Managers work on a time-based scheduled calendar, but makers or creators cannot be bothered with time. They go deep in their work, forgetting any schedule.

EXPLORE MORE AROUND THESE TOPICS:

How to Prioritize Work Tasks: The Ultimate Guide to Priority Management

.no-js-favicons?domain=taylorpearson { display: none !important; }

taylorpearson.me

"Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." Dwight Eisenhower One of the primary frameworks I use in my work is something I call the business production function. It's a diagnostic tool that lets me quickly look at the four big categories of business and asks: which one of these is the current limit?

Key Ideas

Personal Operations Category

Task management. This one is most commonly taught and includes systems like Getting Things Done.
Knowledge management. This is embodied in systems like productivity educa...

What's on your plate

Prioritizing tasks at work involves getting all your tasks and commitments in one place. Take a piece of paper and make a list of everything you need to get done. Questions to help you:

Do you have commitments to others like your boss, partner, kids, or clients?
Do you have anything you need to submit?
Do you have any financial tasks that need to get done?
Do you have any planning that needs to get done?
Do you have any administrative tasks? Legal, insurance, staffing, or training?
Do you have any professional development tasks that need to get done? Training, areas to research, skills to develop, books to read or study, or classes to take?

Brainstorm your goals

Find your goals. Without them, it is impossible to prioritize your tasks. Try to set 90-day goals, which is long enough to make meaningful progress. Questions to prompt goals:

What’s the one thing you could do that makes everything else easier or unnecessary?
If you were giving advice to someone else in your position, what 1-3 things would you tell them to focus on?
What do you want to have accomplished over the next five years?

8 more ideas

.no-js-1*ZYnsonxwEk9S-6grmJVVhQ { display: none !important; }

How To Chart A New Course For Your Life With 3 Simple Diagrams

.no-js-favicons?domain=betterhumans { display: none !important; }

betterhumans.coach.me

Overcome inertia and move ahead on your goals with these proven tools for visual thinking "By far the most significant learning experience in adulthood involves critical self-reflection - reassessing the way we have posed problems and reassessing our own orientation to perceiving, knowing, believing, feeling and acting."

Key Ideas

.no-js-4178 { display: none !important; }

"By far the most significant learning experience in adulthood involves critical self-reflection - reassessin..."

Jack Mezirow

3 areas of life to clarify

You need to have absolute clarity over 3 fundamental facts:

Your goals (the destination)
Your current situation (your coordinates)
The path that connects both of them (the route).

A very simple, but crucial principle: if you don’t know where you are, you can never reach the place where you want to be.

The world of the status quo bias

Making an alternative choice is hard because we are neurologically wired to favor the default solution, even if it brings suboptimal results.

As the complexity of a decision increases, so does our tendency to stick with the answer we know.

3 more ideas

.no-js-592612db621e6c1b008b4901-750-563 { display: none !important; }

The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency

.no-js-favicons?domain=businessinsider { display: none !important; }

businessinsider.com

Oliver Emberton said that. It's profound and so true. Urgency wrecks productivity. Urgent but unimportant tasks are major distractions. Last-minute distractions are not necessarily priorities. Sometimes important tasks stare you right in the face, but you neglect them and respond to urgent but unimportant things. You need to reverse that.

Key Ideas

.no-js-16532 { display: none !important; }

"The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency."

Oliver Emberton

Important vs. urgent tasks

Important tasks are things that contribute to your long-term mission, values, and goals.
Urgent tasks are tasks that have to be dealt with immediately: phone calls, urgent deadlines, and situations where you have to respond quickly.

Sometimes important tasks stare you right in the face, but you neglect them and respond to urgent but unimportant things.

Don't be available all the time

Time, not money, is your most valuable asset. Invest your asset:

Allocate time to each task you need to get done every day.
Each task of the day should be attainable, realistic, and time-bound. And it should advance your goals for the day, week or month.
Don't get distracted by everything others expect you to do.

3 more ideas