You may have heard that you can accomplish more by doing less. The idea is that when you have fewer things to do, you have more time and energy to do those things and do them well.
Many productivity systems suggest using “WIP Limits” to structure your work, WIP standing for “Work in Progress”. By limiting yourself to fewer (but more important) tasks, you can be more effective than having a dozen lesser tasks on your list that you may or may not get done.
I usually schedule 2 or 3 “most important tasks” for the day. If I get those done, it’s a good day, even if I do little else.
WIP limits are an example of “constraints,” limits to the amount of work you commit to. They acknowledge that we only have so many slots to fill each day and we should fill them with activities that deliver the most value.
One way to implement constraints is by the way you use your task app.
The task management app Todoist allows you to have up to 300 projects in their paid version. A project could be a case or client, an “area of focus” (e.g., work, family, finances, etc.), a time frame (e.g., this week, next week, this month, next month, future) or something else.
You might have 300 clients in your system, each one a project, but you can’t expect to focus if they are all “active” at the same time. You’ll find it easier to focus if you limit yourself to perhaps 5 or 10 active projects.
If you have trouble limiting yourself, you might choose an app that doesn’t allow so many projects or areas, or, in the case of Todoist, downgrade to the free version, which only allows 5 active projects.
Having only 5 slots to fill forces you to choose those slots wisely. It forces you to figure out what’s most important to you, so you can focus on it.
How many active projects, areas of responsibility, clients, or cases do you currently have in your task management system? What might happen if you reduce that number? And what might happen if you schedule fewer tasks each day to do your work?
Over the next few days, consider these questions and how WIP limits and other constraints might help you to focus and be more effective.
