Some people say to make a quadrant with important/less important and priority/non-priority tasks:
- Important and priority tasks – do them first;
- Less important, but priority OR important but smaller priority tasks – do them later;
- Not important, non-priority tasks – postpone them until forever.
I don’t agree with this model. By following these principles, there are some things that will only get done months after they were supposed to.
I suggest you also put in your program less-than-important tasks.
What is more relevant to me is dividing time into the following types of tasks:
- Tasks to be done when you have a lot of energy (to me, that’s the morning and first part of the day); in here – put the most difficult tasks; creative tasks, tasks which require attention;
- Tasks do be done when you have less energy, but, still, you can finish tasks (the second part of the day); in here – put some tasks which may be a bit boring and repetitive;
- Finally, some tasks for which you have no energy (later in the evening); in here – watching movies, reading books, reading online journals.
The thing is, at times it gets difficult to schedule tasks. Putting limits helps, forcing now to waste time on some web sites, to only reply to some messages, not to do distracting activities, help. But, at times, I plan to do X, and, still, not manage to do so.
Anyhow, the planning based on energy level works much better for me than planning based on importance.
