Getting Important (but not-fun) Work Done

Here’s a tip that may help to get your important (but not fun work done) and still leave you time to do your enjoyable work. The secret is based on structuring this work as if you were back in high school.

We all have things that we were created to do…. work that we enjoy doing.

It’s probably what we studied in college and what we started our careers doing. But..

Over the years, the roles have changed. Our responsibilities have included things that we don’t enjoy as much.

Our businesses need us to do other things too!

For example:

If you’re a lawyer… or an engineer… or a software developer… or in any creative field, you may find that over the years you have had to do more and more admin and sales work… in fact over time it may feel like you are spending more time doing that kind of work than what you actually signed up for.

Do you find yourself doing all kinds of unproductive things just to avoid making that important sales call, or looking at the accounts?

The type of things I do including checking emails, checking Facebook or going for a cup of coffee… any excuse will do!

This leads to TWO NEGATIVE results.

1. The work that is important for the business does not get done and
2. I find I don’t really enjoy the work that I normally would enjoy because (at the back of my mind) I feel guilty for not doing the work that needed to be done.

The solution turned out to be something very simple.

Schedule your (non-fun) work as if you were back in high school

Back when we were in school, we had different classes or periods. Maths was at 10 AM, English at 11 AM and so on. We spent time on all our important subjects because it was scheduled and done at a particular time.

I have found that I am much more productive if I use the same idea for the work that my business needs me to do (but I may not enjoy as much).

I have scheduled various 30 minute blocks of time into my week for Sales Emails, Team Mentoring, and Marketing Analysis. Some of these activities may get more than one period per week.

On the allocated time, I set aside what I am doing and focus on the “Subject” for 30 minutes. Sometimes the works gets done before the end of “class”.

Other times I keep going because I am in the flow and the work seems easy to do.

And if I am not in the flow, I work till the end of the “period” and then leave the subject for the next allocated time on my calendar.

This simple trick has helped me become much more productive. The work that is important to our business is now getting done.

A nice side effect has been that I find myself enjoying my work day much more as I no longer feel guilty for ignoring important work.

I hope that this tip helps you too. If you have other productivity tips, please share it with other readers by leaving a comment below.