The BEST way to track your tasks?

Is your brain stuck in the “hamster wheel” of work?
You just don’t have time to learn new tools to find a better way to manage it all?
You just keep working more hours to get it all done?

You need to STOP!

Endless and long hours may be a valid short-term approach, but should never slip into the normal approach.

The average employee is interrupted 56 times a day, and 80% of these interruptions are considered trivial.^*
The average employee spends two hours a day recovering from interruptions!^*
Only 60% of work time, or even less, is spent being productive.^*
High-performing employees are known to take breaks throughout the workday. ^**
While most think multi-tasking helps get more done, it actually drives productivity down by about 40%.^**
45 percent of meeting-goers have felt overwhelmed by the volume of meetings in their calendar.^*
73 percent of meeting-goers perform other work during meetings.^*
On average, employees spend about 28 percent of their work week reading or responding to emails .^***
Unnecessary meetings cost $37 billion in salaries for US businesses every year.^*
It costs a 100-person company a yearly sum of $528,443 to correct poor communication, spending an average of 17 hours per week on the task.^****

So how do you break the cycle?

There is no “silver bullet” answer to this question, but here are a few starters:

Acknowledge that your current approach is NOT working for you.
Block 1 hour to make a Productivity Plan for yourself. (Repeat whenever needed to reset!)
What is on the list and what are the protocols that work for you?
- Reset your task list(s): Delete what you can, delegate where appropriate; and update due dates
- Consider priorities – what is MOST important? LEAST important? Tag them for quick reference.
- What is working well, and what is not? What can you do to gain more control?
Whatever productivity tool(s) you use – get disciplined with it!
Use your Productivity Plan when you plan each week:
- To allocate time and priorities.
- To book meetings to collaborate on your tasks.
- To consider improvements to your approach.
Consider Habit Changes:
- Don’t automatically accept meeting invitations.
  Will you add or receive value from attending vs reviewing the notes later?
- Put your phone down/away and stop multitasking! Put 100% focus on the current task.
- Set a timer for time for a given task to avoid losing track of time on low-value work.
- Block time to do email, and avoid it at other times.

The single best tip is simply to make the time to ask colleagues how they manage their tasks? Share tips with each other.

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SOURCES: ^*Atlassian ^**Qnnect ^*** Attentiv ^****Siemens