Prioritize Your Tasks

You plan to do many things in a day. But at the end of the day your tasks remain uncompleted. You keep a to-do list with you but discover in a short while that it is of no help to you.  In a short while, you will find a pile of tasks uncompleted. As it gets longer, you are likely to complete it in time. Definitely, in a week, you find it impossible to complete them.

Always remember, making a to-do list daily is not enough. It is important to understand the key aspects of it and work on it further.  To start with, recognise that a list is only a set of tasks which you have to complete. It is just a raw collection and primary problem comes in this stage when you don’t know how to get to it. Often, you forget certain things when you are under stress. So the to-do list only helps you to remember the tasks, needed to be done in time.

Sometimes, you may feel, it is very long and surreal to achieve. To make the list useful you have define the parameter ‘when’.

Schedule

The list has a meaning when you enter the schedule of different tasks. For this purpose, you can use a PDA, time management software or a dairy to make different schedules. This benefits you a lot. Your focus shifts to how long you have to work on each task, thereby making you realistic about your goals.

Prioritise

It is not possible to do all the tasks on the list on the same day.  So, it is better to prioritise. Rank the tasks according to your needs and group them, according to the order of importance.  Now, start working according to the schedule. Initially, you get irritated and find it difficult. In that case, pay more attention to how you are spending the day.

Log all the details of activities every hour, you are occupied with. Repeat this for a week and soon you will realise where your schedule went wrong. It helps to identify your mistakes in assessing how much time a task would take. If you are unnecessarily wasting your time, learn to concentrate on your work. If you are assessing the duration of the task improperly, then work on preparing a more realistic schedule.

 The best to prioritise the tasks is based on the creative energy they require. According to your taste, separate the tasks into interesting and boring ones. This method keeps you energetic even during cheerless parts of the day. All you can prioritise the tasks based on where to do them. Some tasks have to be done at the office and some tasks like sending messages, mails can be done while commuting.

Preparing schedule for tasks in your list does not guarantee that all of them are accomplished. But, you can be strategic about what is left behind and start the next day on a confident note despite feeling helpless and frustrated about failing.