A personal mission, an hour of concentration, and an attention audit will help you. A task list is a good way to record things and not forget about them. However, the list itself can become a distraction, because you can endlessly replenish it with small details and never get to the really important one.
It is not necessary to completely get rid of the list it is better to combine it competently with one of the following techniques (or all of them).
1. Personal mission.
A personal mission is your long-term goal. This is a charter that you can focus on in life. Include your values and aspirations in the mission. “It doesn’t have to be long or thoughtful,” says Covey. “It’s just a couple of suggestions that reflect your essence and your values.” For example, your mission may be to help other people or achieve a specific goal in some areas.
When you need to make a decision, a personal mission will be your guideline. It can also be used in planning. Try to allocate your time not a day ahead, but a week. Choose priority tasks for this period, based on your personal mission. Then daily activities will bring you closer to important goals.
2. Conduct an attention audit.
The disadvantage of the to-do list is that completely different tasks are piled up in it. It seems to us that we can easily move from one to the other in order, but our attention is completely different. Try dividing all tasks into two categories: low and high attention levels. And carry them out during the day, depending on how much energy you have. By adjusting to your levels of attention and energy, you will do more in less time. Some of such tasks may even be outsourced to specialists at essaysmatch.
3. A friend to report to.
It gives motivation in time to fulfill what you have planned for today. If you don’t have a friend willing to help with this, Hillary Rettig, a business coach and author of productivity books, recommends Focusmate. It will pick you a partner for collaboration so that you are definitely not distracted. The program automates the search process and gives access to a global community of people who also want to do a good job.
4. Evening questions.
Jones Loflin, a consultant and author of time management works, advises maintaining motivation by evaluating yourself. Come up with a few questions that you will need to answer at the end of each day to make sure you focus on what you need. And then evaluate how well you did. For example, one of Loflin’s questions is: “Have I tried to spend at least 15 minutes on strengthening relations with someone?”
Make a list of your questions depending on which areas of life you want to improve. For example, “Was I attentive to my relatives today?”, “Have I spent at least an hour to advance on the path to my dream?”, “Did I do something to improve my health?”
5. Hour of concentration.
Add at least one such hour a day to the calendar and focus on the work that matters most. No distractions and entertainment. Set a timer to know when time is up, and get started.
6. Clear goals.
To be productive is to spend most of the time doing what is related to your most important goals. Hamish Mackenzie, a business strategy consultant, advises you to have no more than three key annual goals. Break each into three quarterly and three monthly sub-goals, and then into steps that take no more than two hours to complete.
