Time Management At It’s Best, One List or Two?
Whether we like to admit it or not, when we
have too much to do we are overwhelmed.
When we are overwhelmed we become inefficient, agitated, short tempered
and quite frankly a pain to know.
Why? Because it’s stressful. When cortisol the stress hormone is over
stimulated havoc breaks loose.
The big three that cause a huge surge of
cortisol are bereavement, divorce and moving house. But believe it or not, this kind of stress is
not the health risk we think, because no matter how bad we feel, we will
recover on some level.
Equally, cortisol secretion in the short
term is great because it keeps us alert, sharp and we can think on our feet. If however, it goes on for too long that’s
when things go badly wrong. Typically
this happens at work when tasks are not finished. It’s the undone to-do list that eats away at
us like a nasty little finger constantly prodding and poking robbing us of our
sanity.
This kind of stress overwhelms to the point
of not thinking clearly, not feeling motivated and even our memory is badly
affected. This creates all sorts of problems for ourselves and our company.
There are of course other stressors that
can affect our work such as relationship problems in our personal lives. Even when things are going well, there is
always something that can send cortisol through the roof, so we have to make
sure we are as prepared as we can be by organising ourselves well. That way when the unforeseen happens (and
let’s face it it’s called life) we are in a strong place to cope.
The simplest and easiest way to get a grip
is the age old to-do list. We all know
this. Last thing before leaving work or
first thing in the morning, as you sit at your desk, is to write a list of what
needs to be achieved that day.
For me, I find prioritising those actions
helpful, but there is a caveat here. In
order to prioritise we need to be realistic when calculating how long things
take. There is no point writing 10 actions
down that will take you until midnight.
It’s better to work out how much time you need for each one and then
prioritise accordingly, so the list may drop down to 6 for instance. It is pointless trying to avoid stress by
writing a to-do list and then adding to stress levels because some items on the
to-do list are undone.
Once you have achieved item one you can
flamboyantly tick or triumphantly cross it out.
Which do you do? I’m a flamboyant
ticker, quite delicious. Then I take a
moment to re-prioritise my list as things may have changed as a consequence of
finishing item number one.
However, have you thought of running two
lists at the same time? Why? Because our personal life needs to be
addressed daily as well. When we are
disorganised at home or forgotten to go to the dry cleaners or send a birthday
card to a friend or loved one we may feel guilty and just as agitated as if we
have missed calling a key client.
My biggest tip of all is to draw a vertical
line down the centre of an A4 page. On
one side write a work list and on the other a personal list and treat them both
with equal importance.
Oh and of course, celebrate when you see
all those amazing ticks or horizontal crossings out emulating a ladder looking
just like a stairway to success and a calm mind. Mmmmm I like that metaphor, perhaps I will
become both a flamboyant ticker and triumphant crosser outer at the same time.
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