Do This To Boost Your Organisational Skills Today
A short guide to stop running out of time
How much better would your life be if you finished your obligations on time? Imagine you did everything you had to do in exactly the time you had for it.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
We live busy lives, there are too many distractions around us and too many obligations drawing us away from what we want to do. Finding the time, and the will, to get things done is one of the biggest hurdles in the road to success.
When you have things to do, being able to distribute them throughout your day efficiently is a skill anyone can benefit from. Proper organisation is a habit and as such requires time and effort to consolidate.
With this being said, there are a few things you can do to boost your schedule and make the best of the time you have. Small tweaks to your mindset and routine and you will be on your way to organisational bliss.
Focus on what matters, forget the rest
Does it ever feel like you have too much on your plate? With the heaps of entertainment available, our social life, just a few hobbies and when you add in work, it's easy to become overwhelmed.
It is important you focus on what really matters.
This doesn’t mean you should drop everything in your life that doesn’t scream productivity. It means you need to take a long, hard look at your schedule and figure out what parasites lie hidden within. By parasites, I mean activities that don’t bring anything you truly value to your life but simply sap away at your time.
For this, the first question you need to ask yourself is: what is it that really matters to me?
This isn’t always the easiest question to answer and luckily your answer doesn’t need to be perfect. Just think about what matters in a more immediate sense.
Do those extra twenty minutes scrolling through your feed matter to you, or would spending that time exercising matter to you more?
A good rule of thumb is to think of the importance of the outcome of the task rather than the task itself (which will often seem tedious).
This is a key part to your organisation as it exposes what you will actually be spending your time on.
Now you know what you want to focus on, its time to start fitting it into your schedule like a master Tetris player.
Priorities, priorities, priorities
All tasks weren’t born equal, of size nor difficulty. Throughout the myriad of objectives you have set out for yourself, I don’t have to be a genie to know there are some you dread especially. I also magically know that some are slightly more urgent and slightly more important than others.
Following this reasoning, it would only seem fair to schedule while keeping this in mind.
Ranking your tasks by priority and difficulty will help you make a bigger impact with less time.
Make a list of everything that needs doing, then assign it a score based on the importance and the difficulty. By focusing on the more pressing tasks, or those that will make a bigger impact on your work, your progress will skyrocket.
When approaching the tasks that are on the tougher side, keep this in mind and do it when you’re most energised.
Face your hardest challenges first thing in the morning.
There are a couple of reasons behind this approach. Firstly, in the morning you aren’t as taxed from working all day and for many peak performance arrives after that first cup of coffee. Secondly, you will gain the instant relief that your day is only going to get easier as well as the confidence of having overcome a major hurdle (and you’re just getting started).
So now you’ve dug deep and you know what you want to do and in what order. Now let's get to how to get down and get it done.
P.S A golden routine is worthless if you don’t stick to it
Use Time Stamps
No one wants to live a timed life, like some kind of prison experiment. Unfortunately, for productivity reasons, giving yourself a time frame is essential.
How do you go about estimating how long you’ll need for a task?
Think carefully about every possible scenario involved. You don’t want to be overambitious with your efficiency. This may seem counterintuitive, but underestimating how long your tasks will take will cause you to habitually go over the allotted time for each task and spiral your schedule into chaos.
Is there a chance you’ll hit a major barrier in your work? If so, how long will it take you to figure it out? Are some of your tasks dependant of another event? Organise your day so you don’t have to wait for this event, perhaps place the task at a time where this event is certain to have happened.
The point here is: be realistic.
The same applies inversely. Don’t underestimate your abilities, challenge yourself. It may not be realistic to finish that essay in an hour, but see just how much you can get accomplished in that hour. Take this quote for multi-billionaire and success icon Elon Musk:
“If you give yourself 30 days to clean your house it will take 30 days, but if you give yourself 3 hours it will take 3 hours. The same applies to your goals ambitions and plans”
Remember to set a timer for your tasks. A timer is like armour against your excuses. The second that timer starts, you can no longer complain and there is no more postponing that task.
I’ve found having a timer draws you into the immediacy of your work much more. Train your mind to respond to complete focus whilst that timer is going and you won’t ever have issues for getting started again. Feeling lazy? You might be a little tired, or… just procrastinating. Start that timer without a second thought.
Productivity and organisational tips are exactly what they are: just advice. They won’t change your life in any meaningful way if you don’t put it into practice. The same applies to the points mentioned in this article.
Slowly include these in your decision-making when scheduling your day to make a difference. Keep them in mind when crafting your daily to-dos and breaking down your objectives.
When it all comes down to it, you know what the single greatest organisational skill is? Commitment. And the great thing about commitment is:
It is entirely up to you to cultivate it.
