Tons of time management strategies have been
developed over the years by hundreds of people to help you get more done in
less time. Here are 6 of my favorite task management tips to help you stop
procrastinating in your work and personal life.
Think about which one of these ideas could be most
helpful to you right now, in your current situation.
1) Manage And Organize Your Tasks On Paper
Prepare thoroughly if you want to get things done.
List every step of the job in advance. Break the job down into its constituent
parts before you begin. Simply writing out every detail and thoroughly
preparing in advance will help you to stop procrastinating.
2) Fully Prepare For Each Task
Second, come fully prepared for each task you work
on.
When you sit down to work or to begin a task, make
sure that you have everything on hand so that you won’t have to get up or move
until the task is done. Being fully prepared is a powerful motivator for
staying with the task until it is finished.
3) Take Small Steps To Manage Your Tasks
The 80/20 rule says that 20% of
the task often accounts for 80% of the value of that task.
This is probably what Confucius meant when he said
that, ‘‘A journey of 1,000 leagues begins with a single step.’’
Once you have taken even one small step to start
the job, you will often find yourself continuing on with the task to
completion.
4) “Salami Slice’’ Your Tasks
Just as you would never try to eat a whole loaf of
salami at once, don’t try to take on all of a job from the start. Sometimes the
best way to stop procrastinating and complete a major job is to take a small
slice and complete just that piece, just as you would take a single slice of
salami and eat it.
When you select a small piece of the task and then
discipline yourself to do it and get it behind you, it will often give you the
momentum you need to counter inertia and stop procrastinating.
5) Select A 5 Minute Task And Start There
Just as a block of Swiss cheese is full of holes,
you treat your task like a block of cheese and you punch holes in it.
Select a five-minute part of the job and do only
that. Don’t worry about the whole job.
For example, if you want to write an article or a
book, break the task down into small pieces that take an identifiable amount of
time to complete and do just one small piece at a time whenever you get a
chance.
Many authors begin by writing one page a day. If
you are doing research, you can read one article per sitting. Many people write
complete books on airplanes or complete their college degrees with
snatches of time between other activities. If you wrote one page a day for a
year, you would have a 365-page book by the end of the year.
6) Do The Task That Causes You The Most Fear Or
Anxiety
Often, it has to do with overcoming the fear of
failure or rejection by someone else.
In sales, it may be associated with prospecting. In
management, it may be associated with disciplining or firing an employee. In
relationships, this may have to do with confronting an unhappy personal
situation.
In every case, you will be more effective if you
deal first with whatever is causing you the greatest emotional distress or
fear. Often this will break the logjam in your work and free you up mentally
and emotionally to get things done.
7) Start Your Day With The Most Unpleasant Task
First
Get it over with and behind you. Everything else
for the rest of the day will seem easier in comparison.
A recent study compared two groups of people. One
group started an exercise program in the morning. The second group started an
exercise program in the evenings after work. The researchers found that the
morning exercises were much more likely to still be in the program six months later.
Starting the day with exercise was much more likely
to lead to the habit of regular exercise than putting it off until the end of
the day when it was easier to make excuses and procrastinate.
8) Think About The Negative Consequences If You
Don’t Finish
What will happen to you if this job is not done on
schedule?
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