Medium: The reason you’re not as productive as you should be is because you haven’t learnt the art of prioritizing.
But fear not my little apologetic ragamuffins, here is the solution: erm…learn the art of prioritizing. This isn’t some Sistine Chapel style artwork we’re talking here, this is finger painting easy.
4 comments:
This is fairly similar to a technique I already use, but the one thing I didn't realize is that the optimum number of tasks to complete in a day is 9. I've never really counted my tasks before, so that's something I'll start trying to do. I think that might help reduce my frustration when I don't get everything that I wanted to get done. However, there's one part of this method that I don't think is helpful 100% of the time: ranking tasks in order of importance. Personally, I rank things in order of how long they take to do and I'll divide them up accordingly. While I see the potential merit of ranking things by importance, I personally already do that in my head when I'm deciding what to do that day so breaking it down further just confuses me. When I'm making my initial list I put down everything that I absolutely have to do that day, and then if I finish those things I'll make another list of things I could do if I have the time, and so on. I don't think either method is more effective than the other, I just think it depends on you and how your brain works.
The interesting thing for me about this system is that it starts with making a master to-do list that includes more than just work. I find that I tend to forget non-work tasks, and that is probably because I never put them on my to-do list. I mean to call my friend, read a book, or working on my writing, but I just don’t think of it as a legitimate to-do item. I’m not sure how I feel about the nine tasks a day thing, since some tasks are more complex than other tasks, though I suppose that is as good way to figure out approximately what is accomplishable. I think for me if I were to implement this system it would be hard to for me to get myself to put personal items on the list of tasks for a day when there are work items to do. After reading this article I will try having my to-do list include personal tasks, not just work related tasks. I actually already mark items as must dos and should do but putting either a star or arrow by them in my to-do list. However, I don’t necessarily do them in that order because some things are more easily done in short windows of time, whereas for other tasks I am better off waiting until I have a large window of time to work on them. Overall though, this seems like a very effective system, and I will definitely be pulling elements of it and incorporating it into the system I use.
Sadly there are only 24 hours in a day, limiting you to what you can get done. I’ll tell you what my problem is--I find myself never saying the word NO. Nobody wants to say those two letters in any situation. I’ve always wanted to be able to do everything and quite frankly, it’s just not possible. But it’s important to managing people’s expectations. I think you should never have to say the word “sorry” if you can successfully manage expectations. If you lead someone to believe that you will get something done, they will expect it. But if you simply say “ I might not have time to get to that” not only will they be even happier if you do manage to finish the task, but if you don’t, there is no way they can be mad because of the expectation you set.
I have sat through many lectures that discuss ways to be more efficient, but none of them seem to do anything for me. This doesn’t mean I’m against trying them, nor do I believe that it’s not right for everyone. It is important to find a method that works for you.
Hmmm, I've always considered myself pretty good at breaking down tasks and achieving them within the set amount of time. But like Chris said, sadly there really is only 24 hours in a day and for all the things I want to actually get done and do, I'd have to leave school haha. At the same time however, it is a poor excuse to say that one doesn't have enough time because damn, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel and it's not like he was allotted more hours in a day than the rest of us-- if he was able to do it, than we are able to do it as well! And to continue and tack onto what Chris was saying about having a hard time saying "NO", I'm in the process of learning that as well. You never want to disappoint anyone, especially when there's a lot at stake and you feel like the rewards will outshine the work. Right now, I'm accepting the fact that I'm currently taking on too many tasks and I'm overtaxing myself-- I'm a design student in the drama conservatory, I'm designing and constructing 8 looks for the Lunar Gala fashion show, and I'm illustrating a fantasy novel. Basically, I'm doing way too damn much and this madness needs to end.
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