I remember attending a workshop organized by one of those “inspirational” speakers/coaches/messiahs/whatever you want to call them. I was never convinced of the value these individuals offer, but the workshop was sponsored and I went with a friend. So at worst, I would lose my time but get a chance to do some networking, at best I would actually get some useful advice from the whole experience.
The workshop, was focused on organizational techniques. In other words, it was meant to teach you how to be more organized in your daily work and thus be more efficient in your time-management. Free tip: If you want to be better at managing your time, start with your priorities. Like going to a time-management workshop to be taught obvious truths, instead of using common sense in setting your priorities.
The main reason why I have such a low appreciation for the work of this kind of people is because the vast majority of them have no solid working experience and those that have had real jobs in the past, did not do so within a modern corporate environment that significantly enhances an individual’s views and matures their personality.
Take for example one of the recommendations the speaker made: “Always keep your to-do list up to date.”
Compare this now to one real-life experience of mine (which has occurred in one way or another, more times than a care to remember) with the friend that I had attended the workshop with: A few days after the event, I saw him updating his to-do list. It was three-quarters-of-an-A4-page-long. I found it odd since I could not think of a situation that would cause someone to have so many pending tasks, so I asked to take a look at it. I immediately identified three tasks that could performed immediately at that time (things like returning calls and e-mails). I asked why he put these in the to-do list instead of following them through promptly. He said he was feeling tired at that instance and was not in the mood of talking to other people, much less to clients.
I found his response completely unreasonable, albeit it was fully aligned to the suggestion of the speaker of the workshop that we had attended earlier. The problem with that speaker was of course that he had zero exposure in a real-life corporate environment. His advice on updating one’s to-do list was based on what he was taught by God-knows-who, without even judging it. If you think about it logically for a moment though, updating an A4-sized page of pending tasks, may take about the same time as halving the size of the list.
I was a Tae-Kwon-Do athlete for 20 years. I took part in countless sparring competitions. No matter how many years of experience I had amassed under my belt, in the minutes before a fight I was always moody. Either I was feeling tired, or I had not gotten a good night’s sleep, or I was hungry, whatever. Yet when the actual sparring started, I was leaving everything behind, focusing on my task at hand. You are luckier than me. No-one is going to kick your head off your torso if you let your mind wander for a bit. But that is no excuse for not getting into the “fight”. Updating your to-do list is not the correct answer. Not having a to-do list should be your goal instead.