Something as simple as not knowing how to keep an agenda can have disastrous results in productivity. The first problem that arises when scheduling tasks on a daily basis is that you are falling into the culture of emergencies, you are looking only at the short term, when the long term should come first. And from there, only from there, the medium, and then, the short term.
Most people use to rely on a daily schedule whether it be on a piece of paper, a notepad, a normal agenda, digital or electronic agenda.
On one occasion he was with a client with whom he was taking a coaching program to increase his personal productivity. From our first sessions my client always came with his agenda in hand and a pencil or pen in hand. Sometimes he made note of dates and sometimes he just memorized them.
Back to front? or from back to front?
One day I asked my client if he could share with me how he organized his activities. My client laughed and said, 'Look at this one almost all empty.' Although my client lived with a lot of stress because all the time he was on urgent duty and constantly put out fires.
It was clear that dedicating almost all of his time and energy to urgent matters was very difficult for him to do other activities, so he could not organize himself nor in the medium or long term could only do the things of the moment. This had a terrifying effect on her productivity. Very low !!!!
Am I telling you that we should program backwards? Yes it is.
I know it will seem strange, but surely you do too. For example, imagine that your plane leaves at a certain time. What time should you leave your office or home? You will wonder what time you have to show up at the airport counter, how long it takes you to get a taxi from your office, how long to get the taxi… and you may add a few minutes margin just in case.
What have you done? Program backwards.
You must do the same to tackle a project. When do you want to have it finished? How much time do you foresee for each phase? That means starting with an annual plan, or at least, quarterly, and in rare cases, monthly. From there you can go, but not before, to the newspaper. It is not bad to specify commitments on the day, but they must be preceded by an overview.
The annual appears as essential for those who have responsibilities. And a second level, monthly or weekly, desirable to maintain the overview.
Most useful ?: working with both.
Schedule the agenda.
We have said that planning involves deciding what to do and when it should be finished. Programming is deciding when to do it and what resources are needed.
• What stages do I foresee.
• What resources will I need, what help.
Time goes from being considered only in its term aspect to seriously participating as a RESOURCE.
We must therefore learn to program not tasks but the resource: time and learn to focus this time on those tasks that are really productive.
It is the only sensible solution, and although it may sound strange, over time, as with money, what you have to program is the scarce resource. How much time do I have? What do I want to invest it in? And based on those decisions, I must assign a time to each task, especially visits, meetings, consultations, that is, what can be extended to me if I don't control it.
Probably in small unimportant things it is where, insensitively, we are going more than is convenient.
We spend 50 to 75 percent of our workday attending to unforeseen events. What's worse, we compulsively tackle 50 to 90 percent of our activities.
In other words, prioritization is not deliberate, focused on achieving objectives, but merely compulsive.
The correct and intelligent thing is to prioritize according to the objectives, among which the decision to rest, have fun, take care of your family or another person may appear at a certain time. It is your right because it is about your life.
Control time and clock
It is a common idea to believe that controlling time means being a slave to the clock.
Nothing further from reality. Controlling time does not mean being a slave to the clock. It involves, in any case, using the compass properly, that is, knowing where you want to go, what objective you want to achieve.
To take advantage of every moment, so that every moment is profitable and profitable in any sense, including rest, pleasure, fun and everything that is freely decided, the internal clock is enough.
The conventional watch, on the other hand, only becomes important when there is another person (appointment, visit, meeting) that we must respect.
Control time and opportunities
It is a false belief that controlling time misses many unexpected but interesting opportunities. Precisely control facilitates greater decision-making capacity, knowing what is done and why it is done, and facilitating gaps. A bad management of time prevents having it when an opportunity appears. By allocating enough time for contingencies, you are in a better position to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise.
As a final reflection
Thus, knowing how to prioritize, the correct management of our time, of our life, means recovering all our freedom, always deciding what interests us and we feel like doing, with a broad vision.
