Post written by Marlon Ribunal.
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The rate of your productivity success greatly depends on how well you take care of your priorities. Productivity is not just a matter of crossing off tasks on your To-Do List.
Just because you crossed off majority of your tasks doesn’t mean you’re productive.
Managing Tasks By Managing Time
We usually manage our tasks by managing the time we dedicate to those tasks in a linear fashion. We give everything its own time frame. We tackle one task then move to another.
That is okay if we’re only juggling a couple of tasks each day. If you are like most knowledge workers, handling multiple tasks within a very short time frame is a common scenario.
Our Priorities Are Competing For Attention
Priorities fight for our attention against other priorities. We promote and demote tasks in our list according to what we think needs to be done at a particular time. The demands of the people around us can easily complicate things.
Multitasking or batching tasks into their logical group is a convenient hack that we can employ to ease up the burden of our work. Multitasking may be an efficient technique for related tasks but there are some conditions that don’t allow us to multitask.
Multitasking is not an end all solution. It is nonetheless an effective method for many jobs out there.
Effective Task Management
There is one method of handling tasks that can surely benefit anyone needing help on the area of task management: Scheduling Priorities.
We never run out of priorities. Some tasks need to be done ahead of other tasks. We have to meet deadline. We need to satisfy expectation. There is always a need to fulfill – more often than not, that need is someone else’s.
There is always a need to fulfill – more often than not, that need is someone else’s.
There are many variables in our work environment that make it hard for us to do what we want to do in an approach that we prefer. Good luck if you can find a job that will allow you to be on your own doing things your way.
The point is this, you cannot really prioritize tasks the way you want to have them prioritized. Working on something important on your list? Not so fast, the boss wants you to do something else instead. Do you really think that your company aligns with your vision? Well, good luck on that because that is a lie.
The people on top of you will always have the final say on what needs to get prioritized at any given time. You need to schedule your own priorities to balance things off. Always have a cushion. Be ready to bump certain tasks when something unexpected shows up on the door.
Photo Courtesy of ekmai.
Creating lists of your tasks and goals is a great habit and an essential organizing skill, because with a help of to-do list you can easily focus on your objectives and concentrate on tasks.
Interesting post. I actually had a really tough time prioritizing my tasks and I would always end up not having enough time for something important. I found IQTELL (http://www.iqtell.com/), which lets me easily assign priority as well as gives me an overview of all of my tasks and which ones are most important at the moment. And since it integrates with my email, contacts and notes, I’ve completely switched over and it’s really helped me out.
I agree with you Justin before making new task you should make a check list and make a list of your priorities,I suggest make a calendar and put it in front of computer so when you start your day firs thing you see is the priority in that day.
Effective task and time management, that is. :) We sometimes ask ourselves why we fail to finish something but the blame should sometimes be put to ourselves. These task and time management greatly depend on us. :)
Interesting stuff.
I like the concept of scheduling priorities. This sound similar to something I am starting to do, which is to block off time in my diary at the beginning of the week for slots when I can tackle the most important 3 things on my to do list.
What I am finding is that if I treat them as vital ‘cant more’ appointments then I am less likely to get blown off course by those ‘urgent’ jobs that other people bring to you every day.
Dave
Thanks for this post. I am always searching for some ideas on how to organize myself and use my time and other resources to best advantage.
I am much more productive when I acknowledge my body rhythm. I am more alert in the morning, so I schedule the bulk of my tasks then. I schedule the difficult tasks early in the day; however, I include the easy stuff at the top of the list also. Scratching off several action items motivates me to keep going.
Hi Marlon,
I always write down the tasks and tag them according to priorities.
Then stick it prominently at the side of my laptop, this is to remind me to adhere to it strictly. Cos the tendency to side-tracked is so high while working on the computer!
I find it helps to also weight my decision priorities in a excel format, of coz, this should applies to important events like buying a property etc..
cheers
I usually have a daily to-do list which helps me get things done that I need to do on a daily basis. Once in a while I will think about the upcoming week and what I want to get done and it definitely does help to set priorities and goals.
A year ago I attended personal development class and one sentence I will always remember from it:
All people have 24 hours a day – it is up to each one of us individually to decide what to do with them
Hi Marlon,
You can also make a good to-do-list, you actually should be able to set goals, to analyze tasks and to make a list of things that should be done to achieve planned goal. Creating lists of your tasks and goals is a great habit and an essential organizing skill, because with a help of to-do list you can easily focus on your objectives and concentrate on tasks.
Melissa,
Organizational Skills are prerequisite for productivity and efficiency
It’s so easy to confuse activity with productivity.
One thing that works well for me is jot down the “why” of any priority task that makes it onto the list.
Great post!
-naima
Naima,
I simply use numbering system to indicate priority (like 1, 1.1, 1.2, 2, 3, etc)
Good one Marlon, I wrote something similar a short while back. Concentrate on the most important task first and shut off and out all distractions. Stick with the one that’s going to make you the most money, the rest can definitely wait. Write everything down and cross it off your list when it’s done. Give yourself a break and then move on to the next one. Of course, mine is mostly for building your online business so if you are working a 8 to 5 it may be a little different. Still, do the most important ones first. That’s why they are important! :-)
Adrienne,
I have been in and out (mostly out) of the blogosphere lately for some reason (good one).
You’re spot on: “Concentrate on the most important task first and shut off and out all distractions.” That’s how I handle my stuff. Depending on the situation, instead of the most important task, I do the most difficult task first. That sounds crazy but it work in some cases.
Marlon,
Great post!
You can cross as many tasks off your list, but if none of them are important and they do not take you closer to completing your goals, then one is wasting energy on unncessary work.
I have a task list, but just recently started applying priorities to my list, so that I can see the items to focus on.
Timo
Timo,
Whatever kind technique or tools you employ in capturing your task into your list, it is very important to have an extra space there to indicate priority level on each task.
Hey Marlon,
What works for me is writing things down and then crossing them off after they are done.
I also use a calendar to write down important dates and reminders.
Justin,
Writing down the tasks is one way of remembering the tasks that you need to do. That’s part of accomplishing each task – remembering to do it, that is.