I was out in the garden the other day, cutting back a particularly unruly shrub. Whilst I was there, I saw a few weeds popping up in the flower bed, so I dug those out. Then a minute to clear up a couple of old flower pots. I checked on something on the patio, and swept up a few loose stones.
One big job got me outside, but by having a bit of slack in my plans I was able to pick-up a few other small things that jumped out at me. None of them were big enough to go to the effort of getting setup to enjoy a cold February afternoon, nor were they worth recording and coming back to later.
I’m a big fan of the idea that if it just takes a minute, it’s better to do it in that minute. It’s a great way to build up some momentum, and it really ties into the ideal of leaving something better than you found it.
If you don’t do those small things in the moment, then you are choosing to not do them at all (maybe not an issue if they sit into a non-urgent/non-important bucket). Or you are choosing to schedule them. Record it, track it and monitor progress. If it was just a small job, you’ve put more overhead into doing the admin than just doing the task. Nightmare!
- See a typo when you are reading a doc – Fix it right away.
- Email just needs a simple response – Get on it
- See a bug you know how to fix – Tell the team and drop in the PR
- And ever on…
Of course, you can take this too far. It’s easy to do the easy things, and miss the hard ones. Don’t just respond to emails if your big task for the day is finishing off an important presentation!
I balance in one of two ways. My preference is to do these small things in and around the important task. Once I’ve sent out that critical email which needs careful drafting, I’ll sweep up a few others at the same time.
The other is to box up a bit of time, and go and do as many of these smaller things as you can in that block. It’s a good way to get back on top of your messages by just slotting in 30 minutes to see how far you can go.
Don’t let the admin win! If it’s quicker to do it than track it, then you should go for it there and then!
James Osborn 