The desire for productivity and clear time management is what distinguishes our era. With the advent of various time management techniques, they came into our lives - to-do lists.
This is very convenient - we create a list in the application or simply in “Notes” on the phone and, one by one, cross off completed tasks. By evening, you've crossed off all the items on your list - you're done, you're beautiful! But upon closer examination, it turns out that simplicity is perhaps the only advantage in working with lists. Otherwise, they are not very convenient - in the article we will take a closer look at why and how to replace them.
As we have already noted, adding things to lists is very simple. That’s why we add and add items to our list, and when we realize that we don’t have time to complete them in a day, we get upset and feel guilty. Later, this feeling dulls and we begin to take unfinished tasks for granted. Hence the neglect of one’s responsibilities and eternal procrastination.
In reality, we cannot complete everything planned because the lists do not give us a clear understanding of how much time it will take for this or that task. We feel upset about our perceived unproductivity, but in reality we are simply miscalculating our strengths.
How can this be? After all, lists, on the contrary, should make us more productive! In fact, there is a trap in the list itself. Having simply written out things, we often do not prioritize them and, of course, start our day with the easiest and most enjoyable ones.
For example, if the list says “Create a marketing plan for the month” and “Sort documents in the work folder,” then most likely we will tackle sorting the documents first because it is easier. Naively believing that such a simple task will not take much time, we can “kill” the whole day on it without ever approaching a marketing plan.
As a result, we risk completing only small tasks without starting important and complex ones. At the end of the day, we will be waiting for a list with many items crossed off, but the most important thing will never be done.
Imagine - you are having a great time with your family, having dinner together and discussing business, communicating and having fun, but... Something does not allow you to relax and have a normal rest. What is this? Just a couple of unchecked items on your to-do list. You try to forget about them and tell yourself that it's okay, you'll do everything later. But it doesn’t get any easier—a couple of these points obsessively stand before your eyes, causing stress.
Even if you are resting, obsessive thoughts about unfinished tasks prevent you from being distracted. As a result, you do not feel a surge of energy after rest and remain exhausted from constant stress. Naturally, this does not have the best effect on productivity.
Lists tell us what to do. But in fact, it is much more important to first prioritize and figure out how long a particular task will take. And calendars will help us with this. You can use a separate application, or the calendar built into your task scheduler. You can even work with a calendar on your phone—the main thing is to choose the appropriate option.
By planning your time using a calendar, you don’t just make a list of important things to do—you calculate how busy you will be in advance. And here's how it affects your productivity:
Using calendars really makes our lives more structured and allows us to achieve goals faster. It is no coincidence that all our activities are subject to a schedule. For example, study and work plans are built taking into account certain dates, maps in your smartphone indicate the duration of the journey to a specific point, postal services notify you when your package will arrive. Knowing the exact date and time, we better navigate among everyday tasks.
By entering all tasks into the calendar, even personal ones, you can make even your own “pumping” more effective. Also you can use printable calendar. For example, you may put off watching important webinars for months, but put it on your calendar and suddenly you’ll watch them. Simply because each task will have a specific date, time and duration.
Perhaps at first your consciousness will “rebel” against clear boundaries and schedules, but over time you will understand that the lack of plans does not entail freedom of choice, but a disruption of your life rhythm. You know, if you don’t plan anything for the weekend, most likely it will be wasted, and in a week you won’t even remember what you did.