What Can You Really Accomplish in a Day?
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Many of us overload our workdays, only to find ourselves facing an unfinished to-do list at the end of the day. How can you break free of this magical thinking that causes you to disappoint others, miss deadlines, feel depleted, and lose your inspiration?
To get a realistic sense of how long your current and future projects will take to complete (and how to prioritize them), start by reviewing your major projects from the past year. Which were planned and which were opportunistic? This self-audit will help you paint a more realistic picture of how your future calendar will be populated. It will also help you prioritize the top of your to-do list and renegotiate the rest by saying no, lowering expectations, or requesting help.
Crucially, you need to stop convincing yourself that next time will be easier. This kind of optimism may be misguided, leaving you at risk of falling short. Always lean toward building in more time for your work, not less.
Finally, look for opportunities to build your team’s capacity, and delegate when you can. You don’t need to go it alone.
Translations
🇨🇳 你一天到底能完成什么?
我们中的许多人在工作日超负荷工作，而到了一天结束的时候，却发现自己要面对一个未完成的任务清单。 怎样才能摆脱这种让你让别人失望、错过最后期限、感觉耗尽、失去灵感的神奇想法呢?
要想对你当前和未来的项目完成需要多长时间(以及如何确定优先级)有一个现实的感觉，首先要回顾过去一年的主要项目。哪些是计划好的，哪些是投机的? 这样的自我审查将帮助你描绘出未来日程表将如何被填满的更加真实的画面。这也会帮助你优先处理你的待办事项清单，并通过说“不”、降低期望或请求帮助来重新协商剩下的事情。
最重要的是，你需要停止说服自己下次会更容易。这种乐观主义可能会被误导，让你面临失败的风险。总是倾向于为你的工作投入更多的时间，而不是更少。
最后，寻找机会来培养你的团队能力，并尽可能地分配工作。你不必孤军奋战。
