Don’t let the little things pile up! (Tips to turn time suckers into time savers)

All managers inevitably face a productivity conundrum: with so many crucial items to tackle, when can you find time to take care of the little things? You know: those seemingly insignificant tasks that take up more time than they’re worth when you’ve got so much more important stuff on your plate. Things like organizing Outlook folders, looking over sales pitches from new vendors, and replying to low-priority emails are easy to put off–but they come with real long-term costs when they’re not taken care of. These tasks might be low-value, but they’re not no-value. Luckily, Harvard Business Review has some helpful tips for taking care of the little things so that you have more time to focus on the big picture. Each strategy is slightly different, so try each and figure out which works best for your personality.

The brute force method. Keep a running list of those annoying items on your to-do list that you keep putting off. Rather than spending 5 or 10 minutes here or there between calls chipping away at the tasks as a procrastination tool (which sometimes results in the feeling that you’re never really making a dent), dedicate an hour or two on one day to powering through all of your time suckers in one fell swoop. If you thrive on momentum, this might be the choice for you.

If finding a solid, long block of time in your schedule to knock out all of your tasks at once is a nonstarter for you, you might instead try scheduling 10 or 15 minute chunks into your day to respond to emails, write thank you notes, and take care of those other little things that are so easy to keep on the back burner. Scheduling 30 minutes per week to keep the little things from piling up could save you hours down the road. This choice is best suited to managers who rely on a carefully maintained schedule for maximum efficiency.

This last strategy is for the disciplined managers among us who can bounce effortlessly from task to task. Rather than scheduling time for low-value tasks, bang out those items spontaneously using time as it becomes available, like during those 5 minutes when you’re waiting for a conference call to start. Assess the relative value of tasks on the fly to prioritize which are most pressing.