There are two major strategies for time management: time
management and task management. Which of the two you choose is up to you
and your life, but this article will briefly cover the positives and
negatives to each approach to maximizing your life.
First, what is time management? Well, there's two ways to answer this question: time management is a blanket term for any way to organize your time and time management is a specific way to organize your time.
The latter is what most people think of when they hear the term: decide what you want to do, put a deadline on it, figure out how much time it'll take you to finish, figure out how often you want to work, put this into your schedule, and follow your schedule.
Nothing could be easier, right? If you just plan your days with enough time to finish all of your tasks, then you've got more than enough time to accomplish all of your goals; however, there are a few problems that arise from this method. First, it's hard know exactly how long something will take. Second, if you happen to get off schedule, then you're stuck playing catchup. Third, it's hard to set a specific time everyday to work on a project and make sure that you're going to be in a flow state during the work. And fourth, some days could benefit by stacking your activities differently; however, it can be hard to plan for change like this.
The other strategy for managing your time is task management. The basic idea here is that you prioritize your tasks and do them in the order of priority. This is a powerful way to organize your day, but without certain safeguards can cause you to waste more time working than ever before (trust me, I did them all!).
Interestingly, the best strategy I've found is just to apply some of the standard time management principles to task management. In other words, prioritize tasks and do them in order of priority, yes; however, also set a deadline and an timeframe to finish the project within. If you complete your tasks in order of priority, set reasonable time frames, and work in a good state (a "flow mode" if possible!), you should see your accomplishments begin to pile up rather soon and you'll likely negate many of the stressful agitations of traditional time management.
First, what is time management? Well, there's two ways to answer this question: time management is a blanket term for any way to organize your time and time management is a specific way to organize your time.
The latter is what most people think of when they hear the term: decide what you want to do, put a deadline on it, figure out how much time it'll take you to finish, figure out how often you want to work, put this into your schedule, and follow your schedule.
Nothing could be easier, right? If you just plan your days with enough time to finish all of your tasks, then you've got more than enough time to accomplish all of your goals; however, there are a few problems that arise from this method. First, it's hard know exactly how long something will take. Second, if you happen to get off schedule, then you're stuck playing catchup. Third, it's hard to set a specific time everyday to work on a project and make sure that you're going to be in a flow state during the work. And fourth, some days could benefit by stacking your activities differently; however, it can be hard to plan for change like this.
The other strategy for managing your time is task management. The basic idea here is that you prioritize your tasks and do them in the order of priority. This is a powerful way to organize your day, but without certain safeguards can cause you to waste more time working than ever before (trust me, I did them all!).
Interestingly, the best strategy I've found is just to apply some of the standard time management principles to task management. In other words, prioritize tasks and do them in order of priority, yes; however, also set a deadline and an timeframe to finish the project within. If you complete your tasks in order of priority, set reasonable time frames, and work in a good state (a "flow mode" if possible!), you should see your accomplishments begin to pile up rather soon and you'll likely negate many of the stressful agitations of traditional time management.
By the way, would you like to learn more about time management? Then, download my free guide How to Manage Your Time.
Though, you may also be interested in reading my blog post about how to avoid procrastination.
Article Source:
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