The Saint of Small Stuff…. a holy productivity hack
Do you have too much to do? Do you sometimes not know where to start? Are you at times losing the overview and all the small, medium and big stuff is threatening to bury you like an avalanche? If no, can you please write to me so that I can share your secret with the world?
I have my stuff in order, generally: I sort tasks by “important / unimportant” “urgent / non-urgent” just like Mr. Covey taught us and I feel very virtuous when I do that. I start with the urgent and important, most often get to the important and non-urgent every once in a while which leaves: the small stuff. Which then piles up: bookkeeping, paying bills, putting things where they belong, answering a short email, filing my snail mail (who on earth invented THAT?!?) … you probably know all the pesky little task that pile and pile and pile up.
What did help was putting them all in their respective project (I am using a program called Asana for that, Trello is also said to be good) so I can at least lump them together and don’t have to loose time by shifting focus between projects. YET — still TOO much to do.
So I invented a special Saint’s day. The day of the “Saint of Small S**t”. On this day, I would do as many of the small tasks as I possibly can and feel proud and productive. Things that got done: stuff back in basement where it belongs, papers scanned and sorted, snail mail sent, small translation done, videos produced and uploaded, sourdough fed, kitchen cleaned, emails answered, certificates sent, lots of stuff delegated to other people … and boy did that feel good, ticking off one thing after the other.
My friend Evelyn does a similar thing: she told me about her weekly “procrastinight” where she and her partner do all the things that they have been putting off during the week. What a great concept!
Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because I am enthusiastic.
AND I had an idea for team leaders: How about initiating a monthly “Saint of Small Stuff” day, or a weekly “Hour of Ant-sized Achievements” for the whole team?
How do you do it? If you have a productivity secret, why not share it with a group of wonderful coaches in one of our meetups or learn from them? We are also offering a short course on team coaching where you can talk about and learn many valuable tools to help a team be at its best.
Register here:
