Ever feel there isn’t enough time in a day to do things?
Ever forgotten something important?
Ever wondered how highly successful people manage their time?
Ever wished you had more quality time to spend with your family?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above, read on. I hope these short educational tips will help you get control and ahead in your life.
Before beginning, I know that most of you will have this sense of procrastination of change. It is perfectly normal to feel that inertia in changing the way we currently do things or that the technique below may not work for all.
But tell you what, spend the next few minutes reading to the end and if you feel like it made some impact on you, give it a shot, it cost nothing and you got nothing to lose. If things don’t quite work for you, you can always revert to what you are doing currently.
The 10 steps are as follows:
Step 1: Jot down everything you wish to do or need to do that comes to mind at that moment
Ideally if you have a PDA or smart phone (a device which you carry around all the time) with a to-do list application or program similar to outlook, jot down the task that comes to mind immediately.
Alternatively the pen and paper would work too though not as inefficient.
Let’s call this list of things the ‘inbox’. A task could be as simple as “pick up milk on way home” or as complex as “design a management information system for client by end June”.
There are two kinds of items you should jot down. The first is an action task. These are task where you have a known solution or course of action to perform. It should be written in a clear, concise and most of all actionable manner. The second is an idea. Pen down any thoughts or ideas you may have. Use this opportunity to collate them and not let your creative spark be forgotten and go to waste.
Step 2: Clear the inbox
Either at the end of each day or at the start of the next day, go through your ‘inbox’ to categorize and sort all the items there. The key idea is to place similar items together and rank its importance. I’ll go through some concepts next. From this stage on, you will likely need some form of an electronic organizer, outlook or to-do list application.
Step 3: Importance and Urgency
For each item, mark it with two properties, degree of priority/importance and whether it is time bound (has a due date or no due date).
We may have many tasks to do each day and by using the above, we can prioritize and focus on the high priority and urgent tasks first. It helps us form a clear picture of what is really important (a necessity) versus what is a good to have (a want).
Step 4: Moving it to the right list
All tasks from the inbox should be moved into pre-defined lists that you have previously created to categorize them. A tip is not to create too many of these category lists else it defeats the purpose of consolidating similar or related tasks. An example of such pre-defined category lists could be “Personal”, “Investment”, “Job”, “Family” and “Someday”.
You might be wondering what the “Someday’ list is. Basically for me, this list stores all my long term goal, wants and good to haves. For instance, “learn to play golf”. Collect all the things you eventually want to do here but currently have no clear deadline or requirement to get it done but hope to accomplish it someday.
Step 5: Tagging
Tagging simply means to use one or several words to be used as properties of the task. It is an added dimension to group similar tasks together.
Let me illustrate, for instance, I usually tag a location with a task. Say using the tag ‘mall’. All my tasks which can be performed at the mall (e.g. “buy present for anniversary”, “pick up dry-cleaning”, “purchase garden hose” and “get 2 packs of dog food”) will have this tag.
Optimally if your to-do list has this search function, you can easily do a search on the tags to pull up all the tasks you can accomplish at the mall. These may include tasks which you may not have planned for the day but for convenience you might want to clear the task now anyway. Even if your application does not have this feature, you can manually scroll for these tags to aid yourself in consolidating similar tasks. That way if you can accomplish them together, you free up more of our time in future.
Step 6: For a large complex task, use sub-tasking
Some task are rather complex and may require several steps in completing it. If that is the case, you should create sub-tasks under this main task, detailing the small steps required.
Let me illustrate with a simple example, let’s say my task was to “arrange meeting for shareholders”. I might have to do the following steps to accomplish this such as “check shareholder calendar to select meeting date and send invite”, “collect responses”, “book a conference room” and “order refreshments”.
As you may have noticed, I may not be able to finish the main task in a day depending on shareholders responses to the invite, but with sub-tasking, at least I know the task is moving along (i.e. something has been done) and I can come back to it later.
Sub-tasking is ideal for project management; it lets you keep track of what is due, what is outstanding and what is required for successful completion. It also allows you to add additional task you might think of along the way that would aid in the main task’s successful completion.
Step 7: Create list for things to do today
Scan through your pre-defined category lists each day and determine what you want or can accomplish today. Move these to your to do list for the day. If your to-do list application supports due dates, those tasks due that day would have already been pre-populated for you. You can also make use of tags to search for similar tasks you can accomplish in the same day.
As you scan your lists, make sure to delete any tasks that are redundant or no longer valid. Your list for the day may be lengthy and you may not have the time to get through all, but remember the two task properties mentioned in step 3. Use this to determine which ones to handle first. The remaining items can be completed another day.
Step 8: GTD (David Allen’s Getting Things Done) “two-minute rule”
Every time you read a task from your list or come to mind a task which can be performed in less than two minutes at that location and time, immediately, just do it!
Step 9: Keeping track of what is done
As you might have guessed, your completed tasks stays in your device’s memory provided you don’t delete it. You can always pull up a record of what was done in the past. This I feel not only serves as a diary of events but it also lets you record what worked in the past and what doesn’t. For instance, if you had a complex task, say a project before, and the sub-tasks in it led to a successful completion, you can use them as a guide for your new project’s sub-tasks.
Looking through your completed records also serves as reminder for recurring events. For instance, you may need to service your car every 6 months. If your to-do list application had a recurrence event function, that task would have been created for you automatically. Otherwise, you can always add this manually when reviewing my previous completed tasks.
Step 10: The psychological and time benefits
Free your mind; focus on the doing rather than spending effort remembering the things to do. By adopting this organized approach, you will have one less worry in life about forgetting things that matter. Furthermore, for me personally, I get a sense of satisfaction each time I strike off an item and at the end of the day when reviewing what I had accomplished.
Though it may seem like a daunting exercise initially, but once you get used to it, you will realize that the simple 15 minute exercise each day of clearing your inbox and building a list for the day will reap you much more time saving benefits later. I have adopted this approach and not only am I getting more things done, I have more time for my family and leisure.
That’s it! Give it a go!
I wish you all the best in getting more productivity, having more control in your life and most importantly having more fun with your time! – Cheers
If you have an Android enabled phone and want to jump straight in at applying the above, have a look at the to-do list application I have developed below. It is built with the above concepts in mind.
Note that though the concepts above relate to David Allen’s Getting Things Done methods, I am in no way associated with it, but I highly recommend you have a read of his book.
Another book I would recommend is Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
