It is known everyone has said “I don’t have enough time to do this” at least once. I’ve said this neither. However, I believe the key here is priorities, not time.
In the past, I tried to handle all of the tasks regardless of their priority, but this wasn’t an efficient way to complete them with the desired results.
In order to increase my productivity, I’ve started following the Eisenhower matrix — it helps me to prioritize my tasks. It consists of 4 quadrants, and each of them has its own strategy.
1. Important and urgent
These are the tasks that should be done first. They are usually important for your life/career and have to be done today or tomorrow. For example, the deadline for a project is today, and you have to focus on it first.
2. Important but not so urgent
Usually, these tasks can be scheduled and done later. However, we mustn’t ignore them because they help us to improve our skills, knowledge, or the service we offer.
An example task is learning a new tool that can be useful for future projects (e.g. learn how WordPress Gutenberg works and how to use it).
3. Not important but urgent
Sometimes some tasks are urgent, but they aren’t essential for you at this point.
Delegating these tasks to someone else will give you the opportunity to focus on your important and urgent tasks.
An example of such a task could be investigating a new functionality that would be implemented into a site. You could delegate that task to an experienced developer to review it and let you know what exactly would need to be done in detail so you could prepare an appropriate estimate based on the developer’s notes.
It is essential to delegate tasks you can complete. Also, you should keep track of delegated tasks to check their progress and avoid unexpected issues.
4. Not important and not urgent
Doing something without a purpose should be avoided. Such tasks aren’t beneficial, and we should focus on something useful for us and the people around us.
Let me summarize everything:
- do the important and urgent tasks first;
- make sure you spend time on tasks that help you grow;
- delegate tasks to others and monitor them;
- avoid doing things that aren’t useful.
Additional helpful tips
Time blocking/categorizing the tasks is a useful technique for me to stay organized. That way I can focus on the work that has to be done at the right time.
Additionally, tracking the time of my tasks helps me to improve the use of my time which increases my productivity in the long term.
Finally, prioritize your tasks to improve your productivity.