Languages and Education Consultant

The importance of prioritizing

 

When you work as self-employed the most difficult thing is often to know how to prioritizing your daily personal and professional tasks in order to make your time as effective as possible. Many people think that working at home makes it an easier job, but it actually carries with it a greater responsibility to be able to not only know where and when to start but also when to stop. I find the latter the most problematic, when I have a project I tend to get so absorbed in it that I forget to give myself time for other things. This is ok when it’s an episodic occurrence, but when you keep pushing yourself too hard, something has to snap.

That is why some time ago I made myself look through my notes and find a paper I had written for one of my Master degree’s subjects that focused on prioritize and started to actually reflect on how I managed my time.

This is actually quite easy to understand, if less to actually follow, and I admit I still slip sometimes, but mostly I try to follow this approach.

It simply states that we should think about our tasks framing them into four categories:

• Urgent and important

• Important but Not Urgent

• Not Important and Urgent and

• Not Important and Not Urgent

 

 

 

I try to think about all the daily tasks and my goals for the week and put them into these categories. I start by focusing on specific papers I have to do that have short deadlines, or preparing classes for the week, and allocate a great part of my day to these activities. Then, I (struggle to) stop these more pressing and urgent activities and focus on improving my online and offline working network, caring about my health and wellbeing and specially develop myself, which I do mainly through reading, writing or taking courses.  Then I concern myself with answering emails with general queries about my work, or other non important emails (that, however you shouldn’t leave unanswered), and essential tasks such as shopping or cleaning. Finally, I leave time to relax and watch TV, or read, go to the cinema or simply be. Whether this is easy or not for you, the truth is that being more organized has allowed me to make better use of my time, not let work damage my health or wellbeing, and my personal relationships.

And the best thing is that it can be adjusted to your own needs and tasks, it all depends on your rational perception of what is important, what is actually going to help you achieve your main goals.

And that reminds me of the very useful goal achieving spider diagrams… Coming soon!