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You can’t really clean up your schedule if you don’t know what’s in it—and that includes all the things on your literal and official calendar and all the things that aren’t.
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Once you know what’s on your calendar, ask yourself: “What is the purpose of each thing on here? Are we accomplishing that or does something need to change?”
Question each task. Start with recurring meetings, which can very easily build up and take over your calendar.
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... and put them in one of four quadrants:
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Is there a task at work that you could delegate or outsource? Delegate or partner up with someone to ease your job.
If you can’t pass off certain tasks to others wholesale, try to minimize the time and effort they require.
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Part of cleaning up your schedule is finding strategies to prevent it from getting cluttered again.
Block chunks of time on your calendar when you won’t be available to answer emails or phone calls or to attend meetings. This will prevent other things from accumulating and occupying the time you need.
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Time management is also about making room for the non-work things you love and those that allow you to recharge.
Think about what recharges your batteries: It might be nature, exercise, friends, art, baking, or anything else you enjoy. And make time for it.
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We tend to overestimate our time and energy in the future and so we fill our calendars with tasks we think we'll be able to complete.
When you’re thinking about something in the future, ask yourself if you’d do it tomorrow. You know how much energy you have now and presume it’ll be pretty similar tomorrow. That allows you to be a little more judicious.
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We all have busy schedules, but we are incorrectly planning our day around the time we have, not around priorities.
Our estimates on how long certain tasks will take are almost always ...
The Decision Matrix on how to approach tasks has 4 quadrants:
Prioritize the important (Quadrant 2) to attain maximum benefit from your work.
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A good daily schedule is a blueprint for a successful life.
Knowing what we’re doing and when empowers us with a sense of purpose, meaning, and focus.
The most successful people consistently get their most important work done first.
Build recurring time for your most important work in the morning, before you start anything else. Your energy levels are naturally higher in the morning, but completing a meaningful task first thing has also a domino effect that pushes you through the day.
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... during the day can be an effective way to keep your inbox at manageable levels.
However, the constant interruption and distraction that comes from it can dramatically lower your productivity, and disrupt your ability to enter a state of flow when working on high value projects.