Tag: time management at work

Organizing Your “To Do” List Using The ABC Method.

  • Organizing Your "To Do" List Using The ABC Method.
    “To Do” List

A “To do” list refers to the list or table of the tasks that need to be done in a given time, and the duties arranged according to their priorities. To ensure all the jobs are organized according to the priorities, it is essential to use the ABC method to categorize the task. The ABC methods assign the most important and urgent task letter A and those are the things which require completion first. Letter represent tasks that are not urgent, but they are essential. C refers to the jobs that are not important nor urgent and get the least priority.

Therefore there are several benefits of using the ABC system in your working area or your activities. By using the ABC method, you will be able to attend to the most urgent task before doing the others. Some task needs to be done before the time expires because after the time is over, you will not be able to do them again. Therefore in this article, we are going to look at how to use the ABC method of organizing your “to-do” list. Some of the top tips include  

1. Ensure you keep an excellent ongoing record each day

If you are a very busy person with a lot of things to accomplish every day. It is essential to ensure you prepare a “to-do” list that will guide you on what to do each day. When you do not have a “to-do” list each day, there will be higher chances of doing things that are not essential in that day. Therefore the first thing to consider is to ensure you have an ongoing “to do” list. Since some vital task can arise, ensure you always update your list daily or weekly. 

2. Include the essential things in your list

Some of the essential things that you should include in your list are such as due date of the tasks, name, a brief description of the job, the required time to complete, date and the task name. Those details are essential to ensure you give the right task the needed priority. If you are dealing with office work that involves different people, ensure you indicate the person required to handle a particular job and at what time.

3. Review your “to-do ”list

It is essential to consider your “to do” list before you begin to categorize the list according to the ABC system. The purpose of reviewing the “to do” list is to ensure you have included all the task in your list. Therefore if you are preparing a “to-do” list for one week, assure that the list contains all the functions that you are required to do throughout the week. Also here you can break the immense task into the smaller jobs and indicate the time needed to complete them.

4. Prioritize your list

At this step, it is now the time to prioritize the tasks in the list to ensure you work on them according to their priorities. Make a table which is assigned letters A to C. The table should include the time needed to do specific work. Also, the due date should be included on the table.

What priorities should you assign to letter A?

The task that should be assigned to letter A should be a very urgent one. These kind of jobs are the ones with minimal time and are very important. Also, the tasks which should be included in the A table should be done very urgently.

Priorities assigned letter B.

The tasks that are in the table named B are the ones which are essential but not very urgent as compared to the job in A. the task in this category is not very time-critical. They can wait for some time before their completion. For instance, if you are a business person who needs to deliver customers’ orders, you should start with the ones that need to be performed within the shortest time possible. The duties with few remaining days can be put on table B while the ones with few hours on A.

Priorities assigned letter C.

The kind of task that is included in this category are not urgent and also are not necessary, but they should be done. Some of the things to assign here include the party invites, interruptions, and some social invitations. 
However, if you have several tasks in each of the three tables, AB and C, you can arrange them as follows. In A, you can have A1, A2, A3, and many more. The A1 should be the task that needs to be done urgently, and others can follow. The same thing can be done on the other tables. 

Conclusion

Therefore after considering the above discussed ABC method of organizing your “to-do” list, now the other essential tips you should know to include estimating the time for each activity, ensuring you follow your ABC method in your list, follow your schedule, learn to reject some offers, be accurate and do everything as planned unless unavoidable circumstance arise. Therefore by considering the above-discussed tips, you will be able to organize your “to do” list and succeed personally or professionally.

Related References

Easy tips For getting more from reading

  • Reading a Tablet
  • Reading A Book
  • Reading eMail

the general Reading for Comprehension Process

  • Choose what you read — this a high speed filtering process
  • Read according to the reading material type – fiction and nonfiction are not read at the same speed or purpose
  • Preview the reading material/book
  • Read with Intent

Choose what you read.

…Our new times call for new ways of searching for, filtering, consuming, and applying knowledge in order to improve our lives. — Michael Simmons

This would be seem to be an obvious thing, but not all reading materials are equally valuable, If valuable at all. This is especially true when it comes to email, newsfeeds, and, especially, to social media. Time spent reading less valuable materials is obviously times subtracted from reading the important stuff. If you choose to read a newspaper and pay more attention to the sports section then you do the business section you’re obviously not helping your business knowledge.

Skimming item which appear to have some potential will allow you to either discard the reading material not of importance or to move on to the Scanning and Reading Process.

Read according to the Reading material type.

“The exact number of words per minute is far less important than the fact that this value [The exact number of words per minute] cannot be greatly increased without seriously compromising comprehension.”– Mark Seidenberg

Reading a comic book, or a novel, does not entail same level of complexity nor does it contain as much valuable information as reading a textbook or a business book or even a highly technical manual. So, you can clearly read a work of fiction, like a romance or sci-fi novel or your favorite Fiction genre, much more rapidly without losing comprehension or missing valuable material, which must be comprehended learned and retained, if there really is any. However, if you read nonfiction reading materials at the same speed that you would read your favorite fiction materials you very seriously run the risk of missing valuable information or not comprehending it, or even worse miss comprehending it. You also run a very high risk of not retaining much of it.

Preview The Reading Material/Book

  • If reading nonfiction, apply the rules of scanning before you begin the formal reading process.
  • This will improve your comprehension, and your retention a bit of nonfiction information scanning which applies the principle of reading and re-reading.
  • This will allow you to familiarize yourself with the informations and allow you to comprehend the important information faster more completely and retain more of it.
  • Well, scanning does not involve reading all of it quickly reading the important bits and re-reading it even if you read more quickly than you normally would will allow you to comprehend it faster because you will of seen the important snippets of information more than once and therefore they’re more likely to stick in your brain cells.

Read With intent

  • Eliminate distractions, interruptions, and definitely no multitasking
  • Read the essential portions of the reading materials being sure to reread those item which you have already scanned.
  • Annotate as you go, by highlighting, underlining, adding notes and ideas, so you can quickly come back to the important detail easily.
  • Keep your own notes or write you own summary to reference and or share with others.

Related REFERENCES

Success – Good Reasons To Start Your Work Day Early

business woman starting working from home
business woman starting working from home

Whether you work from home or commute to an office, there are good reasons to start the day early.  There are some obvious ones like you are rested, you can get work done before other have an opportunity to interrupt or derail your day, or my all-time favorite, you are more creative because the emotions of the day’s office politics haven’t had time to get in the way.

Most mornings, hitting the snooze button a time or 10 feels a lot more enticing than catching the worm and getting to work early. However, the benefits of doing so far outweigh the drawbacks. Even if you aren’t a morning person, it might be worth considering an earlier start.

Here are a few reasons to consider getting to work early:

You get so much done

Where there are co-workers and clients, there are distractions. You have a full page to-do list for the day, but the digressions abound, (especially in the form of others derailing you), and suddenly it’s lunchtime, and you haven’t settled a single item. Before the official workday starts though, the office is quiet and calm, and the rapid fire emails have not begun, you are free to attend to some of your most pressing agenda items in peace.

You’re ready when the official day starts.

By the time the workday proper begins, you’ll be more than ready to roll. You’ll feel awake, grounded, settled-in, caffeinated. While most are still dragging, you’ll be firing on all cylinders. You’ll get more done, (and feel happier doing it), during those morning hours than usual. Otherwise, those first few appointments or meetings can feel like a bit too much, too fast.

It gives you a feeling of control.

There’s something about feeling like you’re ahead of the day that can really improve your sense of autonomy and control. Instead of trying to keep up, you’re setting the pace. Getting to work early helps you feel more in control of your day — and this boost can go a long way.

It gives you a chance to map out your day

Because the morning is a relatively quiet time, and because at this point of the day you have so many hours ahead of you, mornings are the best time of day to make plans. Taking this opportunity to map out your day, and your priorities can help you accomplish more in a more intentional way.

People will notice.

If you regularly get to work a little early, it’s almost certain that someone will notice. Most likely, it’s someone else who likes to arrive ahead of the standard work day — maybe a manager or even your supervisor. Seeing that you make a point to beat the rush will make an impression for sure. And, there’s no harm in that.


Early to bed and early to rise makes a [person] healthy, wealthy and wise