takes me longer to get out the door and that either means less time in the gym, or that I get into the office later than I’d like. None of which is a feeling that helps with starting the day off right. To help ensure I go to the gym and get my mornings off to a good start, I’m attempting to pack my gym bag the night before. That way the only thing I have to do in the morning is put on my gym clothes and head out the door. Less time for faffing about, or for coming up with excuses, and more chance of me actually going to the gym.
To help me get out of “doing” and into the routine of spending my time more wisely at work, I’m writing down my three most important tasks for the day first thing in the morning. There’ll be other things to do, but having those priorities clear helps to both plan my day and to hold myself accountable. I’ve not completely mastered it yet, but it’s something we started implementing in our morning catch ups last year and will do this year. I’m keen to get the team into the habit of approaching each day this way. To reflect briefly on what worked and didn’t work the day before and to prioritise the day ahead. I’m putting it on myself to write everyone’s three prioritise down so that we can track how we’re doing. It may prove too much in the long run to do this, but to help us get into the routine and become more aware, it’s something I’m keen for us to try for now.
When I studied at uni I was big on only ever studying for 45 mins at a time and then have a break. Last year I didn’t take as many breaks as I should have and at times I spent too long on something when I should have moved on to something else. My focus for Glimt right now is growth and building the business. Housekeeping and production are something I’m delegating more of, as well as to non-key times of the day. It’s not feasible for me to do none of it during the day and I’m keen to try out a 45-10-5 min split to my core working hours where 45 mins are spent on my key tasks for the day, 10 mins on housekeeping/ production and 5 min every hour is a break. Naturally, every hour won’t be this rigid and it’s not always easy, feasible or appropriate as there will be questions and things to help the team with in the middle of a core 45 min period. But, I believe it’s a good routine to try and we’re also working with a “save for later” approach to all non-urgent questions so that interruptions, both to our own work flow and that of others are kept to a minimum.
With a never ending list of things to do and it, like last Friday, sometimes feeling like a near impossible mountain to climb, these steps I’m taking to putting a routine in place for my day are by no way new. It’s one of those things I know I should be doing but for varying reasons (excuses) haven’t been. Let’s see where this takes us.
Image via Flickr user Zhao !
