Why do lists and useless than they can be replaced
Productivity / / December 23, 2019
About task lists shortcomings and how to learn to do without them, still have time to stop and put off important things.
Why do lists do not help
Daniel Markowitz (Daniel Markovitz), head Markovitz Consulting, in his article identifies several issues that do lists ineffective.
- The paradox of choice. Huge lists that consist of a dozen points, is introduced into a stupor, we do not know for what to catch. Psychologist Barry Schwartz (Barry Schwartz) and psihoekonomist bus Iyengar (Sheena Iyengar) found that the fewer choices we have, the easier it is to act.
- Varying complexity tasks. Take a look at your items in the list of cases. Some tasks can be done in three minutes, others take away your hour. Most likely, you will be working on those items that will not take much of your time. Your list will decrease considerably, but important challenges remain and "hang".
- Lack of context. Affairs lists provide a minimum of information. You can not determine how much time and effort you take this or that task. And this is a very important factor, without which it is difficult to build an effective plan.
How to work more productively
Improve its efficiency will help small changes you can make to the working schedule.
1. Live in your calendar
Daniel Markowitz provides a process for planning, which is called "Live in your calendar." You will need to transfer all your tasks from the list in the calendar, to estimate how much time will be spent on their performance, and plan for the day, week, month.
Scheduling the time, so you can review and adjust your schedule and prioritize.
Author of books on time management and founder of the educational platform LEADx.org Kevin Cruz (Kevin Kruse) interviewed many billionaires, Olympic champions and entrepreneurs and found that none of them does not use lists, but all "live in the calendar."
2. Use the "rule of two minutes"
One of the reasons that lists the speed of light acquire new items, consists in the fact that we put a lot of small problems. Looking at the list, you are trying to squeeze out a maximum of and strike as many points, but the only thing you'll have a - a nervous breakdown.
Popular blogger James Clear (James Clear) offers to use "Rule two minutesยป. If you have a task to perform which will leave less than two minutes, do not write it anywhere, just do it. Over time, your list will be shorter, and one day you will be able to do without them.
3. the habit
When you start to plan your life in calendar, can face the fact that the little things, such as cleaning the house and going for food, creating havoc with your schedule. Priorities get lost among the many minor. To avoid this, it is necessary to develop habits. Go shopping at certain days, clean the mailbox at the end of the day, and do cleaning on Saturday. So you train yourself to perform everyday activities without the need to enter them into the schedule.
Remember that if you follow the advice of only one, it is unlikely that something will turn out. You need to combine them, to try to implement the work. The only way you can achieve good results.
And what techniques and methods you use to be more productive?