This piece was written by one of our amazing team members here at Development & Leadership Coaching, Erica Foster. Here she shares some practical and powerful gems shaped from years of working together and constantly streamlining systems so that we can focus on the most important things. She and I actually use all of these methods to help us be better at what we do, and we are always working to get even better. Enjoy!
10 Ways to Simplify Your Work/Life
Do you feel like an unorganized octopus spreading your tentacles in a hundred different ways on a daily basis? This can make you feel very busy and often overwhelmed, but at the same time you’re not necessarily moving forward on the important things.
When you start to feel like this, it may be time to look at your to-do list and simplify!
We teach some powerful ways to simplify the things you do on a regular basis. Here are some practical ideas:
- Create some email templates. Look through your sent email list. Create a template for anything that you find yourself sending more than once.
- Create some examples or workflows of how you are normally going to operate doing the things your ministry does frequently or repeatedly. This lowers the amount of cognitive power you have to apply to repeatable tasks, you just work through the workflow or delegate to others who can do so.
- Create checklists in the task management system you use for projects that tend to repeat, so that you aren’t re-creating the wheel every time. Our team currently uses ClickUp. We highly recommend it if you are looking for something to start using!
- Check out tools like Zapier to create ways for things to automatically happen using technology without you having to spend time monitoring and making them happen on your own.
- Write down the tasks you spend your time on weekly, including the things you wish you could spend more time on that you may not be getting to because of the day to day demands on you. Now, create some categories that these tasks fall under.
- Chunk out your work time on your calendar using the categories you have just created, so that you know when you are spending time on which tasks or projects. This will help you reduce the stress of feeling like you have a million things to get done and you will have more peace knowing there is an allotted time and space for that to happen.
- Create projects in the task management system you use for each category you have created. This makes it really easy when you see that chunk of time pop up on your calendar to go to the project and focus in on what needs to get done.
- Prioritize on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. This will usually involve you working with other team members who can all help you define these priorities and stay accountable to them. Ask yourself all the time “what am I going to accomplish TODAY, or THIS WEEK, or…”
- Establish specific work hours. It’s becoming more and more common to work virtually today. There are so many benefits to this, but if you aren’t careful you can fall into a trap of working ALL THE TIME. That laptop or smartphone is always there staring you in the face, reminding you of all the things that need to get done. Even if you don’t work the typical 9-5 day, you should still establish some set work hours. If you have a spouse, it’s also helpful for him/her to know this schedule.
- Keep moving forward! Some days you just have to put one foot in front of the other and just do something. Remember that emotion follows action, and each day you do something to move your ministry forward is a good day of work.
It’s time for you to simplify your life so you are more effective. Get moving and sign up for some extra encouragement from Zach along the way!