Little ways to be more efficient

Plus a few things that aren't as efficient as they look

I hate wasting time. I’m guessing you do too. When we get through the things we need to do expeditiously, there’s more time for relaxation and fun. Here are some strategies I use to get things done quickly that you might find useful too.

Triage your calendar. On Friday, as you are planning the upcoming week, look at what is already on your calendar. Is there anything that no longer makes sense to do? If you’re going to cancel, it’s better to do it ahead of time so everyone can get the time back. Can you minimize anything? Maybe you work remotely, and see a meeting with someone where the agenda is unclear. Pick up the phone and call the person and see what’s going on — maybe you can answer the question right then and get this meeting off your calendar. If you’re meeting with the same people multiple times, maybe you can consolidate agendas. If you have one less-than-urgent meeting dangling in the middle of a block of open space, see if you can move it. By doing these things, in a few minutes you might buy yourself hours! It’s worth a shot.

Make your daily to-do list the day before. We can burn a ton of time deciding what to do. Better to take 5-10 minutes before quitting time each day to look over the next day, figure out what needs to happen, and assign yourself those tasks around any appointments. Leave a buffer for what goes wrong, but when you start work, you should know what you plan to tackle first.