About jack Expertise I have more than 50 techniques that will help people to plan their short and long range tasks and events more efficiently and effectively, how to reduce the amount of paper clutter they have, how to organize their files, how to handle telephone interruptions and how to juggle and schedule multiproject workloads.
Question your 50 techniques sound promising, where can i find them,
I have a hard time planning when to do stuff, what to do first, and how to do it.
i don,t just mean some stuff either i mean i can't control my life. i live alone and work a lot can you help me!
Oh,and i don't make quite enough money to hire someone to do it all.
Answer Dear Rob,
The only place the 50 techniques are together is when I teach a full course. I have not written a book about it, although I might some day. Of course you know, there are many Time Management books at the library. In any case, trying to get 50 techniques going in your life may be the worst thing you can do.
The first secret to good time management is to bite of small tasks that you can get done rather than having a big list. Just like you say, if you have a long list you will not know what to get done first. The secoond secret is to not make lists of to-do's, but rather to assign a time for every task you need to do. For instance, mow the lawn - schedule it in from 10:30 am to 12:00 noon, not just put it on a list saying "mow the lawn with a hundred other items to do. In other words do not put anything on your list to do without scheduling a time to do it.
You will see that there is only so much time to get things done in a day. Also, you need to be sure to schedule intime for your meals, and for your free time, such as watching TV or reading, or exercising, or even day dreaming. All these things take up time. If you do not give them time intervals, you will start making lists that are unrealistic. It is important to have a calendar, either on your computer or apaper one. Then if there are other tasks you cannot get done on one day, you can schedule them on a future day, making sure you give them a time interval on those future days.
As you can see, I do not believe in to-do lists, but rather assigning everything a time. If something does not get done(which will surely happen), you just reassign it to a later date.
In this way, you will take care of both "when to do stuff, and what to do first" as you stated in your letter. As far as "how to do it" that is not what I can help you with - you need to figure the "how" out for yourself.
Rob, If you start with these few ideas, you will start to see that you can control your life. Overscheduling is the biggest obstacle to even getting started.
Also, if you start being organized and looking organized to other people around you, it is possible that you will start making more money. If you seem disorganized and too busy to others - you will go nowhere.
If you would like to ocntinue this discussion, you may write directly to me at Jackrap1@aol.com
