Managing yourself: Work by the task, not by the hour
While it is true that I work really long hours and that I get a lot of stuff accomplished (as I keep two inextricably intertwined lives, the academic and the socialite), I know for a fact that I could get more done. There is always more work, there is always something else that needs to be done. And what I have found makes me feel better, in addition to ALWAYS doing something, every day, that moves me forward, is to work by the task, not by the hour.
This tip works differently depending on the environment I am working on. If I am travelling, I use what I called the Minimum Travel Work Unit method: I plan and choose the tasks that I can complete within the period that it takes me from point A to point B. For example, on a ferry ride from Vancouver (Tsawwassen) to Victoria (Swartz Bay), I can easily answer 40 emails, or write 5 paragraphs of a research paper, or prepare 2 blog posts, or approve comment on my blog, etc.
If I am NOT working at my desk (either at the university or at my office at The Network Hub) and say, I’m working at a coffee shop, I only bring enough work with me to complete a certain number of tasks in a specific block of hours. For example, 2 hours working at a coffee shop can mean editing 10 pages of my wastewater governance book. Or reading 10 journal articles to prepare for a lecture, or in a literature review. Or writing 20 slides for a talk.
If I am doing work on a regular schedule and at my desk, I do try to follow Tanya Golash-Boza’s suggestion of dividing my work week and my schedule and insert regular writing (scholarly writing, not social media writing) in my planning for the week. And if I am just doing work on the go, I just try to cross off tasks that can take little time. For example, I recently revised a draft document during the wait time between when I checked in to a flight and when I sat on the plane. Not exactly a MTU of work, but still, a task had been accomplished and gotten off my sometimes endless list of to-do’s.
Do you work by the hour or do you find that you work by the task?
I need to get better at working on the road! I have been traveling for 8 days now, and have done almost no writing. I finally just cranked out a blog post, but it is hard to write while traveling because I find traveling to be simultaneously energizing and exhausting!
Great advice Raul. I think that the other benefit of working by the task not the hour is that it encourages you to focus on only one thing and close the other things that can distract us from what we truly should be concentrating on.