94. Simplifying Task Management and Staying Productive Despite Disruptions (Q&A)
Episode 94
Two of the biggest barriers to our productivity as students and professionals are over-complicated systems that don’t work and disruptions to our focus.
In this month’s Q&A episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I answer two listener questions about those exact two roadblocks.
Question One: How do I know if my task management system is working?
Question Two: How do I get my work done when I have so many random meetings?
What You Learn:
Why friction is the number one enemy of a good task management system
Multiple red flags that your task management system isn’t working
How simplifying your systems leads to increased productivity and lower stress
How to structure your day when you have unpredictable disruptions
Secret productivity strategies that professionals use to protect their focus and their time
Episodes and Resources Mentioned:
⭐SchoolHabits University (Parents, go here)
⭐SchoolHabits University (Students, go here)
⭐The College Note-Taking Power System (Brand New Program!)
Episode 3 – What’s an Admin Block and Why You Need One
Episode 5 – Secrets of a Good Task Management System
Episode 10 – Tips for Better Task Management
Episode 21 - How to Plan Your Ideal Week
Never stop learning.
❤️ Connect:
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I choose not to spend my time fixing them 😉
Simplifying Task Management and Staying Productive Despite Disruptions (Q&A)
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[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. I'm Katie, and this is one of our monthly q and a episodes where I answer questions submitted by you. This is actually our October q and a, but I'm recording it at the very end of September, which means that many of us have had a good solid month to settle into our back to school or new season routines.
I know that for some of us, this time of year feels good to fall back into a rhythm and some kind of structure. But for some people it is hard to transition back into the busyness that this season often brings. And I hope that if this is a busy season for you as it has been for me, that you're able to come back to the basics in order to feel grounded with your day-to-day tasks.
And what do I mean by basics? Well, time management and task management for starters. Those are two things that I talk about probably the most on this show and the two things that when they are off kilter or out of whack, tend to cause us the most trouble. Now I'm actually going to [00:01:00] answer a question today submitted by a listener about task management.
Hence my little opening thoughts here, and I honestly think it is a great question to begin with, particularly this time of year. So let's do exactly that.
Okay, so I have two questions today. The first one is about task management. I'm not sure if it's from a student or a working professional, but honestly my answer is relevant to both.
And then the second one is from a working professional. So let me read the first question they wrote. Hi Katie. Thanks for the chance to ask you my question. My [00:02:00] question is how do I know if my task management system is too complicated? And I really love this question. I say that after every question, but I do really, truly, honestly love all of your questions.
But I like this question primarily because it tells me that you are thinking about task management and that you actually have a task management system. And that is, without a question, a fundamental practice that I am really trying to teach both students and professionals. Now, I hinted at this in last week's episode, but I am in the process, i'm so close to being done, of putting the finishing touches on a new mini program called the Assignment Management Power System, which is essentially a mini crash course in homework management for students, including long-term projects and readings and what to do when you fall behind, and it has absolutely everything to do with managing homework.
I really wish that that program were up and running so that I could direct you all to it right now in response to this question. But [00:03:00] perhaps you'll be listening to this episode a few weeks from now or after the program is up and running, which will be shortly. If so, you will be able to find that at assignmentmanagementsystem.com.
Which I think is a really cool URL to say out loud. Anyways, that sounded like a really cheesy plug, but I am just really excited about the program and it does align with your question. But here are a few things to look for that indicate your task management system is perhaps too complicated to use your own language.
Now, the first red flag. Is that you spend more time managing the system than actually doing your tasks. I mean, if you got excited at the concept of a new planner or a new project management software or some fancy app, I absolutely understand that excitement because I am that way too. But once the novelty of something new wears off, it's important to think about the complexity of the system that we're left using.[00:04:00]
If you have to flip through a thousand pages or log into some software with a password or you know, click open an app and then open this folder and then tap on that, and then tap on this and tap on that before you can get to your tasks, that is too much friction and your system is gonna fall apart because you'll be too annoyed to even enter your tasks in the first place, and if you know, even if you did, you'd be too annoyed to open up your system and to see what those tasks are. Let me give you an example that might make this more clear. I've talked about the program Asana here on the show before. I personally use that software application as my project management tool for larger projects, like anything that has multiple steps like podcast creation and everything to do with building out my programs and publishing blog posts, and filming and editing YouTube videos, all of those multi-step projects that I do all of the time, but I do not use Asana for my daily task management system.
Here's why. [00:05:00] To get into Asana, I have to open up the application on my computer, click over to the specific project that I'm working on, whether that's, you know, my podcast, or YouTube or blog or courses or whatever, and then click into the appropriate column, and then click into the little task card that contains my task.
Or if I am creating a task, I have to hit the plus sign and then enter in the details of my task. And that is all really good for these big, complicated projects I'm working on. But that is way too much friction for my day-to-day task. Because it would mean that I'm doing all of those steps multiple times a day.
That's too much. That's the kind of system that works better for larger projects. But for my day-to-day task management, I use a simple paper planner. So it's not that complex systems are bad. Right. Maybe you do need something complicated for your more complicated projects, but maybe you need something simpler for your day-to-day task management system.
One that doesn't require you to take multiple steps before you get to doing the task itself. Now, [00:06:00] the second red flag, which is. Kind of related to the first one is that you avoid opening it or it meaning like your task management system because it just feels too overwhelming. Our task list or our task management system is only effective if we put tasks in it, and so we need to make it super easy for ourselves to put tasks in it.
And as I was just explaining, a complicated system that requires multiple touch points before you can even add a task to it is gonna mean that you don't add tasks to it. Which means that you actually don't have a system at all. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I am a firm believer in simple systems and that simple systems are always the best systems, especially in the case of task management.
And what could be more simple than a notebook or a single piece of paper on your desk that outlines what you need to do for many of us, that is sufficient. And then one final red flag to consider when trying to determine if your task management system is too [00:07:00] complicated is if it doesn't allow you to quickly glance at the tasks that you need to be focusing on.
Again, this comes down to reducing friction and making sure that there aren't too many touch points in your system. When I say touch points, I mean literally touching, like flipping something over, going to the right page, opening an app, clicking on something. Enter your username, enter your password, click on that.
That's what I mean by touch points. But let's say that you are working or studying at your desk. Okay, well then it would make sense that your task management system is right there on the desk with you, right? So that you can, with very little effort, glance at your task list and determine what you need to be working on next.
If you system requires that you click on this and open this and flip to this, then my concern is that you'd be too annoyed with that process. And when it comes time to figure out what you're supposed to do next, you wouldn't even bother to open up your system. You would just rely on some arbitrary feeling you have of what you want to do next instead of what you should be doing next.
Does that make [00:08:00] sense? So those are essentially three red flags to consider, and really all of them have to do with this concept of friction. If something about your task management system is annoying you or it's weird to you in any way, then you could probably simplify it. And the way to do that is to ask yourself, what is the most annoying part of my system?
where am I abandoning it? At what point in my day am I giving up on it? Maybe you have a good morning routine where you're planning out your tasks for the day because you listened to my 10 minute productivity habit from episode 93, and you've got your morning planning session locked down for the first five minutes of your day.
But then if your system is too complicated for the rest of the day, you're not even gonna be looking at those tasks that you spent your morning minutes planning for. Alright? So that's a sign to you that maybe it's too complicated to open up again after you've already worked in your planner in the morning. By planner, you know, I mean, whatever system that you're using. It has to be easy to access and easy [00:09:00] to touch and easy to use, essentially all day long because essentially you will be doing tasks all day long.
Okay. I hope that was helpful and again, depending on when you are listening to this, and depending on if you are a student or not, I will direct you to assignment management system.com or if you want the whole how to do School System, which includes how task management fits together with time management and studying and organization and note taking,
then of course, that is Inside School Habits University, which is at schoolhabitsuniversity.com. Okay. All links in the show notes, you know that.
So our next question is from a working professional, and they ask, I'm just gonna read it here. Hi Katie. What am I supposed to do when I feel like I spend all day in meetings and I never have solid chunks of time to get my work done?
Some of my meetings are pre-scheduled and I can deal with those such as a team meeting that we have every Tuesday and a couple of other monthly meetings I have to attend, but it's the random meetings that seem to pop up without much notice that are messing with my focus. It's only my second year at the job, so I don't really [00:10:00] feel comfortable speaking up about this with anybody yet.
I'm more thinking along the lines of what can I do myself? Thank you.
Awesome question and it reflects a lot of what I remember about working in corporate. And yes, I did have corporate experience before I entered the educational space, which in a way, like in a public school system, is pretty corporate too, and has all the annoyances of corporate life Anyways. I also appreciate your perspective that you are still kind of new to what you're doing and you don't feel like speaking up and complaining.
You did not use that word, but I'm using it. You don't, and I'm not saying that that's what it is, but that's the sense that I get, that you don't want to be perceived that way, that you don't feel like that is the best approach to take. Fair enough. So my first thing is that, yes, there are way too many meetings in my perspective, in the context of everything that I talk about here on the show, is that I am convinced a lot of managers and department heads and people who are creating these meetings need to listen to my show and learn some [00:11:00] better productivity strategies and management strategies so that there is less need to call meetings all of the time in the first place.
But that is neither here nor there. So I think a lot of that does start from the top, which according to your question, you're not at the top, but maybe one day when you get there, you will value people's time and be the kind of manager who doesn't call for excessive meetings all week long. But other than that, what can you do?
And that is a really great perspective too, because so much of what our work and school experience comes down to is our systems. And our perspective and our tools and the levers that we have access to and that we can pull. So to start, you're probably already doing this, but having a really clear time management system, ideally on a digital calendar where you can very clearly
and cleanly see what blocks of time in your day are consumed by meetings and where you have open space to do your work. [00:12:00] It is super critical for everybody to make time visible because we cannot manage what we can't see, and a digital calendar is honestly the best way to make time visible. So once all of your meetings and your other things are locked and loaded inside your calendar, what remains are technically the free blocks in your day, in your workday, where you can essentially do your job.
And this is the time you need to protect, but it also sounds like this is the time that gets snatched up by managers who are randomly calling meetings. I was gonna say pointless meetings. You didn't say that, but I'm assuming that like 60% of them are. So this is where I want you to get a little creative with Google Calendar and actually start creating some meetings with yourself.
And we do that first by looking for patterns. So I know you said that these pop up meetings are unpredictable and I'm sure that they are, but there still may be some kind of predictability in the randomness of those meetings. So for example, do you have one [00:13:00] particular manager who seems to set meetings on Thursdays?
Maybe they're random times, and maybe they're not every Thursday, but almost it's always on Thursdays. Do you have another person who seems to make meetings always on Tuesdays? Random times. And Random Tuesdays. But whenever they call a meeting, it's on Tuesdays. Part of using Google Calendar and making time visible is it allows you to see these kinds of patterns.
And if you've had a Google Calendar established for some time, and if you're putting these meetings on your calendar, you actually have some historical data that you can scroll back, you know, as the past few months and get a sense of where are these random meetings happening or not where, but rather when and what are the patterns there?
and then when I said create some meetings with yourself, I mean, try to find a place in your calendar where random meetings don't typically pop up. Maybe nobody is calling random meetings on Monday mornings. Well, goodness gracious, I would really hope not, but maybe that's a logical and reasonable time for you to 100% lock in with the work [00:14:00] that you need to do, the most critical work that you need to do, and put a meeting on your calendar.
Block it out and treat that meeting with yourself like it is a meeting with your superior. People do this. This isn't some like random outta touch idea i'm sitting here having. People do this. Don't forget, I work with working professionals as part of my private practice for a living. This is what people do, right?
And that time is ultra protected. And you're also walking into that meeting. That meeting, I'm air quoting, knowing exactly what it is that you're going to be working on, just like having a meeting agenda. If it were a real meeting.
This is valuable time and you do not wanna waste the first half of it trying to figure out what you're gonna do. Now, I am not sure what kind of shared calendar system your company uses, but sometimes when you create an event on your calendar, other people in your, um, at least in your like hierarchy of
you know what I'm trying to say? Like people in your, in your level can see [00:15:00] that time that you're as busy on your own calendar. If that's the case, if you create a meeting for yourself, let's say on Mondays from nine to 11, you don't have to name that meeting, meeting with myself. You can give it a name that's deliberately a little vague or no name at all, but just block it off as if you're busy. And if somebody absolutely needs a meeting at that time and they see that you're busy, then they can reach out to you and say, Hey, we're trying to meet as a group on Mondays. But you have something on your calendar, is there any chance you could move that? At which point you could decide to do so or not?
That's your call. But the key to the strategy working well is walking into that meeting with yourself, knowing exactly what you're gonna be working on. Maybe you have a time block plan and you have all of your resources and your materials already, so that you don't need to waste any time finding them.
Um, the second thing that I would do is to really start utilizing the admin block strategy. This is another concept I feel like I talk about a lot on this show, but an admin block, you know, I, um, teach you how to do this in [00:16:00] episode three, but it's this idea of chunking together, all of those kind of annoying admin tasks that we have to do throughout our day.
They're not our real work, but they support the work We do- emails, errands, phone calls, filing, things like that, and chunking them all together into one period or time on your calendar, um, maybe depending on your job, it might be a half an hour a day. It might be one hour a week. It really depends. You have to figure that out for yourself.
But instead of answering emails, you know, randomly all day long, or making phone calls randomly all day long, or processing notes randomly throughout the day, or filing things randomly throughout the day, you keep an ongoing list of these admin tasks as they pop up. And then as a designated time in your day or your week, you handle all of those admin tasks at once.
This does wonders for productivity and for focus, particularly in a situation like yours where you are crunched for time and you wanna protect whatever time you do have in your day to work on your meaningful work. If you [00:17:00] don't have an admin block, then anytime you have a free spot in your calendar, you're gonna be faced with the exhausting decision of, do I work on this important project, or do I respond to these emails?
And that might seem like an easy decision. Like obviously you would work on the big important project, but in the moment, many of us choose the emails and that's what derails our productivity and leads us to feeling unproductive at the end of the day. And then we feel shame 'cause we didn't do the things we did.
It's the spiral, right? But if you have an admin time scheduled on your calendar, in those moments where you have to choose what to work on, you're gonna work on the right things, the things that move the needle. Because you have peace of mind knowing that all of those nuisance admin tasks are gonna get handled in the admin block that you put in your calendar.
Now, another thing to consider, again, if we're coming from a place of what you can do. And that, you know, we're not gonna be able to stop the meetings from being scheduled, but it's to reframe how much time you really need to work on whatever it is that you need to work on. The Pomodoro technique, which I [00:18:00] talk about in episode 14, it's the strategy of working for 25 minutes and then taking a five minute break and then working for 25 minutes and taking a five minute break.
Rinse and repeat. And the Pomodoro technique is super effective for productivity, particularly for people who have A DHD and particularly if you are working on cognitively demanding tasks or work that is very thinky. You know what I mean? And just the nature of the Pomodoro technique tells us that you can get some significant work done on a project in 25 minutes.
If you enter that 25 minutes with laser focus and with everything that you need ready to go before you even start that session. So my challenge to you is to ask yourself, how much time do you really need in one sitting to work on what you need to work on?
Obviously only working in 25 minute chunks, like that's the only chunks of time that you ever have throughout a week. That's not ideal. But if you have random chunks of time in your day that are not hours long, that are perhaps half an hour long. And you have half an hour here and half [00:19:00] an hour there. You can make that work if you have to, as long as your task management system is dialed in and essentially tells you what the needle moving activities are and that you should be working on in those shorter chunks of time.
And as long as during those shorter chunks of time, you are completely oblivious to the outside world. You're putting on your headphones, you are closing your door, you're putting a really unapproachable facial expression on your face. You are not answering email. You are not answering the phone. In fact, your phone is absolutely nowhere in the room with you.
And you maintain a decent level of organization so that you know where all your materials and things are, so that at the start of your working block, you can just jump right into the work without having to scramble around for all the things that you need to do that work. I mean, in a perfect world, we'd all have wide open chunks of time in our day, but that is not how it works.
And honestly, having giant chunks of free time in our day [00:20:00] does not necessarily lead to increased productivity either. Sometimes having that structure of limited time or of our day being book-ended or punctuated rather by meetings. Or things to do or places to be, whatever forces us to be more creative with how we view time and more locked in with how we use it.
It forces us to be more organized. It forces us to choose to work on the most important projects and let the other stuff go and it forces us to start using the concept of an admin block and a digital calendar system that all supports the work we are trying to accomplish. That is a really great question.
And you know, actually I was just about to wrap it up, but I just had another thought. I know that you're a working professional, but I do have a lot of students who are listeners as well, and I feel like this question, or my answer to this question might be helpful to some students too, because I know that many of my private clients are student athletes or have jobs, or they're in college and their schedule is scattered, so it's not like they're having meetings throughout the week, but they still have a lot going on [00:21:00] and various places to be at various times throughout the day. They might have a course in the morning and then one in the late morning and then they have to get to class, you know, that's later that evening. 'cause they, they, but they don't have these giant chunks of time in the day to work on their stuff.
And this is the same advice that I'm sharing with you that I share with them as well. I am often advising students to really optimize the time they have in between classes, to get creative with using that time. And honestly, it's sometimes the busiest students who use their time the best because they are not dilly dallying, they don't have the luxury of saying, I'll do that later.
And it's that kind of urgency that helps them initiate and complete the work in less time. Again, thanks for submitting that question. I think it is super relevant and hopefully there's some managers listening who can take a look at their own meeting scheduling practices and apply the concept of that could have been an email if I had to sum up, I think I'm funny, if I had to sum up both at today's conversations, I'd [00:22:00] say it is to reduce friction, whether it's making your task management system less complicated or protecting those small blocks of time when meetings threaten to take over. The goal is to make it easier for yourself to actually do the work.
Simplicity and clarity always win, and we do that by reducing friction. All right. Remember too that you can submit your own questions for me to answer on this show just like I did here today. There is a simple form at Learnandworksmarter.com. It is right there on the homepage. You can just ask your question.
And as you can tell here in the episode today, I don't read any identifying details like names or company names or schools or anything like that. So we are free to ask anything without fear of being identified if you don't want to. I appreciate you spending time with me here today. Keep showing up, keep asking the hard questions.
Keep doing the hard work and never stop learning.[00:23:00]
