You've woken up early, nailed your morning routine and are at your desk, raring to go. You have a to-do list and have planned out your meetings, breaks et cetera throughout the day... but now you're stuck - which task do you tackle first?
You could pick things at random off the list, or choose depending on how willing you are to do them... or you could approach it systematically.
The Eisenhower Method was devised based on a quote about time-management by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States who was known for his almost unfathomable productivity levels.
"I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent."
By classifying all tasks very simply by urgency and importance, we can then decide how to approach each one.
1. Important and Urgent
These can be urgent e-mails, things that are due very soon or crises that need to be resolved immediately.
Prioritise these first and foremost.
2. Important but Not Urgent
This is the most flexible category. These can be things that are essential but do not need to be done immediately.
For example, a long-term project due in a month's time can be worked on bit by bit every day. Exercise is also an important but non-urgent thing, and can be factored into your day around your work schedule.
It's important to not forget how your life outside of work factors in to this method. Things like relationships or family time may also fall into this category.
There should be a balance between these tasks and your most urgent and important tasks.
Set a deadline so that you know how to divide up your time on these tasks
3. Not Important but Urgent
In essence, these are distractions - less important meetings, calls, delivering something to someone, fixing a minor bug.
This is perhaps the least pleasant category to work your way through. You'll have to judge whether you can...
Delegate a task to someone else: even if you have to hire someone to do it, think about whether the benefits may outweigh the costs here.
Accomplish it as quickly as possible to get it out of the way (If it can be done in 2 minutes, it might be better to do it first rather than put it off and forget it!)
Reduce the time spent on these - If something can be done in 10 minutes, don't spend 30 minutes on it! It sounds simple, but don't overestimate the amount of time needed to finish something especially if it's a trivial task.
4. Not Important and Not Urgent
Finally, these are the things that are not important to your work life, social life or mental and physical wellbeing. These should be factored into your schedule last.
If possible, try to delete items from this list. Think about whether that reunion with a rather toxic or unpleasant friend is really worth your (or their!) time. Does scrolling through Instagram for an hour a day add much to your life?
This isn't to say you can't have any relaxation, recreation or recuperation. You can still enjoy a night out with friends, bash out some video games, watch Netflix - if these are things that you enjoy in life.
However, what's more urgent and important should always come before these things, and that way, not only will you be better prepared to achieve your goals but you will also cherish your recreational activities far more.
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