Getting Work Done (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series)

Assess Your Progress

All of these to-do lists, organization tools, and routines aren’t worth the effort if they aren’t helping to make you more efficient. Take the time every few months—or at least once a year—to ask yourself whether they are working and whether you’ve come closer to achieving the personal and professional goals you set earlier in the book.

Reflect and adjust

During this period of review, revisit the goals you outlined in the beginning of “Identify What Needs to Get Done” and ask yourself if you’re now on track to meet them. If there’s still room for improvement, examine which tools are contributing to your productivity and which aren’t.

Are you using your to-do lists, or do you only look at the tasks that you’ve entered into ...