For long-term goals, you need a multi-year plan, for short-term goals - quarterly, and for current goals - monthly, weekly, daily. What is really important when planning? Here are the 6 most important steps to effective planning.

Time management specialists adviseplanningcurrent affairs to do it in the perspective of the week, because the week gives a broader context to our activities. What to consider when organizing tasks?

Thanks to the time board you will discover that you don't have to do everything! Then you will know the joy of enjoying your free time. Our personal and professional success largely depends on how we organize our time. We choose the way we spend it ourselves, we also bear the consequences of these decisions. To manage ourselves well over time, let's follow Stephen R. Covey's maxim: "Instead of focusing on doing the right thing, you need to focus your attention on doing the right thing." Our decisions about the use of time are influenced by two criteria - urgency and importance. We often assign importance to too many tasks. But proper prioritization is about realizing what's at most in our hierarchy of values, not just reacting to urgent matters. How to distinguish them from each other? Urgency is a criterion related to time, importance to our goals. A practical tool that shows the scope of activities and helps to identify what is really important istime board . The most important condition for effective action and planning is to focus on quadrant II and simultaneously eliminate many activities from I and III, and ignore the fourth quarter.

Important

Timeline: quarter I

It contains both important and urgent matters. It is "crisis management" - activities of strategic importance and urgent matters. In this quarter, we work, use our knowledge to react to many situations and take on challenges. We cannot neglect these matters.

Timeline: quarter II

Covers important but not urgent matters. It is a "high-quality" quarter in which we manage ourselves: we make long-term plans, anticipate problems and prevent them, develop abilities, regenerate, spend time with loved ones. The more time we spend in this quarter, the more it increasesour ability to act. Neglecting the activities within it widens quadrant I, which eventually consumes us, causes stress and burnout.

Timeline: quadrant III

There are urgent matters in it, but not important. This is a quarter of a delusion, because the buzz around what is urgent can create an illusion of importance. In this quadrant, we perform actions that are current, but important for someone else, we fulfill other people's expectations, thinking that we are in quadrant I.

Timeline: quadrant IV

These are not urgent and unimportant matters. By minimizing the time spent in this quarter, we will gain time for really important things.

TIME TABLE
IMPORTANT

URGENT

  • crisis situations;
  • urgent matters;
  • tasks with the date of implementation, meeting, preparation for meetings.

URGENT

  • preparation;
  • specify the value;
  • planning;
  • relationship building;
  • real recreation;
  • entrusting responsibility.
INVALID
  • some phones;
  • some letters, reports;
  • some meetings;
  • nearest urgent matters;
  • lots of normal activities.
  • everyday life, regular activities;
  • non-binding correspondence;
  • some phones;
  • time wasters;
  • pleasure;
  • watching TV for too long.

1. Effective planning: think about your vision and mission

When you start planning your activities, think about what is most important in your life. Think about your vision, what you would like to do, the rules by which you follow (compass!). As distant as it may seem, it is extremely important as your beliefs influence the goals you set for yourself, the decisions you make and the way you spend your time.

Re-inflection over your own mission is an essential condition for acting according to what is important, because it has a strong influence on the implementation of the rest of the activities assigned to quarter II. If your life credo is personal development, being with your family, discovering the value of life or social activity, then by returning to it from time to time, you will make the most important things imprinted in your memory. The mission will create a framework within which you will make decisions in the next stages of planning.

2. Effective planning: define your roles

Roles are symbols of duties, relationships with people, activities for the benefit of society. Their clear definition createsa natural structure that allows us to keep our balance. The roles you play are based on your mission. List your roles on a piece of paper (e.g. wife, mother, student, manager, director, member of a sports club). Research shows that appearing in more than seven is ineffective, so try to, for example, combine certain functions. Identifying life roles helps you see life as a whole - you can see that it's not just work or family, but all of them together. As you describe your roles, you will notice "important but not urgent" matters (Quarter II) that are usually ignored. In addition to the roles, add "saw sharpening" to the weekly schedule. It is the energy that we should put into perfecting our skills in four fundamental dimensions of life - physical, social, intellectual and spiritual. Absorbed in "sawing" (obtaining results), we forget to "sharpen the saw" (maintain or develop the ability to achieve results in the future). If, for example, we do not play sports (physical sphere), we do not develop knowledge (social sphere), we do not follow the latest developments in our industry (intellectual sphere) or we do not know what is important for us in life (spiritual sphere), we can "blunt off "by imbalance.

3. Effective planning: set goals for each role

Think about the most important thing you can do in each role this week to achieve positive results. What is essential, e.g. as a wife, husband, parent, employee? When searching for activities, use a compass, not a watch, and focus on what is important, not urgent. This may be, for example, a date with a husband, more time for a child, gathering information on a speed reading course, meditation. Set yourself one or two goals for each role.

4. Effective planning: learn to make decisions

In order to translate the goals of Quarter II into an action plan, you must learn to make the right decisions throughout the week. We often try to find time for "important" activities in quarters I and III, which are already full of activities. We throw ourselves from one case to another, entrust it to someone else, postpone it, hoping to find time for the most important things. But - as Stephen R. Covey writes - "[…] the point is not to prioritize plans, but to plan priorities." Imagine a wide jar in which you put large stones. Even though the jar is filled with stones, it is not full, you can sprinkle gravel into the gaps. But the truth is, the jar is still not full - you can add sand and finally add some more water. Our targets in quarter II are "big stones". If we deal first with other things - water,sand and gravel, and then we want to put large stones in the plan, our attempts will prove futile. But if we know which things are big stones and settle them before everyone else, we will see how much we can accomplish, and how much water, sand, and gravel there are in the empty spaces. We will achieve what we consider important, and at the same time we will "adjust" other activities accordingly.

5. Effective planning: organize every day

Your daily tasks are to do the most important things first, despite unexpected circumstances and challenges of the day. Sometimes you will manage to implement a plan, other times it will have to be changed, but when making decisions, rely on the indications of your internal compass. To put the most important things first, in the morning:

IMAGINE THE COURSE OF THE DAY- review the weekly schedule, find your position, view this day in the context of 7 days. This will help you react appropriately to unexpected situations.

SET PRIORITIES- mark your actions with the symbols of quarters I and II - thanks to this you will be sure that matters from quarter III do not fit into your schedule. If further prioritization is necessary, mark the activities of quarters I and II in more detail (e.g. with a circle).

DEFINE TASK TIME AND TIME- separate those that can be performed at any time of the day. Also write down time limits for specific activities.

6. Effective planning: evaluate your effectiveness

At the end of the week, think about what goals you achieved, what challenges you faced, what decisions to make, and if you made a choice, the most important things came first. Weekly summary helps you to avoid repeating the same mistakes, it allows you to be more effective in the following weeks.

monthly "Zdrowie"

Category:

Psychology