When 5 pm rolls around, do you leave work feeling like you’ve accomplished a lot or like you 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, etc. Anything that takes longer than two minutes -work on that alone for 30 minutes, and then take a break. Never multitask. The truth is, there’s no such thing as true multitasking- it leads to spinning your wheels all day.
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.
Defer
Plenty of requests and emails come in that don’t require immediate action. Instead, file them for later attention so you can continue to focus on the task at hand. Whether you use a task-tracking tool like Trello or Teamwork or simply have an “action” folder in your email doesn’t matter so long as you know to look at it later. Set a specific day and time during the week when you’ll review these items.
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.
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. For more tips, check out David Allen’s book Getting Things Done
