Yeah, I know today is Friday the 13th.  Get over it!  (You want to dwell upon it- click here for a post on Triskaidekaphobia.)

Instead, let’s deal with one of our biggest fears- that we lack the ability to accomplish our daily tasks.   We panic because we are certain we lack the best management techniques, apply insufficient effort, or that we simply wake up too late in the day.

You’d think with all of us desperate to get things done, stop procrastinating, and improving our productivity, there’d be at least one great management technique developed by now.  (The truth is that we will NEVER always feel that we are on top of things.)

As far as I’m concerned, it’s not that we are all so different than one another- but it’s because even we need different techniques at different times.

For years, I used what I thought was the Stephen Covey method (it turns out the credit belongs to President Eisenhower), switched to “Eat the Frog”, jumped to the Pomodoro, and settled on the Ivy Lee Method. To be honest, my go-to’s are the first and the last.

Here’s some basic information on each of the leading methods.

“Getting Things Done”

This process is about 20 years old and is attributed to David Allen.

His process assumes we should use our minds for ideation- not for storing the ideas. Not surprising, his process employs five steps- capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. Capture is the process by which we collect all our appointments and things to do in a central location. Once these are defined, we need to process each one and determine what can be delegated. (Clarify- break the process down into steps- actionable ones.) Next, we organize the actionable items by category and priority, including due dates and a reminder system. Reflect means we should also monitor on progress on these items. The last step involves getting these steps done.

I know this sounds easy- but I can guarantee you it’s way more complicated than it seems- which is why it’s never been one of my choices.

“Eat The Frog”

This process was promoted by Brian Tracy, one of the gurus that travels the world selling his programs. (I admit to have purchased his newsletters for years.)

Its concept involves determining what the biggest tasks are and then devoting our time to solving their needs first. And, since we are typically at our best in the morning, getting them done first means we apply our best efforts on the tasks.

Except- this is like the dog who captures the car it is chasing- what next?

 

“Pomodoro Technique”

Get your timers ready! This process wants us to break up our tasks into small chunks, say 25 minutes at a clip. And, only work on that task during the time interval. Then, it’s a five minute break. Then, go back. After 2 hours (4 chunks), we take a longer break than 5 minutes.

As you can see, we are single-task focused, which for most of us improves our productivity. But, to be honest, this technique works best when we are isolated from others in our team- because it doesn’t accommodate interruptions from others.

“Eisenhower Matrix (Stephen Covey Process)”

While President Eisenhower used this process (created it), the 7 Habits of Effective People (by Stephen Covey) popularized it.

The process relies on arranging our tasks in four quadrants.  In so doing, we isolate urgent and important tasks (effect immediately), important yet not urgent tasks (do later), urgent by not important tasks (should be delegated), and neither urgent nor important tasks (discard these). As you can see, this is the first process that includes the delegation function- plus it involves both long and short-term planning,

“Ivy Lee Method”

The CEO of Bethlehem Steel needed to improve the efficiency of his operations. So, Charles Schwab (NOT the stock market guy), the company leader, hired Ivy Lee to set up a system.

Ivy Lee promoted delineating the six critical tasks to be effected the next day (in order of importance). These are then worked IN ORDER until a task is done. Then, one can progress to the next task on the list.

The drawback is that we often have more than 6 items that need to be accomplished during the day- so then what?

I’m sure you’ve now determined why there isn’t ONE method that will make our day great. Find the one that works best for you, modify it- and be the productive and effective human you want to be.