Keeping on top of your clutter
Enjoyment and achieving success are two things we aspire to each day. For some, these two criteria are achieved without too much trouble, however for others it becomes a daily ordeal, a nightmare.
So why are some people successful whilst others ‘fail’ miserably. If these people were to scrutinise their lifestyle, become more self aware and undertake an honest appraisal of their everyday activities they would realise they had far too much clutter in their life. They have so much ‘going on’ in their life they are suffering from continuing spiral of failure compounded an inability to make an honest decision. An honest decision to do the important and urgent jobs on their ‘to do’ list rather than hide them away while they do the enjoyable and ‘buzz’ giving tasks.
How often do you find yourself falling into this situation, knowing full well you have tasks to do that require your immediate attention. All to often important and urgent tasks are overlooked in favour of the less important and urgent tasks. A more ‘trendy’ or popular phrase for this is procrastination. The procrastinators of the world seem very skilled at compiling ‘to do’ lists and identifying the things that need doing; the problem begins with deciding which tasks ought to be completed first.
Next time you find yourself in this position try analysing each task in turn and score them in terms of their importance and urgency. The following explanations may help with your assessment of their importance and urgency.
Urgent
Urgent tasks are deadline based. Usually the deadline is control by others and you have no control over it. The more urgent tasks require completing first. Urgency and importance are not related.
Important
The time you want to spend on a job is a measure of the importance you place on it. Importance is not related to urgency. The importance is a factor of the time you want to spend on the task not the time you actually spend on it. Quality and time are related for important tasks.
When you have honestly assessed your tasks allocate them into important or not important and urgent or not urgent. A useful matrix for you use can be viewed by clicking the link below. Feel free to download and apply this matrix to the time management of your daily schedules.
Beware that some of your task will move from a low ranking to a higher ranking over time. Have fun improving your time management and achieving more free time in your diary.
Thank you for reading, let me know how you go on and share your experiences.
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