Time Strategies

Old Clock by user Illymarry (Wikimedia)

I read the articles 11 Ways Unsuccessful People Mismanage Their Time by Áine Cain and How to Beat Procrastination by Caroline Webb. I liked both and found that their messages had a lot of overlap with many of the strategies I use myself. The best thing I do for time management is a process of listing and prioritization. I start at the beginning of the week writing in a small notebook that I use. On the left page, I write down everything that I need to do and everything I should do, categorizing into two lists: Short Term (1-1.5 weeks from deadline) and Long Term (anything longer). Then on the right page, I create smaller lists of tasks to be completed for the next days leading up to next Sunday. Each of these smaller lists is prioritized in respect to weekly due dates and importance. I write down even small tasks, often breaking larger ones like, “write essay,” into smaller tasks like, “Brainstorm, draft, edit, finalize.” While this may put more tasks on my list, it allows me to check something off my list more frequently, helping to build momentum when I start working and making it seem less daunting to get started. Each time I sit down to work I reevaluate my prioritization, so that what I work on first reflects any changes necessary. Hopefully this class will help me improve on approaching long term projects piece by piece rather than all at once as discussed by Webb. I like my current schedule's setup and I am excited to see how it works out in this first week of normal assignments.