Nowadays it seems everybody has a lot on his plate. It is not just adults that are super busy and forget things. In recent years I have noticed that an increasing number of students have become quite forgetful about deadlines, assignments, or appointments. Are people really really that busy that they tend to forget about things? I too have a lot on my plate, but so far I have been able to finish things ahead of time most of the time. So the core of their problem for failing to beat the deadlines is probably that they need an efficient method to keep a record and keep track of their tasks. I think it is a matter of time management and the matter of know-how.
When I first became a faculty member, life was hectic. I had meetings to go to, papers or meeting abstracts to submit before deadlines, student appointments, and etc. It was very difficult to remember each and every one of the things. The 3M post-it notes were good, but they were scattered everywhere on my desk or computer screen. I didn’t like it. I bought a pocket-size two-year monthly planner, and I found it very useful. I wrote deadlines or appointments in my planner. But that was not enough, because the planner was small that I could not write every single task in it. So in addition to a planner, I started writing down a to-do list on a personalized notepad, one page at a time. Ever since then, I managed to keep track of things.
The size of the notepad is 5.5’’x8.5’’. I write down the things I need to do on the page when I still remember them, and I cross them out when I finish the tasks. Normally I would run out of the space on both sides every two or three weeks. This is simple and efficient, but to my surprise, most of the people do not do that. The planner and the to-do list have helped me keep track of everything and enabled me to finish things ahead of time. It has been working very well for me, and that’s more it gives me a sense of accomplishments when I see the items crossed out on my to-do list. It is a successful time management mechanism for me.
2 comments:
Yes, I agree with you. I go to meetings almost everyday, and there are always people there without any kind of planner or other paper to write things down.
I used and taught Covey and Daytimer for many years, so I've learned the value of planning. Early this year I read David Allen's GTD (Getting Things Done) book and switched to GTD.
GTD has made a huge difference in my productivity. And then I found an application that allows me to view my entire GTD at work on my Win machine, at home on my Macs and even on my cell phone. And another app lets me call in tasks to my GTD without any writing or typing, great for those thoughts that hit me while driving. I've written about my experiences with GTD in a blog post at http://johnkendrick.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/more-getting-things-done/ John
Great article. I think you hit the nail on the head with crossing things off your to-do list. Lets face it, we are all really busy, and if you are not careful you can end up being controlled by the tyranny of the urgent, constantly putting out fires. Prioritizing and planning your work, and then working your plan, is a great step towards getting the most important things done.
Kell
http://www.effective-time-management-strategies.com/time-management-matrix.html
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