Why unexpected issues are dangerous for workdays that don’t work well and how to be more prepared to keep your productivity on track
A long time ago, a member of an executive group asked me a question I have received many times since:
“What do you do when an emergency totally ruins your schedule?”
The quick and simple answer is “reprioritize.”
But here’s where it gets more complicated.
What if the unexpected issue or emergency lands in a workday that is already chaotic, disorganized and reactive, rather than one that is running smoothly, efficiently and productively?
Unexpected issues and emergencies will continue to show up from time to time and there’s nothing you can do to control that.
The frustration that follows is understandable. You have to redirect your attention to a new issue and you CAN’T work on what you had PLANNED to do for the day.
However frustrating, though, keep in mind that if the unexpected issue falls within your realm of responsibility and it IS the highest priority to handle right now, you are making the right decision to handle it and you are STILL BEING PRODUCTIVE.
But there are special cases that DO require investigation, such as when a chronic issue repeatedly occurs. For instance, you may feel you’re wasting time and losing progress because you have to handle an issue that…
…you believe someone ELSE should be handling.
…is a repeating issue you THOUGHT was already solved.
…is a repeating issue that SHOULD have been solved, but hasn’t been.
If you believe any or all of the above is happening, it’s time to start the investigation into a solution. Involve others if necessary and SOLVE IT, once and for all.
The Fork in the Road
Again, random and unforeseen situations WILL continue to come up. You can count on it.
Many issues will be out of your control, but to ensure you keep up a brisk pace for your productivity and avoid losing ground on your progress, it’s essential to focus only on the things you CAN CONTROL—how you manage the unexpected and how quickly you can recover from it.
There are two kinds of workdays in which the unexpected can land and one is MUCH easier than the other for a quick recovery and continuation of achievement and progress.
Let’s look at both of them…
DAY #1: The Workday that Works
The first kind of day is one that works at OPTIMAL efficiencies. You’re working effectively and productively, and the systems and processes that support you are well structured and reliable, strong, but flexible.
You would have a single, complete and centralized task management system to contain and manage ALL of your tasks and responsibilities consistently, efficiently and effectively—no matter where the tasks are coming from or when you plan to do them.
Email would be completely under control—meaning you’d know how to keep your Inbox low or at zero every day, giving you 100% awareness of where you are on everything you get—tasks, follow-ups, reading, information, meetings and more.
You would also know how to manage interruptions and distractions, and know how to protect time to accomplish what you need to do each day. You wouldn’t be scrambling or wasting time looking for things you know you have, but just can’t find.
In this kind of day, you would be making noticeable, tangible and meaningful progress every day. You’d feel proactive, productive, organized and satisfied.
With total control of your day, you would feel clarity and confidence, and a lot less stressed. And at the end of the day, you would feel accomplished and pleased with your results.
When the unexpected hits a day like this, it’s not a disaster and there is no panic. It’s easy to reprioritize and change your plan. You make smart decisions with clarity and 100% awareness, because you’re so on top of everything both before and during the time you’re dealing with the unexpected.
You know exactly what to do, what will have to wait until later, and WHY. Progress on tasks that were planned for the day will not be lost or indefinitely delayed. Action will simply be planned for another day.
As the issue is being resolved, you protect time to keep up with mail, voice mail and email—or you do so immediately thereafter—and you’re able to pick up where you left off with your next set of tasks when the issue is resolved.
And after dealing with the unexpected, you can move forward quickly without having to regroup, recover or “clean up” afterwards, because the systems and processes you had in place supported you all throughout.
Because of this, you can handle issues and emergencies in a calm, cool and collected manner. You can turn on a dime without missing, losing or forgetting anything.
And again, you’re STILL being productive as you handle this unexpected situation, because it falls within the realm of your responsibility. It’s part of your job, it needs your attention and it’s important to do.
DAY #2: The Workday that Doesn’t Work
The second kind of day is one that lacks strong, consistent and reliable systems and processes for managing tasks, email and information.
You may already feel like you’re spinning your wheels, buried in email and wasting time looking for things—even before the unexpected shows up. You may be fighting interruptions and distractions, and losing time at every turn—pushing you farther and farther behind every day.
In this kind of day, you would NOT be operating at optimal efficiencies.
You’d be stressed out even before the day gets started. You would regularly feel the agony of reactivity, the distress of disorganization and the pressure of being out of control. You would likely feel frustrated or overwhelmed, and at the end of the day, you wouldn’t feel like you got much accomplished.
When the unexpected hits a day like this, it can cause even MORE reactivity, frustration and panic, because this kind of day is already chaotic, frenzied and disorganized.
Planning and reprioritizing would be difficult. Decisions would be harder to make since you weren’t completely aware of everything that was on your plate to begin with—while more is constantly rolling in.
Without systems and processes in place to handle everything smoothly and seamlessly as it appears, it would be difficult to keep up. Productivity and progress would be delayed, and chances would INCREASE (greatly!) that something will be missed, lost or forgotten—or perhaps a LOT of things.
And at the end of the day, you might wonder what you accomplished, you’d worry about what you missed, and your stress would remain high until you sorted things out.
You get to choose.
When you think about how you want your workday to go, how efficient you will be, and how much progress you will make, you must remember: you’re in charge.
If you’re experiencing more chaotic, reactive workdays, here are a few steps you can take to help you turn your day into a more efficient and productive day that helps you be more prepared for the unexpected.
- Inventory your tasks.
End-of-the-day disappointment and dissatisfaction are often caused by trying to do too many tasks in too little time or by choosing the WRONG tasks to work on. You may feel overwhelmed by the long list of to-dos written on a legal pad. Each day you try to get everything done on the list, but this is not realistic and it is stressful.
You may also unknowingly choose to work on a task that is NOT a priority. But you still feel productive, because you’re working on something from the list, even if the list was VASTLY incomplete.
To remedy this, you must get a handle on ALL of your tasks—no matter when you’ll take action or where those tasks came from. This step is a TOP PRIORITY. As you find your tasks, boil them down to the teeniest, tiniest step you can take to keep things moving forward. This is especially necessary if you’ve identified projects, which are much larger than tasks. - Plan and prioritize.
Once you’ve built a complete inventory of ALL tasks and you see them in one location, it’s much easier to compare them and determine when you will take action on each and every one. This is extremely important to do, whether action is planned for today, this week or farther out in time.
No matter which tasks you are addressing, “ASAP” is not realistic—and HOPE is not a plan. As well, “later” or “at some point” is too vague. You’ve got to have a PLAN and you must prioritize.
- Take one day at a time.
Depending on your schedule of meetings and calls, target doing only two to four of your MOST important tasks—the teeny-tiny ones—and make sure your plan is realistic and doable. If your schedule is more wide-open, you can shoot for five to six tasks in a day, but make sure you can actually accomplish that many before trying to do that every day.
Once you’ve selected 2-4 teeny-tiny tasks to accomplish today, you can FORGET about the tasks planned for future days and just get moving. This will REDUCE the stress related to “the endless to-do list” with no structured plan of action, as well as the notion of having too much to do and too little time. It will also end the distraction and high stress of seeing things on a legal pad that are still not done.
