The new time management system for uses a fresh paradigm for how to prioritize and schedule your time.
How To Prioritize In Modern Time Management Systems
The way to prioritize in a modern time management system is to do so by 'size'. I'll explain with the anecdote of filling a bucket with large rocks.
The Rocks of your time management system: These are the big categories of everything important in your life. Examples might include: Health, People, Creativity, Learning, and Career.
In our time management system bucket analogy, these rocks are the large items that fill your bucket of time. This is what you wish to maintain focus and progress on in the broadest sense for time management success.
And the bucket is full. It can hold no more large rocks. Yet despite being full, there is still room in your time management system for...
Time Management System Pebbles: Break those big areas of your life into personal projects that contribute towards the big rocks. Those are the pebbles that will fit down into your time management system bucket between the rocks. Things that contribute to your health for example would include your exercise regime, your diet.
And each project divides into activities. The fine granular level view of your modern time management system represents...
Time Management System Sand: These represent immediate activities such as feeding the kids. These are the actual daily activities of your time management system that contribute towards your many projects (pebbles).
And there is one more step in the modern time management system. And yes there is still some room left in your time management system bucket despite being full of rocks, then filled to capacity with pebbles, and also with sand poured into every crevice.
Time Management System Water: The extra space is available to water. And this represents the actual flow of action that you do to do the activities of your projects. The big projects will only get done by the little next step activities, and so everything fits together in the new time management system.
How To Schedule In Modern Time Management Systems
Schedule by Convenience ! Once you have prioritized your life by 'size' scheduling everything is a matter of convenience based on wherever you are at any time. (Except for a very small handful of absolutes which are practically set in stone on your calendar - such as the start and end time of your work).
My situation right now as I type: The computer is on, an article is open about time management rocks and buckets... I need to look after my health (an important rock), so I want to eat (a pebble/project) so I'll rush to the kitchen to chop some salad, steam some potatoes, and whatever else (sand/task).
Whilst doing that I might be thinking of my article on time management systems, or I may listen to an audio file for time management systems or anything else whilst in the kitchen.
You could say that eating is more important than writing an article for a time management system. So you see I do not prioritize or schedule to level of so called 'importance'. I do it all in my own time management system of breaking down the hierarchy of 'size', and selecting tasks by convenience. Anything 'urgent' will naturally show itself when your project and task lists are organized properly.
When you have your own time management system organized this way you can very easily decide what to do next simply by looking at your project list and task list depending on where you are.
So the bottom line for the modern time management system... Don't prioritize by level of importance. It's all important. Instead, schedule according 1st to size, then to convenience.
I hope I've freed you from some unnatural restrictions on time management systems. And these days I almost never burn my cooking. Ooo speaking of which....
