How To Get More Done In Less Time.

I’m obsessed with learning how skilled people do their work, How a sculptor can take a lump of rock and turn it into a beautiful masterpiece, and how an author can take an idea for a story and turn it into a novel that entertains millions of people.

The more I learn from these incredible people, the more I see that the ‘secret’ to producing great work is not a secret. It’s simply having a process that gets the job done.

This is nothing new. It’s something that technology can influence but doesn’t change the principle, and that is, if you want to create something, you need to follow a roadmap or set of actions that get you from where you are today to where you wish to be in the future.

Keeping on top of your email is easy. It’s a simple process. First, clear your inbox and filter out the emails you need to act on, then later in the day, give yourself an hour to work on your actionable emails by starting with the oldest first.

If you follow that process daily, you will never have issues with backlogged emails. You will always remain on top of it. Yet if you ignore the process for a day or two, you will have a backlog that needs dealing with, which requires extra time — and most people do not have.

When we try to change a process or system that is currently working, things go wrong. All systems and processes are slow at first. Think back to when you learned to drive a car. You had to think about each step, from putting the key in the ignition to placing your foot on the brake and turning the key to start the engine. You had to consciously think about what you were doing. After a few months, though, you no longer need to think about the steps because the process has become embedded, and you now do it without thinking.

The science behind this is fascinating. Our brains would be unable to cope if we had to consciously think about everything we need to do to stay alive. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. Imagine if you had to think about each breath consciously. It would be almost impossible to do anything. This is why our brains love patterns. Patterns allow us to “automate” processes to remain alert to the dangers in our environment.

One of the most effective things you can do to get more done in less time is to identify your “core work”. This is the work you are employed to do. The work that earns you your income. It’s not the admin or attending internal meetings. It’s the work you were hired to do. A designer sitting in a meeting is not doing any design work. Similarly, a salesperson attending a weekly sales meeting in the office is not selling.

Once you know your core work, you can create a process that gets that core work done. For example, a salesperson must set appointments with existing and prospective customers. This is a critical part of the work of a successful salesperson. This means that each day, the successful salesperson would dedicate a block of time to setting up appointments.

When they first begin doing this, they likely would be able to contact a few clients. Repeat that process every day, and within a few months, they will be contacting a lot more customers in the same amount of time. That’s because they will have a process to select who to contact and will instinctively know what to do without thinking about it.

When I began doing YouTube videos, producing two videos would take me around five to six hours. Today, I can produce three videos in less than three hours. When I started, I had to think about each step. Today, I no longer need “think” about the steps. I know what needs to be done and in what order.

Over time, you will refine your processes. This can be because technology improves and allows you to do things faster, or you learn you can remove a few steps. But you will only know this by repeating the same process until it becomes ‘automatic’.

Many years ago, when I began writing this blog, I spent a lot of time outlining my topic, brainstorming ideas and planning the narrative. This was because I followed the advice I had been given in middle school on how to write an essay.

I soon realised that all this outlining and brainstorming was unnecessary. All I required was a few notes on a topic, collected in my notes app, and when it came to sitting down and writing the blog, the best way for me was to write a first draft, leave it for twenty-four hours and edit it.

I’ve cut out four hours from writing and publishing a blog post by refining my process over time.

There is a process in almost everything you do, both in your personal and work life. You must identify those processes if you want to get more done in less time. When you consistently follow these processes, you embed the steps into your brain, and producing the desired results happens naturally.

It’s hard work to think about each step of what you are trying to do all the time. It’s also exhausting. However, when you identify the process and follow it consistently over time, it becomes much easier for you.

Writing a blog post is easy for me — I’ve been consistently doing it weekly for over eight years. Yet, if you have never written and published a blog post before, you will feel it is a huge mountain to climb. It’s not. At most, it’s a small hill. But that’s because I have a process for writing one; you don’t.

So, find the processes if you want to get more done in less time. These will make doing your work much easier and more consistent and leave you feeling less tired, so you can spend more time doing the things you want to do.

Thank you for reading my stories! 😊

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