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How do you plan your day when you play multiple roles in the company?

I try NOT to multitask and follow this CORD methodology; Collect, Organize, Review and Do.
1. Clear your thoughts and collect all of your commitments, tasks, to-dos etc into a commonplace (eg: Excel, word doc, etc). This helps clear your mind.
2. Organize them based on order of priority and categorize them
3. Review and slot the deliverables for the day and the week
4. Do! I use Pomodoro Timer for every task I need to do.

Very good question. There are many methods, but for me its the first thing I do early in the morning. I use project management tool to help (in my case I use trello.com). With trello it arranges your tasks in card like fashion, thus making it easier to monitor and organise.

I break into several columns of cards from left to right, with the left being the most important and right being the least. So obviously the left most column of cards would be named "Clear by Today!" and the next right to it would be "Urgent", then "Important", "not critical", "future", "KIV" and finally "Completed"

Each of these column would have multiple cards in it (one task per card). My target is to finish off all those listed in the "Clear by today" and if I have additional time, I may go to the next column

Within each column of cards, you could also click and drag each card and sort them out based on priority (from top to bottom, with the top most card being the most important). This makes it easier for you since you just have to go through from top to bottom for the left most column set of cards

With regards to identifying which is important and which is not - it would depend on 2 levers - impact and urgency. Those with high impact and high urgency has my top most attention, while those with low impact and least urgency naturally would get the least

Hey Jhenheney, first of all, I have a question - why are you playing multiple roles? Secondly, if you really have to - don't multitask. It's a myth.

My suggestion is:
1. Create a clear and short list of deliverables for the day. Don't be too ambitious. You'll hurt yourself.
2. I assume with different roles, you have different issues to overcome - Address each issue with a clear outcome + objective.
3. It's ok to say "NO" or "WAIT". Fulfill what you have at hand first.
4. Constantly find ways to delegate, effectively empower and enable others to take on some parts of your role so that you're able to be more focused.

Honestly, I believe there's no set way to plan your day as many things are ad-hoc. You'll have to deal with it as it comes along. Those are the tough and energy draining ones. The best you can do is create a morning routine / ritual just to kickstart the day and let it flow. Always remember to have your breaks, wake up with a winner's mindset and have 1 or 2 life-lines to call for SOS (trusted colleagues, seniors, associates, Google!)

Hope this helps =)

I start my week with a weekly priorities check-in with my team members. By itemizing your priorities for the week, you'll be able to wake up everyday knowing that you have a list of things to do. I can't stress the importance of routine. It starts off with the moment you wake up till the moment you go to bed. In between those hours, you'll be maneuvering between your responsibilities in both professional and personal. I've learned that it's important to be realistic and to be kind to yourself and to set achievable goals that are not far fetched from what you can attain in the present moment. Understand your self and how your body works has done wonders for me. You see- every person is built differently and based on our ways of functioning, our best performance are highly contextual and dependent on your personality, character and state of being (mental and emotional). Some people are more effective in the morning while some are known to work better at night. Some people have specific hours in the day where they naturally phase out and go on a lull. No matter what your body/mind does, know that it's your personal clock and pattern that you need to understand. Without this step, you won't be able to identify a method that works for you. That being said - the only way to find a tool/theory that works for you is to TEST THEM ALL. The amount of resources to assist in productivity and organization are endless, so it's easy to get overwhelmed on where to start or how to pick what works best for you. Before you plan your days ahead and juggle multiple roles, you got to take a step back and ask yourself - what are the big picture goals before getting into the small picture goals. Knowing what's important for you will help set the tone on what you need to do on a day to day basis to get to where you want to be. On days that i get piled on with 'too many things to do', I start my day with writing down my thoughts and a quick to do list over a cup of coffee. The only way to plan your day ahead is to strategize with a clear and calm mind. Otherwise, your thought process will be a mess and nothing good ever comes out of that! I hope this helps, feel free to reach out to me if you want to chat further :)

Hi there!

Great question, playing multiple roles is something we all struggle in at both work and life- so many things to do in only 24 hours aiks!

I think it really boils down to a couple of things- knowing what is important VS urgent. Do read up more on the Eisenhower Matrix which I will not elaborate here. I find that journaling (writing down your goals and objectives, either electronically or on an old-fashioned journal/book on every Sunday evening before the week begins) really helps to crystallize and give some structure to your week.

And as mentioned by the previous mentors, try to focus on a single-task from beginning till completion. We are conditioned to have short attention span (thanks to social media and constant pop-ups on our web browsers)- minimize the noise by turning off all notifications, aka distractions and resist the urge to refresh your inbox every other minute.

Hope the above pointers help!