Prioritizing Yourself and Your Tasks
The Secret of Being Productive
What is a person to do? Our days our filled with long to do lists, we are constantly connected to our electronic devices, and we are often overwhelmed by the big and little activities that we “must do” to get things done. The Art of task scheduling is an important aspect to master. How did we get so busy? Why are we so busy? And what can we do to simplify our lives, yet still be productive? Productivity comes from good task scheduling. Is there a secret to productivity, to getting the right things done first?
The secret to being productive is having a balanced life. There is the balance of nature, eating a balanced diet, balancing our checkbook. A balanced life comes from maintaining an equality in our lives and in our surroundings. As something in our life changes, we must adjust our environment. As something in our environment changes we need to adjust our lives. While a regular routine has many advantages, it does not consider the life-environment adjustment. When we blindly do the same thing everyday without considering how our needs may be affected by daily changes, we set ourselves up for losing our sense of priorities. When we are not giving ourselves what we need, we deprive ourselves of a balanced life. Task scheduling is often overlooked, many times because we have too many things to do, or we are spending our time doing the things that don’t matter as much.
Learning to set your priorities will bring balance to your life. Task scheduling will keep you less stressed, less overwhelmed, and help keep balance in your life. Balance is what will keep you satisfied, and content. Your personal balance begins with knowing your values and your personal needs. Our lists are long in project tracking, and our allocated time and patience is not as long. Task scheduling and project tracking can bring about satisfaction in your daily life. Think about what really matters to you. Think about the things that make you happy. FIn looking at task scheduling, factor in the daily must-do’s, allow for the unexpected, pat yourself on the back for making progress. Take note of your milestones along the way to see your progress for project tracking so you can see how far you have come. And remember, it is not just getting there, that matters. It is not just about crossing those things off your project tracking list. It is the journey. Take time to appreciate who you are, your skills, your knowledge, your abilities, your inner gifts. Look with gratitude at what you have, how far you have come, and the things you are lucky about. It can make task scheduling easier.
Task Scheduling and Too Much on Our To Do List
Make Yourself a Task Scheduling Priority
As you set your priorities and start project tracking, try to avoid these mistakes:
# 1~ Not thinking about your priorities. Some people start and end their day by going through the motions Instead, work to define your priorities. Frame them so that you are motivated to complete them.
# 2~ Making things overly complicated. There is only so many hours in a day, and realistically you can only get done a few priorities. It is very important to avoid creating impossible situations.
#3 ~ Creating a mismatch between how you live your life with the priority list you create on paper. Focus on what is important. It is easy to get distracted. If you remember why this is a priority, you will better match who you are to what you want to do.
#4 ~ Taking on too much. People who try to do too much and overload themselves risk stressing themselves and possibly failing at their tasks.
Simple ways to create priorites for a satisfying sense of accomplishment
The start of the art of task scheduling
- What is important to you?
- Picture yourself with the rewards from the things that are important to you
- Who in your life is important?
- Match your motivations to your priorities
- Conscientiously look at your actions and where they are leading you
- Be flexible to change, to
Choose 2-3 priorities you want to focus on. It might be tempting to list more priorities because you have so much to do. If you concentrate on a minimum number your chances of successfully completing these most important tasks will increase. When you get this set of priorities done, you can move onto the next set of things you most want to do.
While you are setting your priorities, be sure to put on your list, taking care of you. Very often people become so busy and so intent on accomplishing what they think is important, they forget how important their mental and physical health is.
A major component of task scheduling and being efficient at carrying out priorities is clear thinking. It is important to be at your best mentally and physically. In the course of your day, make sure you take time for you. Exercise, eat right, spend time with people who are important to you, and be sure to give yourself time to relax and unwind. While achieving your priorities and good task management is an important and worthy thing to do, you need to make sure you do not ignore yourself and your own needs. Incorporate a healthy lifestyle as part of your priority of things to do.
Figuring out your priorities will also help your whole life be better balanced. It is vital to know what you want from your time and your life, not what outside influences tell you it should be.
Know yourself, be true to yourself, and have a self determination to make your life what you want it to be. You have free will, and free choices, and ability to make decisions that benefit you. Look to see if your efforts reflect your priorities. Take a good look at how you are spending your time. You might find that you are using your time on efforts that are not related to your priorities. If the things you spend your time on are not going towards working on your priorities, they may actually be counter-productive in achieving what matters most to you. People have a “love affair” with their cell phones, blackberrys, iphones, ipads and other electronics. They always are connected to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Often these activities, deter us from fulfilling our desires.
Distractions of Proper Task Scheduling
Be aware of these time wasters:
- Feeling overwhelmed and being unsure of what to do next
- lack of focus and going from one thing to another without completing things
- procrastinating by delaying important tasks
- being distracted by tv, phone calls, and social actiivities
- daydreaming
- unresolved psychological feelings
- low frustration tolerance
Task scheduling, project managagement, priority setting, it doesn’t matter what you call it, just do it. Awareness is the key to getting beyond these habits that interfere with you being your best, and prioritizing your most important desires. Realize what drives you, so you motivate yourself. Task scheduling is a matter of keeping your “eye on the ball”. Think positive and use self talk that encourages you. Realize when you find yourself distracted and how it can affect your task scheduling.. A big question to ask yourself is why are you distracted? What is it that you don’t want to do? Sometimes you may need to go to step 2 before you can start step 1, because there is something about step 1, you don’t want to do yet. Know yourself, be true to yourself and you will know your priorities. Know your priorities and task scheduling will take care of itself.
