Summary: approaching your tasks a little differently can allow you to use your time far more effectively.

The Problem

How do you approach your day?  Do you feel you’re getting the most out of your hours, or are you just moving about all day without really progressing? I get so annoyed with myself when I let that happen – it means I’ve been frittering time on things I dislike, when I could have been spending it on looking at expensive shoes.

So.  Most people make the big, big mistake of just starting something without thought and persisting until it’s finished, before moving on to the next task. Come to that, a lot of people start whole businesses like that, but that’s another article.

This ‘just start’ approach can be ineffective for several reasons:

• there’s no overview of the task, to find the fastest or most productive way of doing it
• people can only maintain focus on an uninteresting task for a short while.  Much of the time spent on the task will actually be spent either daydreaming or remembering something vital to be Googled
• often you may not get to the task at all, because its size is so daunting or you’re experiencing ‘tasker’s block’ (see A few dozen reasons to procrastinate)
• that one task may end up crowding out other equally vital tasks, which need at least a start made on them.

The Method

If you recognise any of those, then it’s time to try something new. Find yourself some kind of alarm timer which is very easy to set. You can get good ones with minutes and seconds for under £10 at big supermarkets (make sure it has big numerals).

1. Decide how many hours you will work before you stop (this also avoids the problem of forgetting to stop – the curse of those who work at home)
2. List all of the things you need to achieve by the end of the day
3. If your work is the kind to have interruptions, add in an Interruptions task of the amount of time you think is lost on it (just to count it in)
4. Don’t forget lunch. Eating and a break of some kind are an important part of your day
5. Assign the amount of time to each task you think it needs or are obliged to give it. If some could be carried out at the same time (e.g. Bank and Shops), consider including them as one.
6. If you have tasks you loathe or which are trivial, try assigning just 15 minutes or less to them (I’ve resorted to 1-minute tasks before to crack my resistance), and approach them as a time-challenge.
7. Count how many hours it adds up to, then adjust the times to fit into the time available, proportionally. That is, if you have 8 hours available, but 12 hours of tasks, reduce it all by a third. If the total time is absurdly large, consider losing a task or two; else stick with the times you assigned.

From here you can go one of two ways, according to the day and the nature of the task:

• Pick your first task and set the timer for the time you gave it. Think 80/20: what action on the task will produce the greatest results in the time available?

- or -

• Pick your first task and set the timer for a short period (I usually set it for 30 or 15 minutes). What action on the task will produce the greatest results in that time? When time is up, put the task aside and turn to the next. Rotate your task attention, giving a task only as much time as you assigned to it.

It may well not go perfectly – life is rarely so smooth – but don’t abandon it if so: if you manage only a few tasks this way, you will still have made progress.

Even More Advantages

Now, what are the added advantages of doing it this way?

1. It forces you to accept that you have a limited amount of time available to you, and that if you can’t make time expand, you’ll have to make the tasks either shrink or disappear
2. It makes you work so much faster! Although you may be appalled at trying to work on some of your tasks in just 15 minutes, you’ll be amazed at how much you achieve
3. It breaks down a lot of resistance, because the commitment is so short
4. Working in restricted slots like this forces you to put aside a task before it is wholly finished. This gives you fresh eyes when you come back to it, and you’ll probably find your unconscious has been cranking away on it in the meantime, giving you new insights
5. Moving from task to task keeps you feeling fresher throughout the day

The value of this approach will probably become clearest when you stop using it for any reason. I know that when I forget to use it, my whole day goes to pot!

Good luck!  I hope I’ve found you some more time to look at expensive shoes. Or cars. Or chocolate..mmmm, chocolate…

Penelope

---

Related posts:
A few dozen reasons to procrastinate

Tagged as: procrastination, resistance, time_management