Have I Been Making My Life Too Complicated?
This morning, I decided that the answer to that question is yes. I have a giant to-do list. I find that I don’t finish everything each day. Some of the tasks are more important and pressing than others. However, since my list is a giant, choosing how I spend my time has been arbitrary.
Then I realized - I need to prioritize the tasks. So, I picked the top six tasks and ranked them in order of importance. The seventh item on the list says, “if there’s time, work on the other items on the list”. And at that point, it can be arbitrary.
I’ve realized that even though I work from home, I have things to do during the day sometimes such as mow the lawn, or go to the gym. That means that the time I do spend on my work needs to be super efficient. The missing link in my time management method has been to prioritize my tasks. I had been doing it for a while, then I stopped.
Maybe I didn’t need to worry about it because for about two weeks, I didn’t have any deadlines. Now that I have a deadline coming up, I need to make sure I actually allot time to work on the project.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Having a huge to-do-list can definitely complicate the days. While I enjoy having a lot of projects at once, it can get a bit overwhelming. I took on two new assignments last month, and now I’m feeling the crunch. But at the same time, I like the peace of mind that comes with having multiple projects…it’s a no-win situation.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
It really is complicated. And when I don’t finish everything, I end up feeling bad about myself. And since I don’t give myself the opportunity to work on one thing until I get good at it, I end up not quite reaching my goals. I prefer to do one project at a time but sometimes, I end up with multiple things going on and I end up feeling stretched pretty thin.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:47 am
How I relate, this helps me to remember to keep things simple and get things done.. =)
Twin2
http://www.trigeia.com
TEAM member
May 21st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Haha, I can so relate to this.
What I do now helped me getting things done a lot faster, maybe this is for you, too? It’s from Brian Tracy’s “Eat that Frog”. What you do is create a monthly to-do list. Then prioritize all tasks A, B or C, where A=uber-important (your frogs as stated in the book). Then, before your day ends you extract a few frogs from your monthly todo list for you to do the next day. When you get to work, work on your 1-3 most important tasks. When you finished them just do some nice to have Bs and Cs.
Kinda works for me but my list still keeps on growing and growing.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:37 pm
@ Trigeia - keeping things simple as a very good thing. I have to remind myself of this ALL the time!
@ Oliver - I’ll have to check it out. I am familiar with Brian Tracy but haven’t examined his stuff yet.