Saturday, July 19, 2008

How to Manage Your Time


How to Manage Your Time


from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Here's a technique for dealing with the distraction of a horrendous to-do list. This is also suitable for project managers.

Steps


  1. Write down all the tasks you have to get done, if you haven't done so already.
  2. Set priorities for each task.
    • P1: Red: Today/Tomorrow (Day)
    • P2: Orange: 3-7 Days (Week)
    • P3: Yellow: 2-3 weeks (Month)
    • P4: Pink: Later this year…(Wish List)
    Be realistic when assigning priorities to your tasks.
  3. Start work on any red tasks first — however awful, boring or frightening they are. The trick to keeping calm and balanced is simple: forget about all the complex planning. Work out what truly needs to be done next and do it. When it's done, repeat the procedure.
  4. Start on the orange tasks next. Don't even think about any yellow ones until all the reds and oranges are done. If any new tasks arrive, give them a color and put them on the list. Next morning, make a new list and reallocate the tasks into the colors.
  5. Keep track of your progress.
    • After one week, take 15 minutes to go through the yellow (month) items.
    • Cross all those that have solved themselves off the list. Do the same for those that you can now see were never important anyway. You'll be amazed how many there are.
    • Underline those you can remove by: delegating them, using technology rather than your time and attention, or creating a routine for handling them so you can delegate or pass them to someone else. Make a red item to deal with them right away by whatever means is appropriate.



Tips


  • Start your list again and revisit the yellow items in another week. Do the same weeding, only this time also remove or move to pink any yellow items that have been on the list for more than a month. If you haven't either done them or moved them into orange or red in that time, forget about them. They aren't going to get done next month either...
  • If you stick to this set of actions, you'll get an amazing amount of work done; you'll always be focused on what's genuinely important and your to-do list will be a real one, not a resting place for failed intentions.
  • Manage your time in increments. Figure out how long you can focus your attention on one task: fifteen minutes, half an hour, an hour, etc. Make that time period your offical time limit. Be determined to accomplish part or all of a task within that time limit.
  • After every time increment, take a short break. Decide beforehand whether you will take 5, 10, or 15 minutes, and stick to that decision. Taking breaks in between work allows your mind to rest and refocus. When you return from your break, your mind should be clearer. These breaks provide incentive for working hard and give you something to look forward to.


Warnings


  • You have to take this exercise seriously, which means setting aside the "everything has to be done yesterday" BS and creating real priorities.
  • Don't procrastinate. Setting aside high-priority items just because you don't like doing them, or are boring, etc will obviously make keeping a to-do list useless. Grind through your to-do list and finish all red items first and foremost no matter how boring they are. After completing these daunting tasks, you can feel relieved. They won't hang over your head and cause you stress later.


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Sources and Citations





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