Time Management Course : Final Lesson_Rob Rawson
Are you going with your task list? In this lesson we are going to take a look at your task “lists” and find out how to organize them better so that you have total clarity about what you need to take action on.
There are several common mistakes that you can make with your task list. The first is to have a bunch of things on your list that you can’t really action right now. When you have those items on your list, your mind starts to go numb to the list because you look at your list and you don’t have a clear idea of what to actually do about the “task”. In fact it’s not really a task, it’s more of a thought that you wrote down and did not determine what you actually need to do about it. For example you write on your task list “Get more clients”, but you haven’t thought about how exactly you are going to do this. Instead you should think clearly about what is the actual action step for example, “Review my old business cards to see who I could contact about referrals”. Or “Brainstorm 5 ideas of how to get more clients”. These are specific actions that you know that you can take action on. You have clarity about what you actually need to do. This makes your “to do” effective as you have total clarity about what it is that you actually need to do.
Another reason you might find that you can’t really take action on an item is that you are waiting for someone else. In this case the item should NOT be in your to do list. Instead, make a separate list of “waiting on” items where you are waiting for the other person to do something before you can take the next action. Then you can review this “waiting on” list and follow up with the relevant person when appropriate.
So let’s review your task list right now and see if there are any items that you are not totally clear about. Review each item on your list with the following questions:
- What is my outcome? What do I want in this situation?
- What is the next action step I need to take?
- Is my next action something I can accomplish in less than 1 day? If not break it down into smaller steps. The 1 day figure is not set in stone, you can determine what is right for you, but if you have tasks that take more than 1 day it can start to feel all too hard. Easier to break it down to smaller chunks.
- Am I waiting on someone to take action before I can start? If this is something where you are waiting on someone else, put it on your “waiting on” list.
- Is this something you want to do generally in the next few weeks or is it something to do later in your life when you can get around to it? If it’s something to do later, create a list for “later” or “someday” and put the item in this list.
- Is it something to do on a specific date in the future? If so take it off your to do list and put it on your calendar on that date.
Make sure to review and update all these lists regularly, preferably weekly.
Your to do list should include only items that you are able to work on this week. Anything else should go on another list. Include ONLY items that you actually can do. When you have lists of mixed items, some where you are waiting on another person, some to do later it creates stress and confusion. Every time you look at your to do list you are not quite sure what to do about all the stuff on the list. Instead it’s so much more clear and peaceful to only have “to do” items on your “to do” list.
So that’s it for the TimeManagement.com time management course but you will now continue receive new time management tips twice per week in your email inbox. Please forward this course to your friends, it’s free after all! And let us know how you this material helped you in your life, and how you applied it, plus any other suggestions you have for improving time management.
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Reference :
- http://www.TimeManagement.com
