Joining us for the next three weeks is special guest host, Amber Hacker, MBA for a series of time-saving and organizational hacks. Amber is the VP of Operations and Finance at Interfaith America and a contributing writer for the Harvard Business Review. This week, she shared with us her hacks for optimizing your limited time when you feel like the work is never finished.
“We don’t actually have to do more, we have to do more of what matters.”
Amber Hacker
Amber spends time training companies and teams in time management and organization, and shared her most popular advice before turning to the audience for more!
- Delegate tasks, not responsibilities– You might be spending too much time micromanaging, not allowing any real work to get done.
- Figure out what time of day you’re most productive… and plan to complete your most important or arduous tasks then!
- Organize your inbox and time block emails instead of constantly checking throughout the day. You might be surprised at how much time you’re spending on constant inbox maintenance, and how difficult it is to get back to deep focus again.
- “Multitasking is the enemy to getting things done.” For the vast majority of people, juggling multiple tasks just means lower-quality work that took more time to complete.
- The power of saying No– choose to focus your time and energy on what’s most important to you.
- Carve out time for deep work to focus on strategic planning and goal setting. Spending time laying out the details of future projects and outlining each step makes for smooth transitions and fewer surprises.
- Make lists… and keep them realistic! List your top three priorities per day and ‘bonus’ tasks that aren’t urgent.
- Amber’s method for getting ahead of procrastination: Have a ‘next-action bias’ to keep you efficient and focused. She has found that not having a specific, actionable next step or plan is a top contributor to delayed results and missed deadlines.
- Set a task and an end date, so projects don’t drag on. Sometimes it feels like the final edits and details are never complete, but done is better than perfect.
- Consider voice dictating your emails or speeches to stay concise and in a flow. (Don’t forget to double-check for typos before sending!)
Listen to the full talk above!
