Get more done

If it can be done tomorrow, do it later. Unfortunately, this never gets anything done. That means chaos and scattered panic attacks all over the place. He trick is to organise all the little annoying, scary nagging tasks and build them gradually into one masterpiece.

Managing those finite hours

But there's only a finite number of hours per day. How do some people do it all? With only 24 hours a day, you can't work all of them. Put in really long hours, you miss on sleep, relaxation, recuperation—essential for the brain to function normally. Continue and you risk a burnout.

We take a 2-step approach. List and prioritise. Once you itemise everything that needs to be done decide on what comes first. Being able to reference a list is a great way to stay on top of your progress. Great exam takers look over what chapters they've finished and what they need to hit next. Others just panic and pray.

Prioritise by setting your goals

As a bank cashier, what are my next two steps at the least? Bank robber or bank manager? Decide what's important so you know what to spend your time on. If being a manager is the thing to do, go handle the angry customer, forget the tea break. Same goes for finishing up a set task or homework assignment. Angry Birds Eating Candy Crush can wait.

Keep correspondence brief

Phone calls and emails are like meetings. Deal with any urgent email immediately and create folders for important emails you'll need to come back to. On the phone, be clear about your expected outcome. The listeners on the other end will know it is business and not a hangout.

Sometimes you need minions

Delegate tasks to save time. Even if you're not the boss of you, share work among colleagues. Setup an IOU system if necessary. Make sure the entire team you work with knows of your tasks. Let the team members know you are delegating them and their input is valued. Otherwise they just resent you and leave your computer mouse unplugged each day to annoy.

But then there are pitfalls to watch out for

In the office space, everybody wants things done 'right now'. You try to do everything right now, you lose the whole game. So push back and set concrete deadlines instead of 'ASAP'.

You might think multi-tasking will get you through. Except two weeks ago this page ran an article showing multitasking isn't a very good way to go about life. Imagine a planet conquering alien during a planet destroying mission. And he's on the phone arranging a birthday party for a slime monster friend in another galaxy. Focus on one task, do a bit of it, do another one. You can't do everything at once. Ever try focusing a death ray on a planet while trying to take a high res snapshot of it with your other tentacle? Both activities suffer.

So break it up, rearrange, keep things brief and get more done.