I am notorious for procrastination. I am pretty good at estimating how long something will take me and putting it off till the last minute. While most of the time it works out fine in the end, I know it would be much better if I would do things in a more timely manner.
Sometimes, it seems that the people who get things done faster must have more time on their hands. Between work and school, I seem constantly busy and it is easy for me to justify my procrastination during my free time, however, I heard someone say recently that we all have the same amount of time each day. It is our priorities that matter. If we don't have enough time to do something it is because we haven't made the time to do it because we have something we would rather do instead.
One thing that works for me is making a list of the things I have to get done and then crossing off things as I do them.
Two of the articles I read on time management are:
11 ways unsuccessful people mismanage their time
Some of the problems unsuccessful people have were obvious to me. Procrastination is a common one. However, the article mentioned how a lot of these people aren't the lazy, couch surfing loafers we envision, and instead, they are simply disorganized. When I think of people who are bad at time management, I definitely think of people who spend too much time browsing Facebook or watching Netflix but disorganization is definitely a problem. I use a planner as much as possible but sometimes I forget to check it and that has led to me missing things before. For this semester, my goal is to write everything down and refer to my planner often enough that I don't forget anything.
Eat The Frogs First Thing in The Morning (And Other Better Work Habits)
I chose this article because of the funny name. It discussed doing the things we didn't want to do first or tackling the biggest problems before the smaller ones. I think this is important for me to do because I often put things off because I do not want to deal with them. When the task is enjoyable I will do it right away but if I don't want to do it than I let it loom over me for a while. I heard from someone recently that it is best just to get started and I think that is true.
Sometimes, it seems that the people who get things done faster must have more time on their hands. Between work and school, I seem constantly busy and it is easy for me to justify my procrastination during my free time, however, I heard someone say recently that we all have the same amount of time each day. It is our priorities that matter. If we don't have enough time to do something it is because we haven't made the time to do it because we have something we would rather do instead.
One thing that works for me is making a list of the things I have to get done and then crossing off things as I do them.
Two of the articles I read on time management are:
11 ways unsuccessful people mismanage their time
Some of the problems unsuccessful people have were obvious to me. Procrastination is a common one. However, the article mentioned how a lot of these people aren't the lazy, couch surfing loafers we envision, and instead, they are simply disorganized. When I think of people who are bad at time management, I definitely think of people who spend too much time browsing Facebook or watching Netflix but disorganization is definitely a problem. I use a planner as much as possible but sometimes I forget to check it and that has led to me missing things before. For this semester, my goal is to write everything down and refer to my planner often enough that I don't forget anything.
Eat The Frogs First Thing in The Morning (And Other Better Work Habits)
I chose this article because of the funny name. It discussed doing the things we didn't want to do first or tackling the biggest problems before the smaller ones. I think this is important for me to do because I often put things off because I do not want to deal with them. When the task is enjoyable I will do it right away but if I don't want to do it than I let it loom over me for a while. I heard from someone recently that it is best just to get started and I think that is true.
Photo Credit: flickr
Hey, Elyse!
ReplyDeleteI empathize with you -- it's easy for me to get sucked into the cycle of procrastination too. But, like you, I invested in a planner a year ago and it's helped considerably. Just seeing what I have to get done helps to motivate me to get started. I also love the quote about eating the frog right off the bat. I've never heard it phrased that way, but it's a wonderful analogy. If you start off your day with the hardest, most unpleasant task you've got, your day can only improve!
Hi Elyse!
ReplyDeleteTime management is a little bit of an obsession of mine (I love my planner and Apple calendar), so I was interested to read your thoughts on the articles you chose. I think setting a goal of writing everything down is an awesome way to improve organization and time management. It definitely helped me a ton, and it's just nice to have a visual representation of the tasks you need to accomplish each week.
I think I've heard the idea of "eating frogs" before, but it was a long time ago so reading your blog post was a great refresher! I think it's a really smart way to go about your day, but it sounds pretty difficult to me. Sometimes it's nice to warm up in the morning before taking on the really challenging or annoying tasks!