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Hi all! Today we will talk about life priorities. Have you noticed that when planning, the day goes more efficiently, there are rarely overlaps? There is a saying: «Plan or become planned.» What does it mean? The bottom line is that if you do not plan your day or work, circumstances will decide everything for you. Therefore, experts recommend starting every day with the arrangement of plans and priorities. It is not necessary to do everything by the minute, it is important to highlight the primary and secondary tasks. There are many ways and methods of time planning. One of these is the Eisenhower table, or the so-called Eisenhower matrix.
What are the benefits of scheduling the day and prioritizing?
Deciding to live according to a certain plan is not boring. On the contrary, this approach will positively affect your life.
What planning gives:
- Increases productive time by 25%.
- Provides calm and balance.
- Allows you to perform a large amount of work and tasks.
- Forms a desire to work.
- Reduces the amount of time spent on non-essential activities.
Since there are a lot of positive aspects, it is worth paying attention to the principle of prioritization in cases.
What is an Eisenhower table?
Failures in work and household chores accompany everyone. Unexpected circumstances arise all the time, because of them you do not always have time to do the most important thing. It is especially problematic for restless and absent-minded people to focus on the main thing.
I’ll give you an example. You are going to prepare important documents or write a scientific paper. But here needs arise: to buy bread, wash the floor, go to the post office and the like.
Most people, as there is less resistance, pay attention to small worries, because they do not need to spend a lot of time and effort. Then the irreparable happens: you finish unimportant things, and there is no time left for important ones. Then the worries and sleepless nights begin.
To prevent this from happening, you need to train willpower, as well as use the convenient Eisenhower table. What is its essence?
This table concerns not so much time as the cases themselves and their importance. The principle has criteria: important and urgent. The table makes it possible to build 4 types of priority cases. For planning, you need to decide which goals are more important.
How to make?
1.First, write down on paper all the planned activities. Draw a square and cut it into four small ones.
2.Next, write the letters inside: B, A, and under them D, C.
What do they mean? The letters are the priority groups between which cases are distributed.
A — these are urgent and important things that need to be done today and now, without delay.
B is important. They do not require instant execution, but are of great importance. Usually they are postponed, because there is no urgency. But by doing them, you will come closer to your goal. This category often includes tasks with clear deadlines. When there is a lot of time to do it, we procrastinate. But at the end of the term, we frantically fulfill it. As a result, efficiency drops, and the result does not always meet the expected.
C — urgent. These things are not very important. That is, their execution will not lead to the goal, but it is impossible not to fulfill them at this moment. For example, viewing the morning mail.
D — not important and not urgent matters. It is they who interfere with productive work and carry out serious assignments. Usually this includes recreation and entertainment. But they can also be important if you stay up three nights in a row doing a project.
3.Now put these values next to each case and the plan for your day or the whole week will immediately emerge.
Try to use such a table at least once — and you will understand that this way of prioritizing is the simplest and most effective. But you need to pay attention to some points, which we will discuss below.
How to prioritize: practical advice
To properly prioritize, follow these simple rules:
- You need to learn to distinguish between important and urgent tasks. Important is what will lead you to a certain goal. For example, the development of a quality project and its presentation. Urgent does not bring much benefit, but cannot be unimplemented.
- Urgent and important should not only be distinguished, but also be able to alternate. After all, if you do all the urgent things, you may not have enough time for the important ones.
- At the beginning of the day, it is worth starting with group «A». Even if these cases are not very interesting, you need to do them.
- Group «B» also needs attention. Since it includes long-term goals (projects, sports, language learning), they need to be given a little time, but every day. Then a habit will be developed to deal with them, and in the end there will be a high result.
A separate case is dreams. Often a person evaluates a dream as a deed. He knows what this case will lead to and how much time is needed for it, but does nothing. If you are in the same situation, read the article: How to turn a dream into a reality using the SMART goal setting technique.
An important point in the implementation of serious plans is the morale. If there is no desire and mood, then you don’t want to do anything. In this case, there is only one desire to drop everything and return to category “D” cases.
But don’t be tempted! Try to tune in to work so that it becomes more efficient. Methods on how to do this are described in the article «Pareto’s 20/80 empirical law to increase the efficiency of any person up to 100%»
Conclusion
It must be remembered that everything cannot be done in one day. And it is important not to overdo it, because after all, nobody canceled the rest. Learn to combine the pleasant with the useful. Come up with a reward system for yourself — and work will become much more pleasant. Correctly prioritize, monitor your emotional state.
Good luck in your new endeavors and achieve your goals! Subscribe to the blog to keep abreast of new tricks and time-tested tips on self-discipline, motivation and personal development.
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