You’re overwhelmed by all the things you have to do.
Here’s an easy-to-implement technique to overcome your situation.
Deadlines
Deadlines collapse us.
Deadlines are just that: a line of death.
People usually make their planning based on deadlines.
They’re wrong.
Understanding Deadlines
Deadlines are just a field related to a task. Just that.
You should compare a deadline with any other field in a task, such as description, duration, project, client…
When you see a deadline like that, your life changes.
Understanding How to Plan
You need a different approach to planning.
Forget about deadlines.
Your golden question is: “When am I going to do this?”
That’s all you have to think to plan your day, week, month, and even your life.
Learning to Plan
Based on the previous question, you need to create what I call “batches” (they’re like buckets).
These are my batches:
- Today
- Tomorrow
- This Week
- Next week
- This Month
- Dead Time
Each batch equals to answer your golden question:
“When am I going to do this?”
The Workflow
Once you’ve put each item into a batch, this is the workflow you should follow:
- Each day, check all the batches.
- Move items if needed.
- Focus on today.
- Order the items sequentially.
- Focus on the first item… and forget about the rest!
The Benefits
By following this technique, you get all these benefits:
- Fast Planning.
- Unexpected Events.
- Grouping.
- Dynamism.
- Focus.
Fast Planning
You just need to go inside each batch and see if everything’s ok.
If you have it up to date (you will because it takes you no time), you just need to work with today, tomorrow, and week.
Unexpected Events
Whenever an unexpected event appears, think again about your golden question:
“When am I going to do this?”
Based on that, put it into the right batch.
Check the batch to see if you can accomplish everything on it. If not, move items to another batch.
Grouping
Effortlessly, you’re batching tasks.
Batching equals performing at your highest level.
Everything batched is based on your main asset: time.
Remember: you manage time, not tasks.
Dynamism
Life’s not static.
Unexpected events constantly attack you.
This technique is flexible enough to handle any kind of attack.
Focus
This technique allows you to focus on the things that matter by filtering info using batches based on time.
It answers simply (and critical) questions like:
What should I do today, this week?
What can I do if I have 20 minutes of dead time?
Takeaways
- Use this technique to manage your tasks easily.
- By using it, you’re focusing your planning on your best (and only) asset: time.
- Life’s an endless loop. This technique too.
Photo by Eden Constantino on Unsplash.