We know how easy it is to let emails and papers pile up on
your desk or in your inbox. The following Four Ds of Decision-making will not
only reduce clutter but also increase your productivity. You may want to share
this one with your employees and colleagues!
The principle of the Four Ds is that you must do one of the following upon
receiving an email or other item. By deciding what to do upon receipt, you
avoid the temptation to say, “I’ll deal with it later.”
Delete – Ask
yourself if this email or paper contains information you can find elsewhere? If
it’s a duplication of information, then you can safely trash it.
Do – Is it an
item that will take just a couple of minutes to do? Take a moment to do it and
you won’t regret it. There’s no point setting it to the side if you can do it
quickly. Take care of it and then you can probably delete it. Tip: If the item is something you need
to read such as industry articles and news sources, create a “To Read” file and
set aside time each week (or day) to read. As you’re reading, don’t just flag
pages to come back to later – if you find an article contains information
worthy of keeping, tear it out and file accordingly.
Delegate – If you
can’t delete it or do it quickly, you may need to delegate it to an employee or
colleague. Maybe it’s an item that shouldn’t have come to you in the first
place, or it could be that you’re not the right fit for what needs to be done.
If it’s an email, forward the email to your team member and request
confirmation that they’ll take care of it. Then, you can safely delete the
original and move on.
Defer - Lastly,
after deleting, doing and delegating, there may be some items that only you can
do and that will take a little longer to do. First, determine your deadline for
the item and then put it on your calendar to do in light of the deadline. By
deferring items according to deadline, you’ll be sure to first complete the
items that are most important. For example, instead of spending useful time on
something that you have three months to complete, you’ll be able to focus on
the task that is due next week.
As a candy and chocolate maker, you have so many things
coming to you in one day. We hope today’s tip will help you create order out of
what could be chaos.
