Do you at times, start your day feeling positive and invigorated about things you want to accomplish, though when the day ends you feel defeated because you haven’t managed to do as much as you wanted to?
Confidence takes the backseat every time this happens, I'm sure you understand what I mean by this. Organizing yourself is the first step towards becoming more confident.
How often have you heard somebody state they are good at “multitasking?” You may have even noticed this being listed as a wanted skill in many job postings. Despite the fact that multitasking may seem to allow for higher productivity and capability, the reality is that this approach to work doesn’t let you become fully ingrained in any of the tasks you may be attempting to do at once.
Whether you're a business owner, work-at-home-mom, stay-at-home-father, or an employee, being busy means having a plateful of goals on your todo list. What we don’t have is enough hours in the day.
Here’s where timeboxing helps!
Timeboxing is an easy time-management technique that big software houses and consulting firms use to supervise their projects. Timeboxing also increases your awareness of time, it pushes you to practice your estimations of required duration, and over time it develops your judgement to a honed edge. Ultimately, timeboxing entitles you to inevitably think about the value you are adding, eventually gauging your risks and scoping out the edge you might have. It is the process of organising your time so as to manage all your tasks efficiently.
Let’s assume you have a section of four hours in a day that you can use to get things accomplished. Maybe your kids are at school, or it’s the time you have in the evening. Now let’s assume you have four tasks that you’re working on. You’re going to divide your four hours into parts of time allocated to each task.
While the timeboxing technique might not help everyone finish each of their tasks, but it definitely helps one make progress. It also adds greatly to the individual’s understanding on how they can manage certain tasks in more efficient a fashion. This efficiency encourages you to take up work more often and more regularly. It sets off a process of baby steps that finally culminates into the achievement of the final goal. Timeboxing is essentially creating little boxes of time that help you focus only on the work at hand instead of getting distracted with pointless trifles.
If you believe you have too much to do and not so much time to finish it all, you might get procrastination paralysis! However, as you’re quite literally ‘on the clock', timeboxing can positively make you more productive on the task at hand because it actually tricks your brain into focusing!
Don’t leave things to your memory, it’s always better to have things written down. Making a to-do list will give you clarity on what needs to be done and will make work seem manageable. Take notes of important things to avoid forgetting them.
The Pomodoro technique is a time management method where you work for 25 minutes on one thing with full concentration. After that you take a five minute break and get back to work. After four such 25 minute stretches, you can take a half hour break. This technique is known to increase productivity and reduce fatigue.
Taking a twenty minute nap can take you a long way. Most people consider naps a waste of time but a little bit of shut-eye gives your body the rest it needs. You will wake up fresh and ready to take up challenges. Studies even show that taking short naps can increase your alertness and creativity.
If you have a specific goal or target to achieve, creating an inspiration board can do wonders for you. It basically comprises of pictures and motivational slogans relevant to your goal. Having an inspiration board in your room repeatedly sends those messages to your subconscious. Your mind is more powerful than you think; these registered images will keep you motivated and focused. If there is a task to be done, and it won’t take more than two minutes to do it, do it immediately. There’s no point in putting off work for later, because that later usually never arrives. It won’t take you long, and even if you only do the two minute tasks in a day, you get a lot more done than you could have with a confused and procrastinating mindset. When things are not in their place, you end up wasting a lot of time looking for them. A cluttered work space can be very distracting and causes unnecessary feelings of stress and anxiety.
Why You Should Be Writing Your Goals:
Every single thing that we do has a purpose to it. Most of us wish to achieve certain things in life and our behavior is usually directed towards those goals. While some work their way towards these goals, others have no clue how to get there. What is it that the two groups are doing differently? One highly effective strategy that the former group uses is to write their goals down.
Research provides statistically significant support to this claim. In a study conducted by psychologist Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at California’s Dominican University, there was a significant difference between people who achieved their written goals and the ones who just thought about it. It was found that individuals who wrote their goals achieved more than those who only thought of the goals. And most importantly, this made the stress reduction in them possible without much of effort because they had a clear idea of what to do or achieve.
“If it is not written down, it doesn’t exist- Anais Nin
Imagine a football game without any goal posts. The players won’t know where to run or where to shoot the ball! Similarly, when you don’t have clearly defined goals, you end up doing things that aren’t remotely connected to what you really want. When you write your goals down you are forced to be clear about what you want to achieve. This clarity gives you the ability to make clear cut decisions regarding what needs to be done. Moreover, it will give your goals a concrete format; you could put it up on your bedroom wall. Every time you look at your words, you will be reminded of your dream and stay motivated.
If you only think about your goals, you’re using the right side of the brain, the imaginative side. But when you write them down, you engage the left side as well which uses logic. The corpus Colosseum is a bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres. It also sends signals to a fluid that surrounds the brain and travels up and down the spinal column. Because of this, when you write down your goal, you send the message to every cell of your body and it enters your subconscious mind. The subconscious allows you to see opportunities you may not have observed before writing your goal.
Having your goals in a written format lets you play around with the specifics. In all likelihood, your dream is a big one. Probably not something that can be achieved overnight. The idea is to identify where you are and where you want to be so that you can chalk out the steps to get there. You can break each goal down into a set of benchmarks. Use the following headers to track your progress;
· Current status
· Minimum acceptable level
· Satisfactory improvement
· Outstanding achievement
Every day, look at your goal chart and get ready for action.You can always have your goal a pictorial form. We remember things 65% better when they’re attached to a picture. Part of the reason why people avoid planning their goals is because they’re afraid of failure. Your brain emits oxytocin and serotonin when you draw and dream, so you feel happy, capable and confident. Put up a relevant picture next to your goal chart; you will experience a spurt in motivation every time you look at it.
Being a little organised in life can really make things easier for you. While it does increase your productivity and efficiency, it also gives you the gift of time. Imagine not having to postpone the things work won’t let you do for the weekend. Being organised allows you to take control. A bit of planning and prioritizing every day can help you gain that extra hour. This not only gives you a relief mentally, but also reduces stress.
Confidence takes the backseat every time this happens, I'm sure you understand what I mean by this. Organizing yourself is the first step towards becoming more confident.
How often have you heard somebody state they are good at “multitasking?” You may have even noticed this being listed as a wanted skill in many job postings. Despite the fact that multitasking may seem to allow for higher productivity and capability, the reality is that this approach to work doesn’t let you become fully ingrained in any of the tasks you may be attempting to do at once.
Whether you're a business owner, work-at-home-mom, stay-at-home-father, or an employee, being busy means having a plateful of goals on your todo list. What we don’t have is enough hours in the day.
Here’s where timeboxing helps!
Timeboxing is an easy time-management technique that big software houses and consulting firms use to supervise their projects. Timeboxing also increases your awareness of time, it pushes you to practice your estimations of required duration, and over time it develops your judgement to a honed edge. Ultimately, timeboxing entitles you to inevitably think about the value you are adding, eventually gauging your risks and scoping out the edge you might have. It is the process of organising your time so as to manage all your tasks efficiently.
Let’s assume you have a section of four hours in a day that you can use to get things accomplished. Maybe your kids are at school, or it’s the time you have in the evening. Now let’s assume you have four tasks that you’re working on. You’re going to divide your four hours into parts of time allocated to each task.
- Set a timer on your phone or in your browser for one hour and start working on project #1.
- As the timer goes off you’re going to stop immediately. STOP! Even if you haven’t completed.
- You’re going to take a minute to jot down quick notes on where you are with your task and what you need to do next.
- Then you reset your timer and start to work on project #2.
While the timeboxing technique might not help everyone finish each of their tasks, but it definitely helps one make progress. It also adds greatly to the individual’s understanding on how they can manage certain tasks in more efficient a fashion. This efficiency encourages you to take up work more often and more regularly. It sets off a process of baby steps that finally culminates into the achievement of the final goal. Timeboxing is essentially creating little boxes of time that help you focus only on the work at hand instead of getting distracted with pointless trifles.
If you believe you have too much to do and not so much time to finish it all, you might get procrastination paralysis! However, as you’re quite literally ‘on the clock', timeboxing can positively make you more productive on the task at hand because it actually tricks your brain into focusing!
Don’t leave things to your memory, it’s always better to have things written down. Making a to-do list will give you clarity on what needs to be done and will make work seem manageable. Take notes of important things to avoid forgetting them.
The Pomodoro technique is a time management method where you work for 25 minutes on one thing with full concentration. After that you take a five minute break and get back to work. After four such 25 minute stretches, you can take a half hour break. This technique is known to increase productivity and reduce fatigue.
Taking a twenty minute nap can take you a long way. Most people consider naps a waste of time but a little bit of shut-eye gives your body the rest it needs. You will wake up fresh and ready to take up challenges. Studies even show that taking short naps can increase your alertness and creativity.
If you have a specific goal or target to achieve, creating an inspiration board can do wonders for you. It basically comprises of pictures and motivational slogans relevant to your goal. Having an inspiration board in your room repeatedly sends those messages to your subconscious. Your mind is more powerful than you think; these registered images will keep you motivated and focused. If there is a task to be done, and it won’t take more than two minutes to do it, do it immediately. There’s no point in putting off work for later, because that later usually never arrives. It won’t take you long, and even if you only do the two minute tasks in a day, you get a lot more done than you could have with a confused and procrastinating mindset. When things are not in their place, you end up wasting a lot of time looking for them. A cluttered work space can be very distracting and causes unnecessary feelings of stress and anxiety.
Why You Should Be Writing Your Goals:
Every single thing that we do has a purpose to it. Most of us wish to achieve certain things in life and our behavior is usually directed towards those goals. While some work their way towards these goals, others have no clue how to get there. What is it that the two groups are doing differently? One highly effective strategy that the former group uses is to write their goals down.
Research provides statistically significant support to this claim. In a study conducted by psychologist Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at California’s Dominican University, there was a significant difference between people who achieved their written goals and the ones who just thought about it. It was found that individuals who wrote their goals achieved more than those who only thought of the goals. And most importantly, this made the stress reduction in them possible without much of effort because they had a clear idea of what to do or achieve.
Writing Brings Clarity
“If it is not written down, it doesn’t exist- Anais Nin
Imagine a football game without any goal posts. The players won’t know where to run or where to shoot the ball! Similarly, when you don’t have clearly defined goals, you end up doing things that aren’t remotely connected to what you really want. When you write your goals down you are forced to be clear about what you want to achieve. This clarity gives you the ability to make clear cut decisions regarding what needs to be done. Moreover, it will give your goals a concrete format; you could put it up on your bedroom wall. Every time you look at your words, you will be reminded of your dream and stay motivated.
If you only think about your goals, you’re using the right side of the brain, the imaginative side. But when you write them down, you engage the left side as well which uses logic. The corpus Colosseum is a bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres. It also sends signals to a fluid that surrounds the brain and travels up and down the spinal column. Because of this, when you write down your goal, you send the message to every cell of your body and it enters your subconscious mind. The subconscious allows you to see opportunities you may not have observed before writing your goal.
Having your goals in a written format lets you play around with the specifics. In all likelihood, your dream is a big one. Probably not something that can be achieved overnight. The idea is to identify where you are and where you want to be so that you can chalk out the steps to get there. You can break each goal down into a set of benchmarks. Use the following headers to track your progress;
· Current status
· Minimum acceptable level
· Satisfactory improvement
· Outstanding achievement
Every day, look at your goal chart and get ready for action.You can always have your goal a pictorial form. We remember things 65% better when they’re attached to a picture. Part of the reason why people avoid planning their goals is because they’re afraid of failure. Your brain emits oxytocin and serotonin when you draw and dream, so you feel happy, capable and confident. Put up a relevant picture next to your goal chart; you will experience a spurt in motivation every time you look at it.
Being a little organised in life can really make things easier for you. While it does increase your productivity and efficiency, it also gives you the gift of time. Imagine not having to postpone the things work won’t let you do for the weekend. Being organised allows you to take control. A bit of planning and prioritizing every day can help you gain that extra hour. This not only gives you a relief mentally, but also reduces stress.
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