It is time to dive into practice. We will start small.
Duration: 1 month.
Goal: develop a rudimentary habit of planning.
Finally, it is time to get down to practice. For approximately one month, before going to bed, make a list of tasks you want to accomplish the next day. Include everything you might want to do. Of course, you should not be a fanatic and include meals and trips to the bathroom — these are the most basic human needs, built in at the instinct level, for which you already have habits. However, if your goal is to lose weight (or, conversely, gain weight), items related to meals will probably move from "unimportant" to "important." Still, in the overwhelming majority of cases these items should not be included in the task list, while household chores — laundry, cleaning, cooking — certainly can be. Yes, these tasks will not make you more successful, but at least they will help build the habit of recording everything your money and time go toward. So mark down all your personal tasks that you do not perform automatically and routinely every day: a doctor's visit, paying utility bills, going to the theater, a trip to the hairdresser. But I would not include items such as dropping off or picking up a child from daycare. If you need to set aside time for these tasks, you can add them. In general, the decision about what to include and what not to remains yours.
Some may wonder: should important work tasks that are not daily and routine be included in this list? I would not include them in personal tasks and would not mix personal with work. That is, for work I would create a separate list if there were a need. If you are an ordinary employee, your boss has probably already taken care of creating some kind of task calendar or simple task list for you. However, for many top managers or workaholics who live exclusively for work and for whom separating personal time from work time is difficult, a single unified task list may make sense. But I feel sorry for such people, because in the end I do not consider this right.
Note that I am not imposing any tools or methods for managing your tasks on you — everything is entirely individual, so choose the method that suits you. You can even write tasks by hand on paper.
As an example, let me list some fictional tasks that could end up in someone's quite real list:
— Trip to the store for groceries
— Shave
— Wash the dishes
— Choose a birthday gift
— Make a dentist appointment
— Do homework with the children
— Reply to a message about buying a suit and arrange delivery
And finally, remember the main thing: check your task list frequently throughout the day. At the end of the day, compare against it and draw up new tasks for tomorrow. Analyze and work through tasks that were not completed.
If anyone did not understand why this item is called exactly that, I will leave a brief explanation. In planning you are still very much an intern without the habit of doing it regularly. The word "daily" indicates that our "goals," or rather simply certain tasks we have identified as important for the day, will be reviewed every day. Every day we will set ourselves a new task list. These tasks have no connection to other days, they are detached from the week and especially the month, and every day a new list must be drawn up.
