Success Recipe #4: Clock the Clock - Time Management Mastery …. Enter the #Simplicity6
You’re going to die, you might as well get some shit done ….
Did you know that only 6 things can be reliably completed in one day? I didn’t, or at least refused to.
At my first “professional” job at a startup, I clung to my trusty moleskine. Convinced that handwriting a to do list of nearly 1,000 items would not only impress my colleagues, but also boost me to adulthood. Or something…
See, I am a great student. Not in that I am academically inclined per se’, or even that smart. What I am is an excellent brown noser. Teachers LOVE me. Hell, Principals love me.
Not only am I charming as heck, I am cute, a great communicator, and rememberer of birthdays, anniversaries, names of children, pets - the whole thing. We call this a full package. Thus the moleskin and lists, rampant sharing of progress and ‘checking in’. My bosses loved me. Co workers complimentary, for the time being - apt to turn upon me like Piranha in time.
Lovely, but the question of the hour is - was I getting anything done?
Answer, no. Other than calling where I was at - my list was no smaller on week 16 than it was on week 1. Why? Well .. there is a lot behind that, but in short - the list was pantomiming as productivity. That is, in a corporate circus, doing (when you reach the middle management middle ground) stops being about getting things done. It is about executive placation and pushing the most ugly asks down to admin the most ugly asks.
So, we languish in the swap of aims. A lateral move was never better defined.
Enter COVID-19 and the era of working at home. Our days - when not interrupted by children, second breakfasts, partners wondering into our closet/makeshift office coves with needless questions, these lists and how time is spent become the literal lifelines of our … lives.
How are we to map our mortality, if not by impact? Success is Social Justice on the most micro of levels. One’s ability to do what one proposes upon oneself speaks to nurturing and agency, all of greater import at and in a time where standbys slip away and certainty is in the eye of the beholder.
Back to brass tacks: Forget the theory - just pick 6 things (the #Simplicity6, if you will): these are your ride-or-die to dos. If the World does not end on its own, yours will unless you complete the above. It is of 100% no consequence what they are. They can be calling your Mom or paying the electric bill. These must be done. If they are not - the answer is not self flagellation, but inquisitions.
Why? Were they too large? Was there not enough execution exposition? Do I assign myself things based on my assumptions and fantasy as to who I am or where I should be? Am I in the habit of assigning myself aims to not complete, fulfilling a proclaimed Failure Legacy?
(Get on your bathing cap - deep dive ahead!)
Yes, you will likely complete more than 6 items - these are your Extra Executions. You may congratulate yourself on these retrospectively. Think of these as Wild Cards, whims, wants, and maybes.
Tricky tip - if you find yourself completing more Extra Executions than Simplicity6 ers that is informative. Your #Simplicity6 are sins - against your aptitude asks. Armed with this information, you can radically rethink how you work, and what you do. Delegation, operations, timelines - all become clear after the ego check of accomplishment review. Per always the ask is “why”. Goal: how to work best.
The last leg of this architecture is the Unexpected Items (6 count here too!) These slippery fishy are the things that cannot be assumed nor expected. (Insert Pandemic Pun!) They come up, you get them done, you might as well congratulate your sweet ass self a nut.
Example(s): Unemployment calls; Groceries were delivered and put away; Text thread with Ex deleted
Now is the time for rein taking. Socially, we learn the changeability of external circumstances. The expert you need is less me and more you. Dorothy - you had those ruby slippers all along. Click those DAMN heels why don’t cha?!
