Organizing tasks

I’ve been reading some interesting information on people wasting time at work. Since I also teach writing classes, I'm frequently reminding students to follow the process: brainstorm, rough outline, rough draft, and then revision. Too many people jump to the end trying to have a completed paper/project without any preparation, which wastes a lot of time in the revision phase that would have been eradicated if they took a few minutes to work up a rough outline organizing ideas.

Brian Tracy writes about how to prioritize tasks in several of his business books. Taking a few minutes to list out tasks and prioritize them, especially putting the biggest or most difficult task first, allows an individual to be the most productive with one's time and energy. Minor tasks can be picked up any time during the day or put off until later, but difficult task need to be approached and finished first. I find a list of tasks makes frequent interruptions while I’m working (phone calls, kids, clients, whatever) less of an annoyance since I can go to the list and pick up the next task.

What should you do? Write a list of tasks to do for the day, week, and month. Prioritize them; find the biggest, ugliest, most time-consuming one and put it first. Is it necessary? Do it first. Break it into manageable pieces. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Do the same with your list of tasks. Give a deadline for each task. Are any time sensitive? Note that. Put it on your calendar. Better yet, back up a few days and put the task there, too, so you have “wiggle” room to complete the task.

Why list out and prioritize tasks? More work completed earlier and faster. This leads to less frustration and less stress. That means more time for you and better mental and physical health.
Take a few minutes every day to create your list. Later during the day, check where you are in your list. Re-prioritize if necessary. You’ll find you’re getting more work done faster.
Then you can really breathe easy.