How to be Productive Daily
“Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the thing that he can least afford to waste.” –Thomas Edison
While some people are able to power through the day, maintaining focus and accomplishing their goals, time management is an area where most of us tend to struggle. The good news, however, is that being productive doesn’t just “happen” for certain people — it actually involves a set of learnable skills that can be practiced and mastered by anyone.
Assess How You Spend Your Time
Before you can begin to optimize your time, it’s important to know exactly how and where you “waste” time during the day. Practice being mindful of your daily activities and notice where your distractions and obstacles lie. Are you wasting time procrastinating on social media sites? Do you find your concentration dropping at a certain time of the day? Being aware of where your time is spent will help you better manage it.
Create To-Do Lists
Make sure you start every day with a clear idea of what you need to do – what needs to get done THAT DAY. Consider making it a habit to, at the end of each workday, go ahead and write out your “to-do” list for the next workday. That way you can hit the ground running the next morning.
Empty the contents of your brain by jotting down everything you need to get done, no matter how big or small, including emails, phone calls, projects, ideas, appointments, and errands. If you have large tasks on the list, break them down into smaller, more manageable step-by-step goals. By creating a tangible list, you’ll free your mind from the burden of trying to remember, so that you can focus on what needs to get done in the present moment.
Prioritize Lists
Once you’ve created a list, it’s time to prioritize. Ask yourself which tasks are most important and decide on the best order for completing them.
This method is to categorize items in terms of their urgency and importance. This can be done using a four-grid system, like the one below:
Important and urgent: Do these tasks right away.
Important but not urgent: Decide when to do these tasks.
Urgent but not important: Delegate these tasks if possible.
Not urgent and not important: Set these aside to do later.
Tasks that are both urgent and important will get top priority, but going forward, the aim is to reduce the number of tasks that fall into that category. As you take control of your schedule, you should have more time to focus on non-urgent but important tasks, and in the long run, you’ll be able to reduce the likelihood that important tasks will become urgent.
