Win at Life
Scheduling Tips
We looked briefly at a simplified version of the Eisenhower Matrix in the Procrastination Video.
Let’s drill down and make it practical.
Many of you now are at the stage that;
- You have a list of actions that you want to implement
- You know the kinds of changes you want to make
It feels like you’ve tipped a 1000 piece jigsaw onto the table and it’s impossible to know where to start.
So this is where are going to start looking at HOW.
Please don’t stress about this.
Why the To-Do list is a fundamentally flawed concept
Time Management studies often find that up to 40% of the typical to-do list – is never completed.
Your to-do list will be a combination of:
- the things you NEED to get done each week,
- the things you WANT to get done for the near future and
- the things you HOPE to get done towards your long term goals.
Things we want and hope for tend to get bumped, when the things we feel as though NEED to do are overwhelming and impossible by themselves.
This is a vicious circle that leads to overwhelming (and more of those SAD faces).
How to hack your To-Do list
(or actually make it 10 times more possible to achieve)
Start with a little more data gathering…
**A final thought on this: the best Time Masters spend 75% of time on Scheduling –
and 25% on completing their Do First Tasks.
This means that all future days will be as productive as this one.
1. Where are your replications and context switches?
Identify the things you were replicating on your time audit (i.e. the things that would have been more efficiently done in ‘one swoop’ rather than in several chunks throughout the week).
Context switching is what happens when you swap from one thing to another – and take a little time to get back ‘up to speed’ with what you were doing.
This adds up to serious amounts of wasted time – especially if these things involve extra journeys to Tesco.
Planning ALL your meals in advance,
Chopping ALL your veg for the week at once.
Vacuuming the ENTIRE house, (rather than getting the hoover out, unraveling it, picking up debris, actually vacuuming a room or two, wrapping the cable up – and putting it back in the cupboard)
Going through ALL your correspondence once a day and planning for that to happen – will free up more time than you can imagine.
2. Bridge Model Results
The things your Bridge Model has told you you need to let go of entirely (SAD AND MEH faces) and you want more of (those HAPPY FACES),
will play a big part in what goes into your New-Improved ‘Better than a to-do’ list.
Minimise and mitigate those Sad faces (we will carry on with that process below)
and keep using a bridge model process taking emotion out of the situation and use logic to solve the sticking points.
This will be an ongoing – preferably weekly process.
3. Time Boxing
Putting things-to-do on a list feels as though it frees your mind.
But what’s more useful is what you do with it.
A list is useless without a strategy for getting things done.
As you add each task to the Matrix you must include how long you think it will take.
This is vital for your scheduling and is actually the key to getting it all achieved and probably the number one Time Mastery Linchpin.
Try limiting yourself to no more than eight tasks per quadrant.
Before adding another one, complete the most important one first.
Remember: It is not about collecting but finishing tasks.
Have 3 tasks that you WILL complete today from your DO FIRST list.
You should always maintain only one list for both business and private tasks.
That way you will never be able to complain about not having done anything for your family or yourself at the end of the day.
Our suggestion is that you have a minimum of 1 thing for you on your daily MIT
Actions:
Choose 1 thing/action each day that moves you towards your long-term goals…(learning, task, brainstorm)
Consider allocating 75% of your time on scheduling (actually brain dumping/Eisenhower matrix/bridge model/time boxing in the calendar),
And the other 25% on getting those urgent tasks cleared
- Do not let you or others distract you.
- Do not let others define/dictate your priorities.
- Plan in the morning, then work on YOUR stuff.
- Take a moment at the end to enjoy the satisfying feeling of completion.
- Finally, try not to procrastinate…
not even by over-managing your to-dos…