What will you trash, transfer, or trim today?
Whether you're running a business or chasing after a better version of yourself, there are things you should do and things that you should let others or systems do so that you can focus on tasks that require your unique talent.
You must seek opportunities to rid yourself of things you shouldn't do. In Mike Michalowicz's book, Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, he advises that you should either Trash, Transfer or Trim your task list.
Trash the task if it doesn't support your objectives. Transfer the task to "other people or systems that will free you and your expert people to take on bigger, more challenging tasks." Trim tasks you must keep, but figure out how to do them faster or more effectively. Michalowicz's method is very similar to David Allen's method for "deleting, delegating and deferring" tasks.
It seems the easiest decision is to trash tasks because it's somewhat binary: "does this task support my objective, yes or no?" If "no," then trash them. It's the most fun, and you'll sigh as the stress of that task exits your body.
Transferring a task is challenging. You often fall into the trap of thinking that you, and only you, can do the task right: "If you want something done right, do it yourself." More often than not, you think a task done differently is done right incorrectly. Rethink that: done differently is still done. If the result approximates the result that you would have achieved done "your way," then you need to consider "done differently" done.
Trimming tasks is problematic because it seems to be a wasted effort. You tend to think: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Many things aren't broken, but they can be made better. Trimming gets pushed into the background because it's the least of your problems, but realize this: accumulating inefficiencies over the long run makes a huge dent in your productivity or effectiveness.
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about getting 1% better each day, which can have an enormous impact, but getting 1% worse is devastating:
But when we repeat 1 percent errors, day after day, by replicating poor decisions, duplicating tiny mistakes, and rationalizing little excuses, our small choices compound into toxic results. It's the accumulation of many missteps—a 1 percent decline here and there that eventually leads to a problem.
While you may not be getting 1% worse, which is arguable because staying constant in a changing world may be getting "worse", you're definitely not getting 1% better each day.
To get these "unbroken" things to the forefront, set aside time monthly or quarterly to review the process, and ask yourself, "how can this be better?" "Better" can be faster, cheaper or not at all. You can eliminate unnecessary steps or add one step that eliminates multiple steps in a process. Better yet, you could deploy Gary Keller and Jay Papsan's Focusing Question, from their book The ONE Thing to make trimming more like trashing:
What’s the ONE Thing I can do / such that by doing it / everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
What will you trash, transfer, or trim today?