Many things to do and not enough time. There comes a moment as a commander when you realize you can stay at work for long hours and your to-do list or task list may not be close to being finished. If there is one (of many things) I would have told myself in the first 90 days of command, it would have been to prioritize tasks and organize myself.

How do productive commanders best manage their time? For this post, I’ll focus on how to prioritize efforts and properly organize oneself.

1. First things first. What Jeff (@x70037) said is not too far off from how I managed my time as a commander. See his post and the discussion that sparked this post here. For one, I had a printed Eisenhower Box on my desk with priorities to constantly remind me of what I should be working on. What does the BN commander want completed? What are his/her enduring priorities? What are upcoming events that I as a commander should prioritize?  Is a new task unnecessary and requires my communicating of overload of tasks to higher (more on this topic from @tiarawalz here)?
2.”Everything is timing.” Some argue that performance on tasks, both physical and mental, vary based on the specific time of day. For me, this meant that I came in early prior to PT and worked on tasks that required deliberate work (writing evals, creating presentations, planning etc). This allowed me to work at my peak with little to no distractions. This also meant that I resisted checking email 100x a day, and saved tasks that didn’t require as much effort for the end of the day (signing leave forms etc). Read more about Daniel Pink’s thoughts on timing here.
3.Come up with your own system to organize. Whether a green notebook, evernote, onenote, or leader book, find your own way of organizing new tasks and their completion. Make it a habit for you to track new tasks from meetings/ discussions etc in one spot. This will help with organizing oneself. I carried a notebook and wrote down only necessary notes.

*I used a bullet for notes and a [] box for tasks.
4.Email comes down to the 3 Ds (Do, Delegate, or Delete). I tried to keep email to 2x a day and focused on face-to-face communication as much as possible. Great tips on how to manage your inbox from the Field Grade Leader team here.

What are your thoughts:

How do you prioritize tasks and manage yourself?
How do you stay organized? What tools or apps do you use?
What is one major change or habit that you made (in command or since taking command) to increase your productivity and adequately manage your time?