Stop doing that.
By: Roger Creasy
If you do a Google search for ' remove unnecessary tasks', you get thousands of results about how to stop unnecessary processes from running on your computer, phone, or tablet. These links take you to pages that talk about how these unnecessary processes slow down your device, make it inefficient. If these processes are unnecessary, why are they there? Most likely, they are remnants of past installs, things you did in the past.
Do you have tasks or projects that are unnecessary, but you continue to do? Do you make similar tasks a requirement for your team? These unnecessary tasks slow you and your team, and make you less efficient. It is important to remove unnecessary tasks from your life, and from your team.
The difficulty comes in trying to determine what is necessary. Some projects do make a contribution to your goals, but the contribution has diminished over time. This diminished return means that this project could likely be replaced with a more productive project that makes a greater contribution. Or, time spent on the low-contribution project could be cleared and spent on a high-contribution project. Other projects or tasks have a history. We have done them so long that they seem important. We need to look at how necessary these projects are; do they make a valuable contribution? Or, do they take time away from other tasks.
It is difficult to give up any tasks or projects. We are on boards, groups at work, part of various teams, or head a long-time project. As humans, we feel important because of all of this busy-ness. FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) sets in. We fear if we stop doing any task, we become less necessary. We fear we will be replaced. Fear is the common element. We should analyze every project or task objectively, and make decisions about their continuation.
At the outset of projects, we should decide on sunset determination factors and plan for shutdown. We, and all stakeholders should know exactly what circumstances mean the project should end, at the beginning. What unnecessary tasks should you remove?