Escape the tyranny of the to-do list: how to schedule your priorities, not your time
Are you shackled by the endless cycle of to-do lists? Discover a fresh perspective on managing your tasks. Learn to prioritize effectively, liberating yourself from the tyranny of time and embracing the power of purposeful scheduling.
Time management means prioritizing what’s on your schedule
Research shows that only 17% of the population can accurately estimate how much time a task will require
- This is known as the planning fallacy
- The tasks we avoid are usually the most important and most likely to help us reach a higher level of productivity
- We can achieve a state of flow – an intensely focused, almost meditative period of concentration – by honing in on critical tasks
Pick Your Strategy
There are 2 kinds of schedules: the maker’s schedule and the manager’s schedule.
- Makers, such as writers and programmers, usually struggle to be productive with a manager’s schedule because they need large chunks of time to go deep into their work and solve creative problems, so create office hours that let you live in both worlds
- Managers, on the other hand, operate in shorter time bursts, with calendars punctuated by frequent appointments
- If you’re expected to follow a managers’ schedule, create a hybrid calendar that allows for both work styles
There’s very little traffic on the extra mile
When we capitalize on our own peak hours, we’re likely to produce higher quality, more consistent work
- Remember that your peak hours could also change over time.
- Try to stay in tune with your energy levels and honor these natural shifts.
Step 1: Prioritize the important, rather than scheduling the urgent
Eisenhower developed the Eisenhower decision matrix to distinguish between important and urgent tasks
- Each quadrant represents a way to qualify tasks.
- The crisis quadrant is when tasks are both urgent and important, leading to stress, burnout, and other problems
- Quadrant 3 represents tasks that are urgent, but not important, such as a survey request that expires the next day
- In this quadrant, we can mistake urgency for importance, and tasks are typically based on other people’s expectations and priorities
- Finally, Quadrant 2 includes important but not urgent tasks, which is the heart of effective personal management
Step 2: Manage your peaks
When we’re engaged and tackling important projects during our peak hours, we’re usually willing to work longer, and we experience less burnout along the way.
- Minimizing our unengaged time can also boost our energy and drive.