Late Capitalism squeezes the last few drops of exploitable time out of our lives. And yet we try to improve ourselves personally and professionally, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. We can do something called Functional Freeze. We have so much to do, yet we can’t seem to get anything done! There are ways out of it this.

Three tools I’ve learned over the years have helped me a lot, and I believe they will help you, too. First, you have to figure out what needs to be done, using something called the Eisenhower Matrix, or the Urgent/Important Grid. Once you’ve figured out what needs to be done, you break those down into doable bite-sized pieces. Technically, it’s called Functional Decomposition. Finally, figure out where your time goes, using “Billable” Hours tracking.

The Eisenhower Matrix

So who knew that a former US President and general who helped win World War Two (Stalin did most of the heavy lifting) would be posthumously cast as a self-help business consultant guru? He’s wrong, though. Sometimes things are Important AND Urgent, like paying rent on time, or turning in an assignment. This assumes not being homeless or failing a class or work task is important to you.

So, after listing all the things you need to invest your time into, get some paper, draw lines up-down and across, and put those todos in their appropriate boxes. “Urgent – Important” are things you have to do right now. Knock them out. Hopefully, as your planning powers increase, you will spend less time working in that box. You can get things done before they become Urgent.

When we feel like we don’t have enough time to do the important things, it might be because we’re working on the unimportant things. By important, we mean “things that get us closer to our goals.” So, you have to have a clear vision of your most important goals. A Health and Wellness coach can help a lot with that, but the way. Sign up for a FREE Discovery consult, if you haven’t already. But I digress.

Think some about what is truly important on a deep level. Like things that you would wish you had done in your life if you knew you were going to die next week. Because the fact of the matter is that we are dying, one minute at a time. Our minutes are precious.

Some of those things you want to accomplish are too big to think about, aren’t they? Suppose you want to arrange you life so that you have more leisure time, more time to travel or more time to spend with your family. Those are big, big goals. You can write it in the Important half of your matrix, but how do you know what to do? That is when you have to break it down.

Functional Decomposition — Break it Down!

Thinking of big projects you’re working on is exhausting. You don’t know where to begin. So you do something useless instead to escape (Not Urgent – Not Important). What you need to do is break it down.

Function Decomposition is a fancy term for this. Your efforts to be productive should form a function, i.e. get you closer to a goal. But what it really means for you is to use nested to-do lists. Why? Any goal is made up of many steps. When we think of all the steps related to that goal on a giant mush in our heads, we get overwhelmed, and go do something else instead (usually something “Not Urgent – Not Important.”)

To avoid this, break out those little steps explicitly, and attack them one a time. Keep breaking it down until it is a “SMART Goal.” Simple (little or no parts) Measurable (you know when it is totally done), Achievable (easy to knock off, Relevant (It actually gets you closer to completing the top-level goal, and Time-lined (you will schedule time to do it and/or set a deadline for it.

Fortunately, if you are on Mac OS, nested checklists are built right in to the Notes app. Open a new note and hit Checkboxes:

From there, you can add checkboxes, then move them under another checkbox by dragging them or hitting the [tab] key.

I used a task I’ve been putting off – renewing my drivers license – as one example. It’s one of  those things that pops into my head now and then and I say, “Damn, I have to do that!”

Now, I have baby steps to get me there.

Another example is writing this article. You get the idea!

Billable Hours

Next is an idea I got from working as a legal assistant at a law firm. Of the 8 hours they paid us, we had to track how much time we spent on each case. Sometimes there wasn’t a lot to do, as we were waiting on something else to happen. I remember sitting in our little bullpen office, sitting and staring at Calvin. Calvin stared at me. I said, “So, Calvin, how is the document collection going at [redacted]?”

“Great,” Calvin said, “we’re making good progress.” We smiled at each other, pulled out our billable hours sheets, and wrote” 0.25 hours, meeting regarding document collection progress.”

Anyway, I’m not suggesting that you pad your hours to say you’re working on your goals when you’re not. Just the opposite, in fact. Figure out where all of your time is going! For a day or two, write down what you did for each half-hours of the day. You won’t be perfect at it, and you don’t really have to stop twice an hour to write down what you are doing, but, you may find that some non-productive (Not Urgent – Not Important) things are taking a lot of time. Excuse me a moment. . . [writes down 10:30 – 11:30 PM, writes more on Overwhelm article.]

Okay, enough for tonight. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Putting It All Together

Way back in the day, before I became certified as a Health and Wellness Coach, before getting certified as a Personal Trainer, and before that for a Medical Assistant (what can I say, I like learning), I became certified as a Program and Project Manager. It is a huge topic, and unfortunately one not studied well in many organizations, as you can tell by all the stupid time-wasting decision managers and owners tend to make. Knowing that there are actually smart ways to do things has made me miserable as an employee, but happier as a person. Same with studying logic.

There are tons of information about project and time management, but it is seldom used. You get the feeling that people don’t really want to get things done, but rather just want to support the status quo. But you, since you’re reading a coaching blog, are probably interested in breaking your status quo. You want to move forward, not spin your wheels in the mud. You have a vision of where you want to be and who you want your life to look and feel. Well, here are some tools to get some traction. I made examples of these things in a Google Sheet. Make your own copy and play with it. It’s important.