Time Management Course : Lesson 3_Rob Rawson

Now you should be making a list of the top 1 to 8 things you want to do each day and working through this list every day. If you haven’t been doing it, recommit to doing this every day, and make the list right now.

Ok, now, let’s look at how can you have more peace in your life even when you have A LOT to do! The first step to being peaceful is for you to get everything that’s on your mind down on paper.

So, we are going to start now with an exercise where you write down everything that is on your mind, every incomplete task or actually EVERYTHING that you are thinking about. This is part of the methodology of David Allen in Getting Things Done.

Why is this important? You probably have dozens of things that are going through your head that you know you should probably do, but you haven’t properly thought about this list of stuff. Unless you write it down and decide clearly on next steps, it’s going to cause some stress and prevent you from being peaceful.

First let’s set a time to do this. It might take 2 hours to do it properly so you are going to have to set aside some significant time. Think when can you do it? If now, great, if not now, think what day within the next 2 days you can do it, and what specific time?

Have a specific time and day? Ok great. Now write it in your diary and set a reminder on your calendar on your phone to go off at that specific time and date. If you don’t know how to set a reminder, investigate it now. There is for example a way on Gmail to set a reminder of when you should do something and then email you. Or your phone probably has a way to ring at a specific time in the future. Whatever system you have that will make sure you don’t forget to do it at that exact time in the future. Of course if you’re doing it now, you don’t need the reminder!

Now what do you need to do? Simple. Write a list of everything that you need to do.

• At work. At home. In your garden, in your office.
• Is there anything you want to organize?
• Anything you want to clean up or throw away?
• Any person you need to speak to?
• Bills to pay?
• Mails to read or sort through?

Now that you have all those “to dos” off your mind, let’s move to some more difficult stuff. Is there anything you are thinking about a lot.

• A problem with your relationship?
• An issue with your boss?
• Maybe you don’t like your job?
• You are thinking about going on a holiday next year?
• You want to move to a different city but haven’t done anything about it?
• You think you look too big in your jeans and need to lose weight.

When I say write down everything that’s on your mind I mean EVERYTHING. Don’t worry you don’t have to show this list to anyone unless you choose to!

This process is very powerful. Once you have all this stuff off your mind, it’s the first step to being not only more productive, but also more peaceful whilst getting more done. Remember the Timemanagement.com course is not just about getting more done, it’s also about being more peaceful. If you do this you will be taking the first step to having less stress and worrying less about all the things you need to do.

So keep going until you have everything written down that has been on your mind. When it’s complete, put away your list and get ready for the next lesson.

In the mean time keep writing down each day the top few things (8 or less) that you want to do and continue working from this list.

..............................

Reference :

- http://www.TimeManagement.com