Prioritize Organizing-Time
Prioritize Organizing-Time
You can achieve a more organized life in 5-minute increments.
Good time management is accomplished in small bits of time. The exercise of mapping out a daily/weekly/monthly plan is important to stay on track.
Successful people plan their time by writing everything down. But it’s hard for some to understand. I get it. Time is such an abstract idea. It’s hard to do. How long will each task take? How about the commute? What can you do while you are waiting for the meeting to begin? I tell my clients that a successful calendar is “full” of notes.
Whether you use a paper calendar or an electronic version practice noting everything you want to accomplish in your calendar. It is very important to schedule how long each task will take. By sitting down in the morning (or the night before) and mapping out your day with a list, you are less likely to be surprised with extra to-dos and you will also accomplish a lot more. It’s like making several appointments with yourself in one day.
As you get comfortable with this exercise, you’ll find that it will only take 5 minutes. Plan your day, then follow the plan.
In conclusion, try it – Prioritize Organizing-Time in 5 minutes.
You can achieve a more organized life in 5-minute increments. Click To Tweet
Organize Everything – Simplify Life
Do you struggle with getting and staying organized?
Are you afraid to start an organizing project just to be overwhelmed or lose motivation in the middle, to be left with even more chaos? You are not alone. That’s the fear of most people who don’t have time to allot to a big organizing project.
The new My Basic HOME, your Home Organizing Maintenance Exercise subscription service.
Your guide to better-organized spaces and the accountability to maintain it, delivered as a text message JUST FOR YOU! Get a message each weekday to prompt you into action. Get the support you need with expert advice from the Basic Organization team and other subscribers in a private Facebook group.
Subscribe by email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
This is the hardest part for me! I have a well-organized list, but you can’t tell at a glance which tasks will take five minutes and which will be spread out over several days. Sometimes I break the large ones into subtasks, but it’s often more trouble than it’s worth (I think!).
I try to identify just 3 things I need to do each day. So even if they will take a long time I can hopefully get them done.
Great idea!
I find “chunking” my tasks together can help with managing time, such as all my errands, all my computer work, the household “walking around” chores, etc. I definitely write everything down or I totally forget. I mean, I have to write it down right away!! Alas, thoughts seem to fly in and fly out a bit more quickly these days.
Same here! But I also think writing everything down helps to get things done. I like to chunk tasks I don’t like to do, like making phone calls.
I like to think of tasks that can be done in five minutes, 10, 30 or even an hour. It’s manageable that way and less onerous.
I met with a client recently who had a difficult time completing the project we were working on . She needed to take breaks every 15 minutes. It took us much longer to finish the project but it did get done. The end result was terrific!
Congratulations Ronnie. I like the idea of writing down how long tasks will takes on your to-do list or calendar.
I’ve learned to plan for each time taking longer than I think it will in my planner – if I think something will take five minutes, I block out ten. That way I have some “noodling” time if the task really did take five minutes and I’m not behind if it takes the full ten after all.
That’s a great idea Lucy. I usually block out 15 minutes at a time, but like Seana mentioned, I batch tasks, so usually I’m blocking 30 minutes or 60 minutes.
I love this idea! And, totally agree with it! I am a pretty detailed person and love to take the time to write down everything I need to do before doing it. I find that it reduces stress and motivates me to take action because I have a clear picture of what I need to do.
I agree with a clear picture that writing a list does. I love a list!
Generally, I have a good sense of how long things will take or the shape I want a day to take. I have a daily list of things to accomplish that get coordinated with time blocks in my calendar. But I don’t detail things out to the minute. Visually, I’m able to see when the various things will get done. When possible, I try to organize the items that need a “fresher” brain in the morning, when I’m most alert. I leave the easier tasks for the late afternoon or early evening because they don’t need as much mental energy.
I’m the same as you. My most productive time is the morning. If I don’t get it done in the morning, it usually doesn’t happen!
Time management is so hard to teach. It is easier to wrap your mind around if you can spend a short amount of time doing little tasks.
Diane, I love teaching time management. Making improvements on how people manage their time is life-changing.
I time-block so that I can get into flow and work on one kind of project or in one area at a time. Unlike how Linda has a fresh brain in the morning, I’m useless until after lunch, so my tiny tasks go one after the other in the morning, where I can do the least damage, and my big projects (anything where I need 90+ minutes of focus) go in the mid-to-late afternoon or the late evening. I write down everything I have to (and want to) do, but I don’t schedule most tasks (rather than categories of tasks) because I know that I won’t do a scheduled task if I don’t feel like it. (I’m such a rebel!.) Time blocking is just flexible enough that it *makes me* “feel like it,” in a way that calendaring a specific task does not. Thus, my daily/weekly plan homes where different types of tasks, plucked from my task list, can go. Mondays are marketing, Tuesdays are finances, Wednesdays are for problem solving, and so on. What I accomplish within those areas varies, but as you say, good time management gets done in those small blocks.
You are so funny Julie. I have tried having theme days, but it didn’t work for me. Glad it works for you.
I do my best work when I just take care of the less than 5-minute tasks immediately. But the hazard can be that I avoid the big tasks that require more deep work.
Oh, Amy. I do the same. It’s crazy how you can stay busy all day but not accomplish much.
Great post and wonderful to share again and again. I love the part where you say “plan your day, then work the plan”. This is what I do and how I get lots done!
We should find what works for us to make things flow easier without stress. I like that we think the same Diane.
I like to plan my week on Sunday evening or Monday morning. I put in all of the got to do things and then have a list of want to do things to fill in when there is time.
Sunday’s are a great time to look ahead to the next work week. It makes me feel prepared for the week.
Time management is so important especially if you have a busy life. Prioritizing and breaking the tasks down into bite size steps is very helpful. I tend to have a huge “to do” list in my head. It can be helpful to get it all down on paper and then to pick the most important.
Absolutely, when we have it down and with a reminder, it will help us stay focus and finishing our to do list by order without stressing.