By Charles Plant, Schulich School of Business, York University
These days, anything with a positive return on investment sounds too good to be true. We’re not talking about financial investments per se here but rather something just as valuable—your time.
Specifically, the investment is the fifteen minutes that you can use at the end of your day to plan your next day. Simply by taking those few minutes and following a few simple steps, you will very likely experience a minimum of one hour of increased productivity the very next day!
Here are some basics to follow:
- Review your list of tasks and mark which ones got done and which are still outstanding.
- Note your accomplishments—important for motivation. List your outstanding tasks and any new ones you’d like to get done in your next day’s agenda sheet (or electronic organizer).
- Prioritize the tasks as As (need to get done tomorrow) or Bs (important but don’t absolutely have to be done tomorrow).
- Put appointments/meetings in the time slots.
- Work on one task at a time until you’re done (easier said than done we know) before moving onto the next. Multitasking seems to be a good idea but the lack of focus that comes with it causes ineffectiveness.
- Mark off your tasks as you get them done, allowing time for interruptions and unplanned activities.
No comments:
Post a Comment