Module four planning wisely. The hallmark of successful Time management is being consistently productive each day. Many people use a daily plan to motivate themselves. Having a daily plan and committing to it can help you stay focused on the priorities of that particular day. As well, you are more likely to get things accomplished if you write down your plans for the day. Creating your productivity journal.
Essentially planning is nothing more than taking a piece of paper and a pen and writing down the tasks and associated steps that you need to take throughout the day to ensure that your goal is completed. To start Get yourself a spiral notebook and label it as your personal productivity journal or your professional productivity journal. We recommend keeping a separate journal for work and for your personal life so you can focus on them at separate times. Thus maintaining your options. More work life balance. label each page with the day and the date and what needs to be done that particular day.
Next, prioritize each task in order of importance. Highlight the top three items and focus on those first, cross off items as you complete them. items that are not completed should be carried over to the next page. maximizing the power of your productivity journal. personal development expert Brian Tracy believes that when you write down your action list the night before your subconscious mind focuses on that plan while you sleep. By planning the night before you will also start fresh and focused on the most important tasks for the day.
Of course you will want to review your list in the morning but you will have a head start on your day. Always have your productivity journal with you during the day to avoid becoming sidetracked. Crossing off completed tasks will give your subconscious mind a tremendous amount of satisfaction. This will also help to maintain your motivation to To complete the remaining items on your action list, if you find yourself moving uncompleted tasks over into the following day, and the day after that, then you need to ask yourself why that task is on your list in the first place and what value it has in your life. If you postpone a task three times, it does not belong on your action list. The glass jar, rocks, pebbles, sand, and water.
There's a story about time management that uses a glass jar rocks, stones, pebbles, sand and water to illustrate how to plan your day. The glass jar represents the time you have each day and each item that goes into it represents an activity with a priority relative to its size rocks. The general idea is to fill your glass jar first with rocks, playing each day around your most important tasks that will propel you toward achieving your goals. These represent your highest priority projects and deadlines with the greatest value, often important, but not urgent tasks that move you toward your goals. pebbles. Next fill in the space between the rocks with pebbles.
These represent tasks that are urgent and important, but contribute less to important goals. Without proper planning these tasks are often unexpected and left unmanaged can quickly fill your day. working to reduce these tasks will give you more time to work toward your goals. sand. Now add sand to fill your jar. In other words, schedule urgent but not important tasks only after important tasks.
These activities are usually routine or maintenance tasks that do not directly contribute to your goals. Water finally pour water into your jar. These trivial time wasters are neither important nor urgent and take you away from working toward higher return activities and your goals. If you commit to this approach to planning your days, you will see as time goes on that you are able to achieve more in less time instead of finishing things in a mad rush. To meet deadlines, each day will be organized and become more productive and profitable. You will also notice yourself spending less time on activities that are of little to no value.
And because you have a clear vision for dealing with competing priorities, the level of stress in your life will diminish, which will allow you to become even more focused and productive. chunk block and tackle. large projects can sometimes be so overwhelming it is difficult to even plan to start them. This time management technique is ideal for taking on these jobs. Simply break down the project into manageable chunks block off time to work on the project and then tackle it with a single minded focus. chunk.
Break large projects into specific tasks that can be completed in less than 15 minutes. Block. Rather than scheduling the entire project all at once, block out set times to complete specific chunks as early in the day as possible. This should allow you to ignore most interrupted And focus on just this task tackle. Now tackle the specific task focusing only on this task rather than the project as a whole. Once completed, you will feel a sense of accomplishment from making progress on the project.
Ready fire aim. We've all heard the saying ready Aim Fire. Often in time management planning, it's better to think ready fire aim instead. This is because most people aim for the target and then they keep aiming at the target but they never seem to fire. They get so caught up with the planning that they fail to take action. This is just another form of procrastination which we will discuss in a moment.
Better to take a shot and see how close you were it's at the target. Ready. Do not over plan each of your actions. By the time you fire the target may have moved. buyer. Remember the 8020 rule and just take action Even if you don't hit the bullseye, you'll probably still hit the target.
Aim. Make new plans based on new information, readjust your aim based on where you hit the target.