Do you feel like you are drowning in your to-do list? Do you have tasks written down on notepads, in your diary, on the fridge, in Evernote, on asana and of course, running around your head? The truth is managing your life off a to-do list, or multiple to-do lists, is not the best way to maximise your productivity and be a time-management queen. So today I’m going to be sharing what you should be using instead.
If I had a pound for every time someone asked ‘How can I be more productive?’ and ‘How can I manage my time better’ I would be getting super close to being a millionaire by now I’m sure. The fact is virtually everyone, no matter how successful they are, is looking to be more productive and to use their time better.
Earlier this year I wrote a post called ‘Stop focusing on being efficient and focus on being effective’, where I wrote about how your main focus should be on being effective instead of efficient. Now whilst that is easy to say, I know some people struggle to put it into practice and recently I have actively been using a model, which has really been working so I thought I would share it.
So say goodbye to your to-do list
And say hello to the Time Management Matrix.
Now whilst I would love to claim this idea to be my own, it isn’t. I first came across this concept in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
Below is an image of the Time Management Matrix
The problem with a to-do list is that everything appears the same. The purpose of the Time Management Matrix is for you to place tasks in the relevant quadrant (important and urgent, important and not urgent, urgent and not important and not urgent and not important) and as a result understand what tasks to focus on.
As humans, we naturally will do what is urgent. It is easy to know when something is urgent, but that often means the tasks that are important, but not urgent continue to be left on the to-do list rather than getting done. Now whilst this is fine in the short-term, the fact is a lot of tasks that fall into the important but not urgent quadrant are the tasks that support your long-term future.
So now is the time to find your current to-do list (or lists) and then make a Time Management Matrix and write all of your current tasks in the relevant quadrant.
In an ideal world, you would then take action in Quadrant I, Quadrant II, Quadrant III and then Quadrant IV. However, I realise the reality of putting it into practice that strictly is difficult. However, just visually being able to see your tasks in that way should help you to spend more time on important tasks and help you to realise how many not important tasks you have on your list that currently you are being consumed by.
Want to be even more productive?
To take the Time Management Matrix to the next level, find a way to identify tasks that are related to your current goals. Get a highlighter, a ruler to underline with, or use a different colour pen. The purpose is to easily to be able to identify what tasks are supporting your current goals as these should be your top priority.
