CL #5: President Obama's No. 1 Career Advice for Young People
Just learn how to get stuff done
Today, I’m going to show you a simple framework to help you get things done.
In a world where it is becoming more difficult to stand out at work, the skill of getting things done will help you outperform 99% of your peers, and get noticed by your superiors.
In an interview with LinkedIn’s Editor in Chief Daniel Roth, Former U.S. President Barack Obama shares his most important advice for practically anyone seeking to stand out in the workplace:
Learning to consistently get things done in the workplace will:
Help you get noticed as a problem solver
Help you build trust with your peers and superiors
Set you up for greater responsibilities which equals promotion
You will also reap the reward of less stress in the workplace.
This concept sounds easy enough but unfortunately most young people can’t seem to get anything done at work.
“Doing things is not the same as getting things done.”
Why do we struggle with getting things done?
We simply lack focus
We think we can multitask not knowing that multitasking is a myth.
We are constantly distracted by our phones and by social media’s endless scroll.
We procrastinate on hard important tasks and focus on simple unimportant tasks.
This leads to a stream of uncompleted work, stress and low productivity.
Don’t worry though…
David G. Allen, created a 5 step framework (GTD) to help you get things done.
Step 1: Capture
It is important to get things out of your mind to a trusted external system called an inbox.
Your inbox should have things that require your attention; it could be a to do list or a list of ideas stored physically or digitally.
Let it be as random as possible, don’t be pressured to organize as we will do this later.
Capture anything that crosses your mind that needs to get done. Nothing is too big or small!
Step 2: Clarify
Here we transform the stuff we collected in our inbox to concrete actions.
Start by deciding the outcome you desire for each task as this will help you have a clear direction.
Next, break down each task into its smallest actionable components which will allow you to define steps more clearly.
For example, let’s say my task is “Meet with Joseph.” I can make it more specific by saying, “Meet with Joseph on Wednesday next week to discuss his newsletter”
The next step would be to text Joseph and ask for his availability. If I don’t have his contact the next step would be to get the contact first.
Step 3: Organize
Once the tasks are clarified, its time to sort them into specific categories or “park them” in spaces.
In practice, clarifying and organizing will happen together but it’s important to think of them as different steps.
Here’s how you can categorize tasks:
Task that can get done in less than 2 minutes get done immediately.
Time sensitive tasks go into the calendar
Tasks with multiple steps go into projects with deadlines
Tasks that don’t require action go into a reference folder
Tasks that you don’t want to devote time or effort to get deleted
Tasks that can be done by someone else get delegated
Tasks that are waiting for someone else’s action go to a waiting list
Step 4: Reflect
This is the most crucial step in this process for we all have different contexts.
You need to reflect on what’s working and what’s not working, assess your accomplishments and decide how to make the process better.
Reflection includes:
Daily reviews held before starting a day and after completing a day. In the morning, decide what needs to get done on that day, and in the evening review what you did and what needs to get done tomorrow.
Weekly reviews held at the end and beginning of each week. Be clear on the tasks you need to accomplish every week based on your future goals and actions done the previous week.
Without regular reviews, the system becomes less effective over time.
Step 5: Engage
Even with a list of next actions, it can be challenging to know the right thing to do at any given time.
David Allen offers three four questions to help you choose the correct item to work on:
Is this the right context for this action?
Is this the most impactful activity I can do right now?
Do I have enough energy (creative or otherwise) to do this?
Do I have the time to do this now?
Pick the tasks that you organized and implement them.
These steps are the roadmap to becoming a reliable person in the workplace and building a reputation for getting things done.
I can assure you that implementing the GTD framework will change the way you work and improve your results at work.
Remember that if you don’t take action, this framework is for nothing.
If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.
- Jim Rohn
Summary
If you enjoyed this post, please support my writing by taking two actions:
Wow. Thank you.
I've always been distractioned in my work but once I started applying the steps you've outlined on this post, am getting the work done and getting noticed at my work place.
Thank you Joseph.
Thanks Joseph for sharing this.