Have you ever felt like being unaccomplished despite having arrived at work early and having left so late? Once in a while, this feeling is acceptable. But if you feel it too often, you might not be working out your day-to-day priorities pretty well. This article basically focuses on how you can set your priorities well and be a champion of your own schedule. But first, please take a look at the not-so-obvious importance of having a schedule.
WHY HAVING A SCHEDULE IS ESSENTIAL
Being realistic about what you can really achieve with the time you have. You might be one of those people who perhaps continuously wish to have a 36-hour daytime. Tough luck. Perhaps the reason why you only have 24 hours in a day is for you to have time to actually identify your priorities. When you know what your priorities are, you’re also bound to stay realistic. Tomorrow is another day.
Schedules help you stick to the essentials tasks. But what can you call ‘essential tasks?’ A smart definition would be the tasks that can actually help you achieve your goal – goal for the day, goal for the week; short-term goals or even long-term goals. By having a schedule, you’ll know if you need to cut some time doing the non-essentials.
Being realistically hardworking. How much can you take? How do you know if you’re taking too much of what you can handle? The answer lies on your schedule. and know that a schedule so full doesn’t equate to being busy. It doesn’t even equate to being productive or even effective. A full schedule only tells you that you might be working yourself too hard that by the time you realize it, you’re nearly burning out.
Work-life balance. In an ever-busy era, you might’ve heard some people stake a bold claim: work-life balance isn’t real anymore. Whether or not you believe that, it pays to reconsider your position. What can you do? Check your calendar. When was the last time you actually left work on time? Maybe you can think about when was the last time you didn’t purposively go to work way too early? Also when was the last time you actually thought that the issue might be on your time management capability?
Time for yourself, your family, your family, & the world. As society becomes more and more industrialized, we become more connected to each other. The idea that a small boxed object called a smartphone can actually be used to talk to someone on the other side of the world is nothing short of a miracle. But this essentially proves that no one really lives under a rock now. and no one can actually spend the rest of his or her life being disconnected from the world. Check your schedule. Have you really no time to go out & to have fun?
Now: how to schedule your time & how to identify your priorities.
HOW TO SCHEDULE YOUR TIME AND PRIORITIZE
Let it be known that when you learn how to effectively schedule your time, you can also minimize your stress levels. Why so? Because organization comes into play. You’ll also minimize being the buzzer beater, and you won’t cause stress to the people around you- especially those who’re waiting on you. These five tips are simple but when you practice it faithfully, you can own your time.
Have a regular scheduling time. Scheduling your time requires time as well. It simply involves planning so you need to be set to do it. Otherwise, you might not be planning your schedule based on your essential tasks. Some people find it helpful to schedule their time on weekly basis. Some people find it more beneficial to do monthly planning. Regardless, if you’ve a fair idea of how your week or month will progress, you’ve a better chance of getting a locked schedule.
Find your available times. Your available time is the time when you’re willing to work. In industries where hours are allocated instead of consumed, this’s very useful. If you’re on a fixed-hour schedule, you can also benefit from properly mapping out your time so that you know how much free time you’ve left.
Note that allocating or consuming your hours is also dependent on the nature of your job and your professional and personal goals. If you’re eyeing to have more time to do non-work-related tasks, you might also plan your available time based on the amount of task you’re required to complete.
Schedule essential tasks within your available times. this’s now entirely dependent on the primary metrics that your job title, scope, or responsibility requires. these’re the tasks that you’re being assessed against, and the tasks that tell your superiors that you’re doing a great job.
So now you understand that essentials tasks are non-negotiable. these’re expected of you and from you. If you’re a Social Media Manager, for example, a part of what constitutes your essentials tasks would be planning the monthly editorial calendar or even making sure that a post goes live based on the frequency that you set to your client.
Distinguish between essential, priority, and urgent tasks. To put simply, essential tasks are those that you can’t relegate, defer, or avoid. Priority tasks are those that you need to complete during the day before you can move on to your other tasks. Also urgent tasks are time-bound and need to be completed within the timeline specified.
All three types of tasks are dependent on each other because they share something in common: they’re tied to a goal. So, please recognize that while you’re planning to make sure you constantly deliver what’s expected from you, you also need to plan so that you can accurately respond to pressing matters that’re unexpected.
Discover your discretionary time. Discretionary time is the time you’ve left after factoring in your essential tasks, priority tasks, and urgent tasks. Because it’s discretionary, you can use it in your own volition.
Now, one important thing that you also need to remember is that as long as you’re at work, or as long as you’re fulfilling your planned time allocation, discretionary time shouldn’t be spent for personal endeavors. Also a good way to make use of discretionary time is to review your goals within the company, get ahead of other upcoming tasks, or even spend some time meeting with the members of your team.
Finally, what good is a schedule if you don’t analyze its effectiveness? Considering that you’ve entered items in your schedule under the three types of tasks discussed, it’s also worth analyzing if these tasks are something that you can delegate, outsource, or automate.
