1. An examination and dissection of a dead body to determine cause of death or the changes produced by disease
2. Discussion of an event after it has occurred
3. A blame fest where, if you’re not careful, you get attributed with everything that’s wrong in the world

Within the industry, it would appear that those in charge are constantly on the lookout for new buzzwords or catch-phrases to inflict upon their weary staff. The reasons why this insatiable need exists are numerous, but the general consensus is a desire to introduce “fresh thinking” or “novel business practices” which will, at least speciously, be seen to embrace new—and better—ways of working.

The current favorite “blue sky idea” is the postmortem–one word (sometimes hyphenated) that can make grown men cry and cause more personnel fallouts than an open bar at the annual Christmas party.

In essence, postmortems are an attempt to review a recent calamity that has befallen the business with the noble intention of isolating the offending causes and making sure they never happen again.

Of course, the business postmortem is not exactly a new idea. In fact, for years companies have been performing these strange and covert “after the event” brainstorming sessions, dissecting what went wrong and where to assign blame. The trend is on the increase, however, and it’s more and more likely that middle management – or even non-management employees – could hear this particular telling death knell and be called to a room to mull over the aftermath of some diabolical cock up. So, what should you expect?

What They Are

In essence, postmortems are an attempt to review a recent calamity that has befallen the business with the noble intention of isolating the offending causes and making sure they never happen again. The practice nearly always takes the format of a face-to-face meeting (if possible) and involves all of the key players who had a role in the “hiccup”, and hence why you’re all now sitting in a room waiting for the fireworks to happen.

The postmortem meeting is nearly always run by the manager of the new product/service/project.

It’s the previous point which highlights the inherent disdain toward the very idea of the postmortem. Understandably, such meetings get a bad rap for being monumental bitching sessions where the apparent primary goal is to attach blame to someone and clearly identify the cause of why everyone is now having a postmortem in the first place. Ironically, it needn’t be so difficult at all, but more on that later.

The postmortem meeting is nearly always run by the manager of the new product/service/project (whatever has likely stolen a lot of people’s weekends of late and everyone’s current favorite topic around the water cooler) who will start by outlining the original aim of the new endeavor, chronicle the events that led up to the point of failure, explain why these failings occurred (the blame part) and then, finally, identify certain actions that will ensure such an issue is now firmly resigned to history.

A Postmortem’s Purpose is Not to Blame

From the above definition (which I’ve shamelessly appended a third point to, I should add), the key word is “cause” – not “blame”. Though responsibility, and people stepping up to accept theirs, is a significant element of the meeting (see below), the crux of the postmortem process is to locate what went wrong, not who caused the issue in the first place.

Unlike their medical counterparts whose sole purpose is to discover how something died, the business postmortem also has the intention of identifying certain actions that will prevent such a ‘death’ again. It’s a worthy endeavor; trying to learn from past mistakes with the intent of never being in such a similar dire position again. The fact is, as we all fully well know, things do go wrong at work for a myriad of reasons. That said, it would be negligent of us all not to spend the appropriate amount of time focusing on what has obviously been a less than successful enterprise, and then look toward the future – a future where such calamities hopefully don’t exist. To achieve this goal, it’s vital to view the postmortem as a positive act and not the opportunity to absolve oneself of contributing transgressions or deflect blame on to a scapegoat.

Unlike their medical counterparts whose sole purpose is to discover how something died, the business postmortem also has the intention of identifying certain actions that will prevent such a ‘death’ again.

In other words: embrace this rare opportunity to improve the business operating model. Sure, it might mean holding up your hand (or dragging someone else’s up from under the table) in terms of accepting the rap, but try and focus on the shortcomings you are about to remedy along with the process gaps soon to be eradicated and, hopefully, you’ll never having to go through such heartache again. Until something different breaks of course. This is the nature of the business world we live in, however.

Why Postmortems Are Essential

Right after “The building is on fire,” the one thing people would rather not hear from their boss is “We’re having a postmortem.” If conducted poorly they can be soul destroying, inherently confrontational and, at the hands of a bad manager, can quickly descend into an almighty screaming session. Such a scenario is the worst possible outcome of any postmortem.

Postmortems are crucial to finding out what you’re doing wrong in business.

The fact is: it’s rare that someone on a team is totally guiltless when a project nose-dives in spectacular fashion. Everyone could have done a little more, numerous people could have spoken up or intervened when they didn’t and, essentially, if you’re in the room – you’re highly likely to have contributed, at least indirectly, to the problem at hand. However, if the team can accept a degree of “group liability”, though personal blame is still common, people can put the difficulty of highlighting their own failings aside and really improve things going forward for everyone.

Postmortems are crucial to finding out what you’re doing wrong in business. Why was the project late? How can such an overspend be justified? Perhaps you bit off more than you could chew and your original timelines were never feasible in the first place. Maybe you’re not over budget but your estimation model is flawed. All these things are common outcomes from a successful postmortem. In acknowledging where things fell down, you are automatically focusing on what needs to improve.

Invariably, people are going to be defensive as no one likes being told that they’ve messed up.

How to Conduct/Participate/Survive a Successful Postmortem

The core factor in a meeting of this nature is openness and respect. Invariably, people are going to be defensive as no one likes being told that they’ve messed up. Sometimes, however, there’s no other way of putting it, and pointing the finger, though not the primary objective, is an element of moving toward putting things right.

Ultimately, and any project manager worth his or her salt will admit this, the project manager must take the lion’s share of the blame for any business prospect that has resulted in a postmortem. Of course, though the buck stops at him or her, that’s not to say that it wasn’t unceremoniously dropped along the way by other members of the team. A good project manager will take overall responsibility for the failure of his or her project. Likewise, if the opposite of a postmortem was happening (which I can only equate to a post-launch party), the project manager will undoubtedly be seen gladly receiving numerous accolades or comments suggesting his or her personal greatness. That’s how it works.

Worrying signs to look for during a postmortem include when an imbalance of fault starts to appear – especially if that imbalance is pointing toward you. Innately territorial by nature, teams will be seen to protect their own. Developers will usually back each other up for instance, while sales guys certainly band together to make sure their contribution to the current quagmire doesn’t take center stage.

If you feel like you’re being unfairly treated in a postmortem and are receiving more than your fair share of blame (and you’re not the project manager of course), and you genuinely feel the attention is unwarranted, push back and remind the team that one person (unless you’re the project manager of course) can not completely derail a project. There’s always some failsafe, a checklist or testing procedure that could have been put in place to catch monumental catastrophes that—obviously as you’re now arguing about it—unfortunately wasn’t there.

There’s really no other way of surviving a postmortem other than latching on to the prospect of improving the business and everyone’s working environment.

The best thing to do is respectfully accept your actions may not have been perfect, and then quickly turn the conversation toward how things will be different in the future. There’s really no other way of surviving a postmortem other than latching on to the prospect of improving the business and everyone’s working environment.

Personally, I’ve managed some pretty large projects in my career and, confession time, not all of them have gone as swimmingly as they could have. I’ve conducted postmortems to various degrees of success, and the most beneficial ones have always been the discussions where people came with an open mind, a respectful demeanor and left their egos at the door.

The Post-postmortem

Locating issues and then suggesting remedies is all well and good, but if you don’t follow up on your actions (or inactions as it may be) going through the painstaking process of a postmortem is pointless.

The post-postmortem is not as bad as it sounds. In essence, this meeting or review process is merely a catch-up or affirmation that any actions assigned or changes put forward during the postmortem adventure have actually been followed through.

Locating issues and then suggesting remedies is all well and good, but if you don’t follow up on your actions (or inactions as it may be) going through the painstaking process of a postmortem is pointless.

This doesn’t even have to be a meeting. After all, you’ll recall how monumentally non-productive some meetings can be by definition. Instead, schedule a postmortem assessment for a few weeks or even months after the dust has settled from the recent grilling. It’s quite possible to peg a post-postmortem on to the end of a weekly meeting or another such event where the main players are all present. If you have to, you could even send a state-of-the-union postmortem email recap with what has been achieved and what is still outstanding. The important factor is that the process does not end as soon as the meeting is over. Having a postmortem as to why no one heeded the outcome of a previous postmortem is the definition if irony hell.

So, treat the fact that you had a postmortem in the first place as a strong enough reason to adhere to the recommendations arising out of said meeting. The post-postmortem is literally then just telling everyone that everything is now in working order and such cataclysmic recurrences of the events that led up to the postmortem in the first place will never happen again. You hope.

Considering how badly most meetings are run these days, it’s no surprise to learn that the age-old practice of getting a group of people together for a common goal has become such a contemptible and dreaded activity.

But long before the likes of before email, IM, video conferencing, Google Wave and SharePoint, meetings were pretty much all we had when it came to collaborating in an open environment. Whether it was the shared intention of agreeing on a solution, imparting some knowledge or just catching up with the progress of a project – you needed a meeting. Now that we have all settled comfortably into our inter-connected worlds, more and more people view meetings as atavistic hindrances; superfluous and futile time-pits in which we waste our days and sanity when there’s work to be done, darn it!

Long before the likes of email, IM, video conferencing and SharePoint, meetings were pretty much all we had when it came to collaborating in an open environment

The fact is: meetings are still as relevant and conducive to a successful and productive working environment today as they were back when they were in vogue (and the only option). If done right of course. Conducted incorrectly, however, meetings are not only acutely annoying, they’re downright wasteful and counter-productive; the antithesis of working in an awesome fashion.

Done wrong, meetings are not only acutely annoying, they’re downright wasteful and counter-productive.

The next time you call a meeting — be it a face-to-face chinwag in the office boardroom or a group call with geographically dispersed team members — consider the following:

Audience

Meetings should consist of either people who are contributing to the meeting or those who need to receive the information first-hand.

One of the most important aspects of running a successful meeting is ensuring that the correct people attend. There is a natural tendency these days to invite everyone and their dog to meetings; a clear sign of the “Well, the more we invite, the more chance we have of solving the problem” attitude. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Meetings should consist of either people who will contribute to the meeting or those who need to receive the information first-hand. When considering who you want to join your meetings, keep the following in mind:

1. Can someone else already invited to this meeting cover this person’s input? “Doubling up” meeting attendance is one of the biggest causes of meeting wastage.
2. Why am I inviting this person to the meeting? Is it because I need their input regarding the agenda, or is it just because I want them to know what was said? If it’s the latter, consider simply forwarding on the meeting minutes to this person.
3. Can someone join the start of this meeting and then leave early? Don’t be afraid of inviting someone to a meeting and informing the audience that this person will not be attending its entire duration. “We’re going to talk about the finance report first with Matt. He is then going to drop off while we continue on with the sales figures.” Matt doesn’t need to hear about the sales figures and he’ll thank you for dismissing him politely from the meeting after he has finished with his contribution. Meetings should be dynamic. Those who start the meeting need not necessarily be those who finish it.

Resist the urge to start meetings before all the people who are required to attend are actually present.

Punctuality

To have a worthwhile and productive meeting, starting and finishing on time is essential. Every company has that one person who always turns up late or arrives on time only to duck back out again for a coffee.

Meetings start at the time scheduled without fail. Someone else’s tardiness is frustrating and disrespectful to those that have put aside the time to make the meeting on time. Make it clear that it’s not acceptable for people to be late. Mention it in the meeting invite. Mention it again (privately) to people who turn up late when the meeting has ended. A culture of turning up late will soon dissipate when people consistently find that meetings are in full flow when they arrive late. If a key stakeholder has not shown at the start of the meeting it is less disruptive to quickly abandon the meeting and reschedule rather than wait. There is no hard and fast rule as to at what time a meeting should be canceled. Use your best judgment. Sitting in a room waiting ten minutes for someone to turn up is probably the maximum in most people’s books.

Meetings start at the time scheduled without fail.

At the other end of the spectrum, it is equally essential that a meeting finishes when you said it was going to end. There is a temptation to keep a meeting going if the core aspects of the agenda have not been covered. This is probably due to poor agenda management or lackadaisical time-keeping. Regardless, respect the fact that people attending your meeting may have other meetings to attend, and maybe right after your meeting was scheduled to end. If you haven’t covered what was required in the time allotted, schedule a follow-up meeting. Holding people in a room (or on a call) past when you said they’d be there is unlikely to result in the attendees contributing in a productive and open manner.

Minutes

All meetings – no matter how small – should have minutes. Minutes should be kept by the meeting organizer and should clearly outline:

1. Who attended
2. A brief summary of the agenda
3. Time, date and location of the meeting
4. Actions and — most importantly — agreed times or dates for these actions to be completed.

Minutes should be sent as soon as possible after the meeting has ended

Meetings without minutes are merely informal chats likely to be questioned later. It’s common for misinterpretations to happen in business meetings but good minutes can dispel such ambiguities. Minutes allow people to speak up and later say: “That’s not how I remember what was discussed in the meeting.” Minutes remove certain degrees of uncertainty while also having the handy trait of ratifying the meeting in question. You don’t agree that a certain point was what was said in the last meeting? Well, it’s in the minutes …

It’s everyone’s responsibility to read minutes of a meeting they attended to see if any action items have been assigned to the person in question or if any other details are incorrect.

Finally, minutes should be sent as soon as possible after the meeting has ended. Sending out minutes the next day diminishes the impact of the meeting while also reducing the time people have for completing any actions assigned.

Agenda & the Types of Meetings

A meeting agenda clearly outlines the meeting’s objective(s) and topics of discussion. It’s handy to have agenda points in chronological order as it promotes a natural flow to the meeting.

Most meetings fall in the Past, Present and Future categories.

Meetings come in all shapes and sizes. There is the weekly team meeting which is more a social get together and usually doesn’t adhere to the majority of the normal meeting tenets. Apart from this isolated case, however, most meetings fall in the Past, Present and Future categories.

Past: Meetings that fall in this category include yearly reviews, project close off meetings, sales figures analysis, post mortems, etc. The key here is that you are meeting to review and possibly close off some business. The agenda for meetings of this kind usually involves the analysis of statistics, the closing off of issues or open items and/or filing some aspect of the business away. Archiving code or submitting financial reports are common action items for meetings of this type.

Present type meetings, despite occurring regularly for ongoing business ventures, are rarely the same from week to week.

Present: Meetings that fall into the present category include catch-up meetings for an ongoing project/venture. The agenda here should focus on gauging where the venture is against projections previously agreed upon. Ongoing issues should be raised with actions assigned to the relevant people. Open bug reports (if you work in a software company), ongoing market analysis (if you work in a financial institution) or any such activities that change on a weekly (or even daily) basis feature prominently in such meetings. The agenda for these meetings usually reflect short-term analysis and associative short-term decision making. These meetings are usually quite fluid and flexible. Present type meetings, despite occurring regularly for ongoing business ventures, are rarely the same from week to week.

A meeting without an agenda is like a traveler without a map. You might get there in the end, just expect to get lost somewhere along the way.

Future: Designing a new application. Discussing possible new business. Decisions on resourcing and company direction. Such meetings make up the Future category. The key attribute here is forward-thinking and openness. Accordingly, meetings of this nature are usually looser by nature in terms of the agenda than the other types. That said, these meetings still require an agenda. Agreeing to meet in a room with the curt agenda of “Discussing a new project” will likely involve a large amount of rambling and a short amount of progress. Consider an agenda such as:

1. Introduce possible new project.
2. Discuss possible difficulties and challenges of said project.
3. Outline revenue projections if project was launched/completed in X time.
4. Possible teams, impact on other projects, timelines, milestones.

You at least have a formulated plan. A meeting without an agenda is like a traveler without a map. You might get there in the end, just expect to get lost somewhere along the way.

Meetings should be interactive and lively with all members participating.

Treat Meetings Like Battle-Plans

It might sound a tad silly, but successful meetings are a lot like planning a war. Consider a General going into battle with his field officers. The General invites the right people to the meeting (audience), everyone turns up on time (punctuality), the General lays out the objectives of the battle (agenda), while a clerk documents what was agreed (minutes).

Meetings should be interactive and lively with all members participating. Remember to keep meetings free from external distractions (so close the door), and though some meetings might possibly be catered, there’s no harm in stocking the room with some glasses and a jug of water anyway. It says: “I want you to talk. I want you to contribute. And I want you to feel free to have a glass of water so you don’t duck out and get one during the meeting.”

Meetings have a bad reputation of being boring and monumental wastes of time. They needn’t be. Involve your audience by sending around the agenda in advance and inform each person where their input is expected. After all, it’s only fair that they have had as much time to come prepared as you have. Most importantly, clearly inform everyone what the outcome of this particular meeting looks like. Tell them in clear language, such as: “When this meeting is over I would like us to have agreed the milestones for phase 2.”

Meetings are necessary, and make no mistake about it, they are never going away. Make the most out of your meetings. Invariably, the more you put into them, the more you will get out. Never treat a meeting as the perfect excuse to pad your timesheet. Meetings are important and running them well is paramount if you want to have an awesome work-day. Make your meetings matter again.

The “To Do List” hasn’t much evolved since those dark perilous days in terms of its primary purpose: the need to plan our day and manage time effectively, but there has been a progression in terms of its complexity.

Today, the need for better to do lists — from how to write them, what should and should not appear on them, and most importantly, how to get the most from them — has never been more important.

Put aside 15 minutes at the end of each day to write tomorrow’s to do list.

When “To Do” It

Ironically, the first thing to do each day should not be your to do list—it should already be waiting for you when you arrive at your desk. After all, there are much more important things to be doing first thing in the morning, like getting that first all-important coffee. Put aside 15 minutes at the end of each day to write tomorrow’s to do list.

Writing a to do list the day before has many advantages over planning your upcoming day on the morning in question. After all, you have just completed a day’s work and hence should have a good idea of where you are in the grand scale of things. What didn’t you get to today? What tasks will naturally fall into tomorrow’s to do list?

Writing tomorrow’s to do list can also be a cathartic exercise; a way of recognizing that everything does not all need to be done in one day.

Have you just had one of those days and are now left with that dreaded “I’ve got nothing done” feeling? Write tomorrow’s to do list. You’ll feel better for it.

Plan in advance. Look ahead a few days. Is there a big chunk of work looming on the horizon?

To Do:

• Do check tomorrow’s calendar and schedule. Tomorrow’s to do list will likely consist of meetings and any crucial deadlines that are fast approaching.
• Do plan in advance. Look ahead a few days. Is there a big chunk of work looming on the horizon? Maybe tomorrow is a good time to make a start on it.
• Do consult today’s to do list and focus on any outstanding tasks. These remaining jobs will likely feature on tomorrow’s list.

To Don’t:

• Don’t start tomorrow’s to do list at the very end of the day, as doing so will likely result in merely jotting down the more obvious of upcoming tasks on your agenda. To do lists help focus and guide you through the day and dedicating a few minutes to the process will save you time in the long run. Most comprehensive to do lists take less than ten minutes to draft.
• Don’t try and foretell the future. Avoid adding to tomorrow’s list tasks you think might crop up. Your to do list is a fluid entity, and you can always add to it tomorrow if need be.

Red tasks (usually) need to be done today no matter what.

Color Coded Prioritization

Introducing color to your to do list is a simple and effective way of clearly defining and easily categorizing the numerous and varying tasks at hand.

When it comes to prioritization, people use different criteria to determine how their tasks should be ranked. Generally, however, the tried and trusted traffic light system works best. Red tasks need to be done today no matter what. Amber tasks are important but it’s not the end of the world if they slip into tomorrow, while green tasks are usually jobs of such low priority that not doing them might have no adverse effect at all.

There are numerous ways to designate a particular task with a color. Some people might rate financial impact as the prominent factor and designate the red flag to tasks that either cost (or gain) the company money. For others, it’s simply a matter of how irate their boss will be if the task in question isn’t done in the designated time span.

As every business and employee is different, the most universal system is to rate each task between 1 and 3 in terms of importance and again in terms of urgency. Multiply the two numbers together with tasks rated 7 and over designated red, 4 – 6 as amber, while any task with a number between 1 and 3 becomes a lowly green task.

After your to do list is completed, quickly scan through the items and classify them with the above numbers in your head. Grab some fluorescent pens and mark each task with its respective color, and then review.

To Do:

• Do take into account previously skipped tasks. If you’ve bumped a task from one day to the next, this task should automatically get a higher priority.
• Do ignore the rating scale above when appropriate. Something with very high urgency but low impact could still be deemed a red task and vice versa. Purchasing a leaving gift for a departing colleague might by 1 in importance and 3 in urgency (making it a green task) but you should make it a red anyway, as it needs to be done quickly. The scale is not perfect and there will always be exceptions to the rules.

To Don’t:

• Don’t make everything red. Not only would that demoralize you completely, it’s important to remember that prioritization is relative. In theory, you should have an equal number of tasks of each color. The logic here is that it’s simply not possible to give everything the same priority. Something always has a higher relevance than another task upon reflection. Also, a task that is red on one day could also be amber another day. It all depends on what other tasks are on the list.

Go Digital

There are a number of very good products on the market that make the hassle of finding colored pens and scraps of paper totally redundant. Remember the Milk and Todoist are two of the more popular applications out there with free versions that are likely more than adequate for your to do needs.

Digital to do lists are also a great way of keeping a historical record of your workload. How often do you keep old post-its or journals of what you did a few years ago?

These applications allow you to bundle tasks into groups and quickly assign color-coded prioritization. Digital to do lists are also a great way of keeping a historical record of your workload. How often do you keep old post-its or journals of what you did a few years ago?

To Do:

• Do try out different products before settling on the one for you. What works for one person may not work for you.

To Don’t:

• Don’t rely completely on online versions. Sometimes there’s nothing better than just jotting down a quick list in a meeting or when you’re away from your desk. You can always transfer these tasks to the respective application later.
• Don’t get fancy. These applications will take up more time to manage, complete and maintain. Inventing a complex system will only have you fumbling with hot-keys and an assortment of groups rather than quickly adding and completing your tasks.

What Not To Do

It’s human nature to want to scratch task after completed task off your list but your to do list should only consist of unique tasks for the day. “Reading Email” may indeed qualify as a legitimate task but it’s a safe bet that you likely do this every day and will do it without prompting or reminder.

Cluttering your to do list with mundane and ancillary tasks might allow you to scratch off a larger number of tasks for the day but you’re actually defeating the purpose. A to do list is a formulated plan, not a shopping list.

“Reading Email” may indeed qualify as a legitimate task but it’s a safe bet that you likely do this every day and will do it without prompting or reminder.

To Do:

• Do keep your to do list concise and devoid of recurring or regular tasks. If you fill in a time-sheet each day, you don’t need your to do list to remind you of this.

To Don’t:

• Don’t bend the truth. Lunch is not a task. Neither is making coffee—unless it’s a coffee meeting. That’s different.
• Don’t flood your list with superfluous micro-tasks. It’s tempting, but over-filling your list in order to feel like your making headway through your workload is counter-productive.

If a task is very small, actually do it rather than adding it to your list. Use your to do list as inspiration for getting a host of small things done before you leave for the evening. Confirm a reservation, order stationary, clean up your desktop. We can get a lot of quick things done at the end of the day if we put our minds to it.

Quantify Your Results

Tasks on a to do list should be punchy, succinct and contain at least one action verb. Words like “Finish” and “Complete” are what you’re looking for. Stay clear of terms such as “Start” or “Investigate”. Starting something is easy. Focus on the stopping part. Similarly, if you find one of your to do list tasks to be a tad nebulous, it’s likely going to be quite hard to strike it off with a satisfactory “Done!” swipe of your pen.

Stay clear of terms such as “Start” or “Investigate”. Starting something is easy. Focus on the stopping part.

Avoid describing the action and pin-point the result. A task like: “Talk to Jeff re: options of what to do about the GUI” has no definitive outcome. You can talk to Jeff but how do you know you won’t be talking to him again about the same topic tomorrow unless you set an objective? To do lists have the handy knock-on effect of strengthening direction and making people goal-oriented. “Talk to Jeff and agree on an option for the GUI.” Now we’re getting there!

To Do:

• Quantify your results. Never bog your to do list down with tasks that are immeasurable. Such indefinite tasks are guaranteed to never get off your list. If you know a task can’t be completed on the day in question, either aim for a percentage of the task in a set time scale or identify a milestone and set this as your goal instead. “Work on financial report” will have you there until midnight. “Complete sections 1 and 2 of financial report” will have you home at a respectable hour.

To Don’t:

• Don’t put the completion of a task on your list that has a deadline in the future. Adding “Complete report before Friday” on Tuesday’s list is a prime example of a task that is just going to be ignored until Friday. Of course, your to do list should not only comprise of today’s work schedule but also elements of tasks that will end sometime in the future. Break these tasks down into logical units and focus on the segments. “Friday’s Big Report: Complete analysis of shipping data today” is a good task for a Tuesday.
• Don’t try and chronicle your day. No one is that prescient. Remember that a to do list is not a diary. To do lists should never be in chronological order or take the format of an essay. You’ll spend more time planning the day rather than actually working it.

Your to do list will probably tell less than half the story of how you spend your working day.

You’ve Got More To Do Than What’s On Your List

If you ever feel that your to do list is ruling (or ruining) your life, you need to take a step back and review how you are drafting your lists. Your day will undoubtedly consist of many tasks that you did not plan when drafting your list the day before. An impromptu request from your manager to write a report? Urgent call to head-office to mitigate a growing situation? Your to do list will probably tell less than half the story of how you spend your working day.

Always leave enough room for day-to-day tasks and other unplanned events that naturally appear during office hours.

To Do:

• Do remember that some things will take longer than expected while other tasks will take less time than originally planned.
• Do review your list with an objective eye. If your to do list is full of tasks likely to take up the majority of the day, consider possibly moving some orange and green tasks to the next day or see if you can delegate certain tasks to other members of staff.

To Don’t:

• Don’t get demotivated if, at the end of the day, there’s more things unfinished on your list than completed. Maybe you earmarked too much for one day or a number of unforeseen events absorbed a lot of your working time. “Didn’t-Do Remorse Syndrome” is the feeling of looking at a mostly incomplete to do list and feeling despondent due to not getting through as much as you originally had hoped to.
• To do lists are not sacrosanct and should be seen as your aspiration for the day. We all aim to get a lot done in the time we’re at the office but some days are better than others. Accept an unfinished to do list as what it is: an opportunity to finish it the next day. There’s nothing stopping you from moving the open tasks to tomorrow’s list and tackling them again with a new day’s freshness.