Not Prioritizing
It's essential to learn how to prioritize tasks effectively if you want to manage your time better.
Determine if a task is high-yield and high-priority, or low-value, "fill in" work. You'll manage your time much better during the day if you know the difference.
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The trick with using To-Do Lists effectively lies in prioritizing the tasks on your list. Many people use an A – F coding system (A for high priority items, F for very low priorities).
Make sure that you break large tasks or projects down into specific, actionable steps – then you won't overlook something important.
Goals give you a destination and a vision to work toward. When you know where you want to go, you can manage your priorities, time, and resources to get there. Goals also help you decide what's worth spending your time on, and what's just a distraction.
Whether they come from emails, colleagues in a crisis, or phone calls from clients, distractions prevent us from achieving flow, which is the satisfying and seemingly effortless work that we do when we're 100 percent engaged in a task.
It's vital to know how to minimize distractions and manage interruptions effectively.
Procrastinators feel that they have to complete a task from start to finish, and this high expectation makes them feel overwhelmed and anxious.
Instead, focus on devoting a small amount of time to starting. Tell yourself that you're only going to start on a project for ten minutes.
Taking on too much is a poor use of your time, and it can get you a reputation for producing rushed sloppy work.
An "addiction to busyness" rarely means that you're effective, and it can lead to stress.
Instead, try to slow down, and learn to manage your time better.
It can take 20-40 percent more time to finish a list of jobs when you multitask, compared with completing the same list of tasks in sequence.
Forget about multitasking and, instead, focus on one task at a time. That way, you'll produce higher quality work.
Don't dismiss breaks as "wasting time." They provide valuable down-time, which will enable you to think creatively and work effectively.
Try to take a five-minute break every hour or two.
All of us have different times of day when we feel most productive and energetic.
You can make the best use of your time by scheduling high-value work during your peak time, and low-energy work (like returning phone calls and checking email), during your "down" time.
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Poorly-prepared presentations, reports, or emails frustrate your audience and can, over time, damage your reputation.
- Set aside time to plan your communication thoroughly.
- Create a credible, intelligent, and compelling message that emotionally and intellectually appeals to your audience.
- Leave time to proofread and to finalize your presentation.
Trying to apply time management tools without having prerequisite time management skills is unlikely to work effectively. The prerequisites are:
- Awareness about time being a limited resource.
- Arrangement and designing of goals, plans, schedules, and tasks for maximum time-efficiency.
- Adaptation in your use of time, including adjustments and improvisation.
Remind yourself of items that don’t bring you joy, and contribute very little to your long-term goals.
This way, you’re unlikely to spend a lot of time doing time-sucking, non-rewarding work, freeing you up to do the work that does make you happy in the long run.