Want to be more productive? Trim the to-do list

Ever get that feeling you can’t do it all?

You’re right. You can’t. When most of us build a “to do” list, it becomes  an inventory of ideas that physically just can’t be done in the time we give it.

I plan a month in advance. I write all my brilliant ideas on a white board and stand back at look at it. I think “wouldn’t that be a great result?” If I stop there, it’s not long before it’s a rod for my back. There are just too many things on it.

Either consciously or sub-consciously, I know I can’t do it all. The list clutters my mind. It creates distraction, which in turn leads to procrastination. The end result is inertia. No wonder I can’t do it all.

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Management confidence: the 6/24 Factor

The power of being you

Let’s just say there are only 24 things that people are good at. There may be more, maybe less, but when I make a list of those things, I tend to run out of steam around two dozen.

The list might include athleticism or empathy, mathematical competence or organisational skills, strategic thinking or the ability to concentrate, just to mention six.

Of those, I’m only good at two.

Overall in life, I probably do OK in a few more – in total, maybe five or six. Those are what drove my career. They generated most of the success I had along the way. Six out of 24.  Twenty-five percent. That’s what it took.

When did I fail most?

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Hard times for capital ideas

Is your great idea ready to roll?

It’s tough raising funds for new ventures right now. The market for startup capital is being squeezed at both ends. On one hand, soft valuations have put exit sales into limbo. On the other, nervousness about a successful exit stops investors from entering in the first place. It also means less capital returning for reinvestment.

The larger end of venture capital still has some dry-powder, but a lot of that was raised prior to the financial crisis, often with a five or six year time horizon. Many funds are approaching the end of their mandate with a poor track record and significant undrawn commitments. In current conditions, much of the dry powder will simply expire.

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Want a more collaborative enterprise?

Make a simple start: encourage joint responsibility.

Collaboration might be the buzz word of the moment but “command and control” is still around in management behavior. It sort of goes with the territory. If you are in charge, you figure you have to lead from the front.

It’s a hard model to break. Even if you practice that core management skill – effective delegation – you invariably just delegate the right to command and control to some other person.

You tell them what you want, give them the responsibility and the requisite power and let them get on with it. Individual responsibility, rather than shared responsibility, is often embedded in business culture. This kind of delegation perpetuates it.

Try something different.

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Add some risk to your career or business

Why you should dabble

A career and a business have a lot in common. Both are the focus of your working life; both largely determine your financial position; success in either can depend on the skills you bring to the party.

They also have another thing in common. We regularly question whether we can get more out of the cards we have been dealt.

Entrepreneurs with sound businesses look askance at more successful firms in alternative sectors; career individuals often plateau, wondering whether they should have done something else. The trouble is, they don’t know what.

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