The least effective task - how to find it?
Find out what slows you down and eliminate it.
Happy August, dear reader!
Are you ready for the Challenge?
The Challenge of the Month (August 2022)
Last month, we talked about using free time to relax, learn new skills, or even level up your projects. And I shared with you how I would increase my free time by automating or hiring new people to scale up my projects.
However, free time and productivity are inseparable subjects. And you can’t use one without taking care of the other. So this month, I will share with you how I boost my productivity by finding out the task that slows me down.
But first of all, let’s define what is a task that slows you down.
A delaying task is an activity that has a variable completion time. Therefore, you can never rely on it because you don’t know how much time it will take you to finish. So if you want to find out what slows you down, you need to focus on four steps:
Analyze each task at its core and split them into micro-tasks. When I write articles, for example, I always start with headlines, outlines, first draft, editing, and finish with scheduling for publication.
Measure how much time you need to finish each activity (check the infographic below). When I started with content creation, editing was my main weakness because I am not a native English speaker and had to learn most of the rules. But to find it, I had to measure how much time it took me to write the first draft (based on the number of words), or how many headlines I could write in 15 minutes. And if I had different results, I knew that was a task that slowed me down.
Focus on variable tasks and try to find their weaknesses. First, understand which is the barrier that delays your activity. For example, for writing, it could be procrastination, lack of motivation, ideas, multitasking, vocabulary problems, or even simple distractions. And then make a list of all weaknesses you should improve. For me, it was vocabulary problems. But you could lack enough motivation to write an entire article in one session, or you may want to multitask and waste most of your time.
Find a solution for each problem and try to speed up one task at a time. It is impossible to work on multiple improvements simultaneously and expect perfection. So pick one activity at a time and work on it until you stabilize its completion time.
And if you manage to find the variable tasks that slow you down, it will be easier to schedule your task because you already know how much time it takes you to finish each activity. You will become more flexible, and you will also have more free time for leisure activities or other projects.
So this is the challenge of this month:
Find out the tasks that slows you down and prevents you from scheduling your activities correctly. Study it, and discover which is its weakness. Then try to solve it.