When 5 pm rolls around, do you leave work feeling like you’ve accomplished a lot or spun your wheels all day? If you constantly feel like you could be more productive, the 4 Ds might be the solution to your time management struggles.
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Do
Just like it sounds, this is doing something. But it’s not simply doing anything. Strategic action is critical. Work on tasks that take two minutes or less—sending an email, scheduling a meeting, setting up reminders. Anything that takes longer than two minutes -work on that alone for 30 minutes, and then take a break. Don’t multitask. The truth is, there’s no such thing as true multitasking- you end up juggling tasks without gaining traction.
Delegate
Effective delegation takes time to master. Begin by writing down each step necessary in a project and a specific outcome. This becomes a checklist for the person who will do the work and helps ensure the final result is exactly what you wanted. For smaller tasks, a checklist may not be necessary. What’s important to consider is if it will take you less time to delegate the responsibility than it would to do it yourself effectively.
Defer
Plenty of requests and emails arrive daily that don’t require immediate action. Rather than addressing them right away, filing them for later review is more efficient, allowing you to focus on your current task. Whether you use a task-tracking tool such as ClickUp or Todoist or simply designate an “action” folder in your email, the key is to have a system in place that you trust and plan to revisit for follow-up. To ensure these items receive attention, schedule a specific time each day dedicated to reviewing these.
Delete
This one brings a lot of joy with it. Ruthlessly delete emails you don’t need to respond to. Be equally as brutal with removing tasks from your to-do list. In some cases, you may need to circle back to the requester and explain why you’re not doing it, but if that takes less time than the task would have, deletion is still an excellent way to go.
All this boils down to making decisions about what to do, when, and how. By using the 4 Ds, you have a basis from which to make these decisions for each task and project. There are various resources available to help you master the 4 Ds, from books Getting Things Done (David Allen is an OG) to productivity apps like ClickUp, which we use and personally and highly recommend.
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