Read a very interesting post yesterday on a blog for Startup Businesses.
Conversations With Myself: What Should I Work On
Note: The post’s gone! Gutted. Oh well. It was a great post about the trials and tribulations of having too many high priority tasks to be able to, well, prioritise!
I sympathised with the writer wholeheartedly. There are never enough hours in the day for one self-employed freelancer to get absolutely everything done and still retain their sanity.
His gripes really do refer to anyone with a hectic lifestyle too, having to balance work and home in a juggling act that runs the risk of leaving you frazzled.
So… it’s all about prioritization. Accept that you can’t do everything. Admit that you’re only human.
Make a list.
Decide which items are important, which are urgent and which are neither (often referred to as the Eisenhower Matrix).
Discard the ‘neither’ list (or keep the ideas in a drawer that is used only for this, or on a text file with easy access on your PC). If it’s neither important nor urgent you shouldn’t be even thinking about it. Get rid.
The important/urgent crossover items get done first. Keep that list in your pocket or phone or whatever organisational system you have. It’s important to keep it to hand and cross off items as soon as they’re done. If you’ve a lot on that list, decide which you’ll enjoy the most. You’ll do those quickest! And it’ll get you started rather than procrastinating about the less enjoyable ones. Focus 100% on the job at hand, the list is there to remember for you, so you don’t have to.
Then the important items get done.
Then the urgent.
It may seem contrary to common sense to do important items before urgent ones. But it does work – if you’re constantly chasing round with the urgent stuff you’ll never get to the important stuff – the jobs that really matter to you, that you might enjoy more, that will perhaps push you further on a path towards your ultimate goals in life.
Delegate
Now, this is one that I struggle with a little. I’ve had some awful experiences in the past of delegating little jobs, such as simple foley tracklaying or collaboration with another sound designer for the sake of saving time, which meant that, in the end, I had to do more work and so led to wasted time. Even the premixes that I’ve handed over to be mastered at proper facilities have, without fail, been disappointing to different degrees.
I have to accept that one day there will be too much to do and it will make sense to delegate. But I. Just. Can’t. Do. It. Yet.
Do you keep a ‘to do’ list or is it all in your head – does that work for you? What methods do you use to prioritise your time? Do you have any tried-and-tested ways of classifying items that really simplify your life?