4 Tips to Schedule Important Tasks
Time is limited, you always need to schedule important tasks. You certainly want to do the important tasks as soon as possible, but can you define what are important? Can you figure out how to arrange them?
Time management is not an easy job, if you never learn it, you will waste a lot of time. There are 4 tips to schedule important tasks.
In this article, you are going to see 4 tips to schedule important tasks.
This is Antlerium PotatoNews, a series focusing on the daily lives of ordinary people, including life tips. Today we explore 4 tips to schedule important tasks.
1. Order: Always put the most challenging task at the earliest time of the day
Let's say you are just given a ton of work from your job or institution, deadlines and goals are clearly defined. While arranging the priorities by urgency is useful almost all the time, what if the task involves difficult and easy parts?
The strategy is simple. When you start a day, work on the difficult part right away. It is better to solve the challenging part of the task when your brain is fresh after wake up.
Keep the easy tasks later that day. After lunch, your energy will begin to decrease gradually, and will get to bottom when you are awake for 14 hours or so. Putting challenging tasks afternoon is a poor choice.
If you are a student given a bunch of holiday homework, you are free to arrange when to do which part. Try to identify challenging parts and work on them in mornings consistently. If you have never tried that, you will be surprised how efficient you suddenly become.
2. Start small: From small to big
Even though the most challenging tasks should be tackled at the earliest time of the day, it is quite demotivating.
Slice the mission to smaller measurable targets and work on them one by one. You will gradually get the momentum to work on bigger tasks.
For example, if you need to write an essay, instead of finishing the whole thing, finishing one section would be more inciting. And when you complete a section, you can start working on another section.
When you are not working on a task and try to work on that, you may hesitate, especially when it is complicated. But when you are working on that right now, you will continue. This is psychology.
So, before you start to work, split the hard task into a list of targets so you will fulfill them one by one.
3. Remember cooldown: Set up breaks
When you deal with challenging tasks, your energy runs out fast. Remember to set up regular breaks to rest.
One approach schools in Hong Kong usually use is to recur 90 minutes of class and 15 minutes of break consecutively. You can adopt that but instead of class it is working or hustling.
Another famous approach is using the Pomodoro Technique. 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break is a cycle. After 4 cycles, take a rest for 30 minutes.
There are multiple ways to set up breaks. You just need to remember that you need them.
4. ALWAYS BUILD A SYSTEM
Doing important tasks can spend a lot of time if you never refine your workflow. The reason why you schedule important tasks is because you don't want to waste time. By writing out the workflow, you can see the "system" you used.
Once you write out the system, it's time to build it better.
Always find things that can optimize your workflow. You can increase efficiency and thus reduce the time.
For example, if you need to write a report, you may plan out everything by writing an outline at the beginning. You can use a template. That would be a solid system, from outline to template to the complete report.
To refine the system, you may find more templates beforehand to minimize the time spent on finding one for new scenario.
The more tight your schedule is, the more you need to build good systems. Optimize as many workflows as possible.
Schedule important tasks with strategy
Putting down a period to tackle an important mission does not equal to schedule. To schedule important tasks, you must always do it with strategies.
Never put the hard task to a time when your brain is in poor shape. Put it in the morning when your brain is clear. Start small and build the momentum to deal with the task. Get enough rest, and build an optimized system.
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