One of the benefits of working in a distributed team is the extra freedom and flexibility it provides. But with this comes the extra responsibility of managing your own schedule and workload. This guide touches on...
- Managing and prioritising your tasks and workload.
- Managing your time effectively.
- Optimising your focus and attention to make the best best use of your time.
Time management
When most people hear the phrase Time Management they think about being on time for meetings, starting work at a set time and being prepared for events.
While it's obviously important to arrive punctually for meetings, good time management isn't really about being on time for things. It's about using the time you have available in the most useful and effective way.
Here's one definition of Time Management...
The range of skills, tools and techniques utilized to accomplish specific tasks, projects and goals
Notice how it doesn't mention time. Instead, it talks about having the skills and tools to accomplish specific work. If you want to improve your time management, the best thing you can do is make the skills and tools you use to get your work done as effective as possible.
Task management
Let's look at one definition of Task Management...
The process of managing a task during its lifecycle, including planning, tracking and reporting.
The key words here are planning, tracking and reporting...
- Planning - Good task management requires planning. You need to break down your work into small do-able tasks and prioritize them.
- Tracking - Good task management requires tracking. You need to keep track of how your work is progressing so you can re-plan as needed.
- Reporting - Good task management requires communication. You need to let others now how things are going.
Good task management is a huge topic, so we can only scratch the surface here. Below are a few tips to get you started...
Defining tasks well
Imagine you need to find a new place to live. You might add something like this to your to-do list:
Todo List ✅
The big problem with tasks like this is that they aren't really tasks – it's not at all obvious what we actually need to do to move things forward. When faced with a list that includes tasks like this, most people will avoid these unclear tasks and focus on smaller more granular tasks instead.
The solution here is to make this task more granular. We should invest some time and thought in planning before we add a task to our list.
After a little thinking, we might add some constraints to our task...
Todo List ✅
This is useful, but our task is still quite hard to actually do. A useful question to ask yourself here is what's the next action here? After a bit more thought, we might decide that the next concrete action is to call a rental agency...
Todo List ✅
Compared to our original task, this one is pretty easy to do. We don't have to make any decisions or do any planning beforehand because we've already done that work. We can just do the thing on our to do list.
Taking the time to plan and think before you add tasks to your list helps ensure your todo list only contains actually actionable things. The conceptual separation between planning and doing can also help to make both more effective.
Projects vs Tasks
It's often useful to differentiate between projects and tasks. In the example above Find a new place to live isn't really a task – it's a small project which needs multiple tasks completing before it's finished.
It's sometimes better to think about very simple tasks as projects – imagine we have a to-do list like this:
Todo List ✅
This is fine if we have a bucket and a sponge to hand. If not, this is actually a small project and our to-do list should probably look more like this:
Todo List ✅
If you'd like to learn more about this approach to task management, David Allen's Getting Things Done covers it in great detail...
Tasks and Calendars
It can sometimes be tempting to schedule your tasks in your calendar. This has the advantage that each task has a set amount of time allocated, and this can provide a feeling of control – especially when you're really busy.
Some possible downsides to scheduling tasks in your calendar...
- Low flexibility - it's hard to adapt to changing priorities and situations.
- Relies on accurate estimates - if a task takes more or less time than expected you'll have to rearrange things. (Most of us are terrible at estimating how long tasks will take.)
- It's stressful - If your calendar looks like the one below every week, you're likely to feel pretty stressed!
This approach works well for some people but unless you know it works for you, it's probably best to use your calendar exclusively for time-specific events (like meetings) and manage your tasks elsewhere.
Task management tools
There are hundreds of task management tools to choose from – the most important thing is to pick one that works for you. You might want to consider:
- Ease of adding tasks - it should be really easy to add a new task.
- Collaboration - how easy is it to add and assign tasks to other people? Is this important for you?
- Multiple devices - how easy is it to access your todo-list from your phone or tablet?
Prioritizing tasks
A well-managed todo list with granular, do-able tasks will do a lot to help you work more effectively. But if you have a lot on your plate you'll also need to prioritise your tasks somehow.
The Eisenhower model is a simple way to do this. Watch the video below for a brief explanation...
Attention cycles
When planning your work, it's always worth considering your energy and attention.
If you know that you work best in the mornings, consider blocking out some"focus time" in your calendar then. If you have a slump after lunch, maybe you can book social calls then to help pick you up?
You can also apply this approach to your week – perhaps you want to keep Mondays meeting-free because you have lots of energy to work on focused stuff. Or maybe you want to schedule most of your meetings on a particular day when you know you're likely to feel more sociable.
You might also consider blocking out certain personal activities in your calendar to help manage your energy and attention. It's often a good idea to schedule a morning walk, for example. Or lunch with your family. (See Personal Routines for more on this).
Communicating
It's important that you clearly communicate when you're working and what you're working on with your teammates. You can do this in various ways (usually some combination)...
- Make your calendar public so people can see what's in it (see Using Your Calendar Effectively )
- Use Slack statuses (see
Slack Statuses)
- Make the tasks you're working on visible
- Send a regular slack messages to update your team
Summary
One of the benefits of working in a distributed team is the extra freedom and flexibility it provides. But with this comes the extra responsibility of managing your own schedule and workload. By thinking about your energy and attention levels and taking the time to make your tasks "do-able", you can create an effective system for doing this. But you need to be intentional about it – this will not happen by accident.
