Prioritizing by level of importance is a major problem for many people trying to achieve success with time management.
Time management trainers still pull the wool over your eyes with the old-fashioned technique of prioritizing by importance. Another problem area is scheduling activities to time. And a third problem is using weekly to-do lists.
In this article I will explain the problem of prioritizing by importance. Having just gone against the grain of traditional time management, you will have a glimmer of hope, and a dashing of skepticism. Hope because you know normal time management systems are a pain. And Skepticism because what I'm going to show you is not common.
Naturally, the 'time flies' phenomenon is great if you're in 'the zone' of productivity and life satisfaction. But how do you juggle all the deadlines, resources, and other people to find the balance?
And that's just at work!... But a Time Management System in today's fast economy must include both your work life as well as your personal life (leisure, hobbies, social relations, chores, etc).
Think of a handful of chores. Get your hair done. Cut the grass. Take the pet to the vet. Fill that outstanding paper work in, create some form of a meal, AND get your daughter off to her pain lesson. Developing your time management skill of prioritizing effectively seems an excellent plan.
Have you tried prioritizing a list of things to do when you have dozens of things to do? It gets messy doesn't it? You try to arrange the order to decide on the most important thing. And you go and do that first. The thing is that areas of life get neglected because there isn't enough time to do everything when you prioritize by importance. Some things are always low on the list.
You would never get round to things like cutting the grass, exercising regularly, filing papers, reading your kids night time stories.
So can you combine importance with urgency? Say it's Saturday afternoon. Laura has a time with her piano tutor at 3.30pm. So that's an urgent priority. You plan to read your office work after taking her. But what about the haircut you wanted? At what point is the hair 'urgent' enough to be a priority? When it's long? How long? When the wife nags right?
Prioritizing by urgency, what would you do? Take your daughter. Get your hair cut. Read the office paper work. More and more of life gets neglected and messy.
Taking your daughter to her lesson is not as important as reading the office information. So the office work is more important (you'll be fired if you don't keep up). But the lesson for your daughter is in an hour, so that's urgent. You could try doing them both at the same time couldn't you?
The wife made fun of your hair again today so you'll cross off the hair cut from the C priority list and put it on the A priority list. You can read the memo tomorrow (Friday) with enough time left while the shops are open, and in time to get back to take the Wife out, so you decide the hair cut is urgent, and should move to priority level A.
Along comes Saturday afternoon, and Sally's tutorship now gets crossed off the B list and put on the A list because it's Saturday, and you've got Memo and Sally's Tutorship on the A list.
That scenario does work, but it's not exactly smooth sailing is it? The ABCDE Method of prioritization is difficult to imagine working even with only 3 tasks... But what when you try to mix in the rest of your responsibilities and life? ...And there are changes in what's urgent all too often... so trying to prioritize like that soon gets you in a jam.
Modern time management needs something far better than the old fashioned method of prioritizing. Such a limiting time management technique creates big problems.
Searching for modern solutions to time management prioritizing is worth your time. Because your time is the most precious commodity you have. So abandon the traditional time management techniques and develop your own natural time management skill by striking out on new paths. Make your own choices. Discover what works for you.
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