Why Discarding 80% Of Pending Things-To-Do In December Earns You A Better 2023

Do not get me wrong. What must be done has to carry on. I am talking about ongoing things that consume your time with little or no results to show for it.

Along the way, as the year progresses, we alter our course of work to suit the opportunities that present themselves. If you are a generalist as the majority are, you will pick very many projects, most of which are out of your depth. In a challenging business environment, anything and everything that makes business sense goes.

Many times, government policy has a say in these activities. Money now readily available from the Hustler Fund has gotten many citizens into a frenzied moment of believing that everything is possible. I support the fund but not the anticipated fun that many think it will bring. This money must be repaid and people had better know how that will happen before taking it.

Anyway, we now must end the year lighter than we were in November when we had all the hopes of accomplishing everything before the slow-paced and happy-go-lucky December mood, checked in. We know that 80% of what we do accounts for 20% of the desired results and vice-versa. So, why carry on with the 80% that won't get you anywhere, and if anything, focus on the solid 20% that matters the most?

This is the time to be brutally honest with yourself. Ask yourself, what won't change your course of desired progress if dropped? Strike off the long list and remain with your golden 20%.

As simple as it sounds to read this, the actual exercise feels like a murder plot on your best friends. It is excruciating. But it must happen like yesterday, so pull the trigger quickly and rid yourself of an unhelpful workload.

All successful organizations trim off their destructors and reorganize the freed resources around their core business, periodically. This is the time to spring-clean the strategies before re-energizing for the new year.

Sometimes when organizations don't want to destabilize teams, they initiate placebos. These are activities that keep everyone occupied but with no intended positive outcome, perhaps because staff shedding at the time might create anxieties within strategic teams in the middle of monumental assignments.

But once the critical projects are accomplished, those in the placebos get reassigned if needed in critical tasks or are done away with unceremoniously. If you are in tasks that are meant to occupy you as a way of keeping you engaged to let critical missions that don't concern you to flourish undistracted, then better find something of value to do lest you arrive at the chopping board ahead of schedule.

Equally, quietly examine the tasks you undertake at work and map them out on a continuum of placebos to extremely critical tasks. Where you lean towards will give you a clue of your next moves. When you are not brutally honest with yourself, your employer or marketplace will step in depending on if you are employed or are in business.

The beauty of doing away with 80% of your workload is that it gives you time for clarity.

And what if taking on the extra load is what keeps you employed? Practically, you mustn't be out of a job because someone else can be hired to replace you.

It is however important to take time to review how such mundane tasks add or subtract value from your career. At some point, wear and tear will render you unsuitable and other able-bodied employees shall replace you. If you can answer the question: when I am replaced, where shall I go to?, then you are Ok.

But because this write-up is about you, I urge you to handle the clutter in your workload before you get consumed by it.

Doing away with most things to get laser-focussed on a few items is a hard task. And staying put with everything is a sure bet to not attaining critical results. Travel light into 2023.