You wake up in your bed, the alarm clock had warned you but, you just couldn’t help closing your eyes for one more minute. Now you are rushing through a meagre breakfast made of caffeine and highly sugary punched processed foods… You tell your self “Like I had time for anything different.” Just like all the other days you miraculously get to work in time. Yet, you can’t stop now! All the projects due! And that thing, you have been up till late to finish, needs a couple of retouches. A friend asks if you are in for some dinner tonight. But you tell them and yourself “If only I had the time!” Your day ends with 98% percent of your duties accomplished, 2% of them dragging to the next day and no social life. Does it sound like you? If so, you could have a problem with time management!
Time management is the art of identifying what you would like to do during the day, evaluate the estimated time to complete each task and reorganize them in a functional hierarchy.
Identify tasks!
As soon as you wake up, take 10 minutes to close your eyes and imagine what your day will be like. Take a notebook and write down each and all tasks that come to your mind. This activity helps you free the mind and think more clearly and objectively.
Estimate time…
Now for a more complicated part. For each task, write on the side the time you expect to dedicate to it. At the end figure out if your next 16 hours are enough to get all done. If not… proceed to the next step.
Prioritize
You should draw a four quadrants table where to catalogue all tasks in order of Importance and Urgency. Use the Table below as a model. Importance: The more important something is, the more relevant its impact is in your day and life.
Urgency: The more urgent something is, the quicker it should be done.
Try this three step method and find out if it helps gain your work-life balance back!
Written by
Giuseppe Perrotti - JUMP Trainer