Take this lesson to learn more.
Truth is, you must make time for both
There needs to be a balance between MIT’s and routine work.
It isn’t possible to be at your productive best all day long, so there’s no point plotting MIT’s that fill out your entire day’s schedule. You also must find time for routine tasks. So, as much as you can manage them, why not plot routine work when you’re not required to be at your cognitive best?
Here’s how to schedule your routine work:
1. The first step is to create a timeframe for it. Set a certain period of the day aside where you allow to do routine work, and, as far as possible, don’t let yourself at it any other time of day. If adhoc work comes at you, seek to defer it to this time slot.
2. The second step is to create a checklist of all your routine work. Schedule these for the time slot you have identified for routine work.
Now, keep in mind that it’s virtually impossible to have a perfect day every day. Some days, your carefully laid schedules will go all haywire. And that’s fine. Being able to do even a small percentage of your MITs a day will get you closer to your goals, as compared to forever being a slave to the urgent, or routine tasks.
Also, you may require to proactively change your schedules sometimes. You can always make changes to a schedule to keep it real – provided you have a schedule, to begin with.
In Summary
A “Most Important Task” (MIT) is a critical task that requires cognitive focus and one that will create the most important results you’re looking to achieve. Identifying MITs and working them on priority is the antidote to living life in perpetual firefighting mode. You must also make time in your schedule for routine and ad-hoc work.
In the next part of this lesson, we will look at how to schedule a working day effectively.
