By HAYDEN FINCH, PhD
We’ve established that you have some difficulties with time management. And we chatted about what can cause problems with time management and why the approaches you’ve tried in the past haven’t worked. So now it’s time to get to the good stuff, a more effective approach.
First, write down everything. Everything. Write it down. In one place. When you keep a running to-do list in your head, you’re using the part of your memory system called working memory. This is the space that holds onto information long enough for you to work with it (like when you calculate how much a shirt costs if it’s 25% off). When you’re relying on your working memory for things like lists, you forget things. AND you know this about yourself, so you get so worried about forgetting things that you dedicate resources throughout the day to rehearse your to-do list so you won’t forget anything. The uncertainty about whether you’ve remembered everything leads to anxiety, which interferes with concentration and time management. So, be certain, make a list. Write stuff down so you don’t forget anything and so you can rededicate those brain resources to getting stuff done.
Now that you’ve written everything down, ditch the to-do list. I realize I’ve gone rogue here with this post, and this is controversial. But hear me out. To-do lists encourage us to complete tasks based on urgency, and we’ve already discussed how that’s problematic. Replace your to-do list with a priority list – a list organized by priority determined by your personal values.
How many things are on your list? 100? Focus on the top 3 items each day. Three, folks. Three. If you get distracted and notice that you’ve strayed from your list, refer back to your list.
Now, break the list into steps. This is important. Don’t skip this part. Thoroughly understand all the steps involved in completing a particular task. Write them down, in order. We often think we can skip this part, which is part of why we’re so bad at judging how long a task is going to take – we don’t actually have a good sense of how long each component takes and we forget about some rate-limiting steps.
Ok, now you’ve got your list broken down into specific steps. Schedule each step. Use a planner, shared calendars, alarms, whatever means you prefer. Schedule the steps and track your completion of each step.
“The uncertainty about whether you’ve remembered everything leads to anxiety, which interferes with concentration and time management. So, be certain, make a list.”
Here’s the hardest part. You ready? Get started. Starting is often the hardest part. The same part of our brain that makes time management difficult in general is also involved in initiating tasks. And it struggggggles. If you just can’t get over the hill, schedule 10 minutes to work on a task and then stop after that. Or if 10 is too much, 5. Or 2. Whatever it takes to just.get.started.
A lot of these tips are things that aren’t new to you. The new part is the commitment to practice these skills and actually implement them the way I’ve described. We have a tendency to cheat and not write things down…or not actually break things into steps…or not schedule the steps. Don’t cheat. Follow the steps specifically. And practice. Anything you want to get good at takes practice, and this is no different. Before you assume you just can’t do it, allow yourself to be a beginner. All beginners struggle for a while.
Stay tuned to my next post for some conceptual ideas about improving your time management. These ideas might just be the last thing you need to really get good at this. Until then, practice these steps. Don’t cheat. Honor system. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it!
Hayden C. Finch, PhD,
is a practicing psychologist
in Des Moines, Iowa.
