Tuesday To Do: Do Less

Welcome back to Tuesday To-Do, a weekly column on SPoT where I share a quick tip to help you get your week back on track, even if Monday was less than productive.

Today’s tip may seem counter productive to the point of this column, but follow me for a moment.

When so often the focus is on hustling to the best of your ability, it’s amazing how we don’t actually tend to get more done. That’s because hustling doesn’t always equate to productivity. Working more isn’t as impactful as working smarter.

Multitasking is really just distraction, and often indicates a lack of focus. Instead of sitting down with a few dedicated tasks and doing them we’ll, we feel like we have to pack our lists and calendars with more and more.

This week instead of focusing on the hustle, focus on getting those high priority items done well. Scale your list back, do a little less and, simultaneously, get more done.

Stop checking email

I wish I could say stop checking email indefinitely, but I’m talking about while we’re working on tasks throughout the day. Having email notifications turned on is such a huge distraction while you’re getting work done. You may feel like a super productive as you respond to or deal with every message as you get it, but it’s really distracting you from the task at hand. Turn off the notifications and pick a few dedicated times a day just to deal with email (once in the morning, again after lunch and then in the evening before you quit for the day).

Delete social media apps

Just for a little while! The temptation to just scroll through Instagram or check in on Twitter is real. Especially when you’ve been working on something that isn’t the most exciting task, like checking email or working on invoices. Delete the apps while you work so that you’re less tempted to give in to distraction.

Turn your wi-fi off

This is incredibly helpful to me when I need to get a significant amount of writing or editing done. I’ll turn the wifi off in my apartment, put on a coffee shop playlist and get to work. When all you can do is focus on the task at hand, it makes it so much easier to focus.

Say NO more often!

It’s so hard to turn down a project that aligns with the things I’m passionate about. Even when my plate it full, the right idea or collaboration is so hard to say no to. But I have to, and so do you. Constantly saying yes to everything means we’re either going to do many things averagely or end up scrapping projects at the last minute.

I hope we can all trim down our to-do lists to focus on the things that really matter today!