Too much to do?
How many of you have said and experienced the phrase “I do not have the bandwidth” or “Time is a constraint.”
I’m sure all of us have.
Well, how about learning to make the optimum use of 24 hours.
I’m sure all of us have heard about plan your work and work your plan.
So, what exactly does the planning comprise of?
To keep it simple, I would say creating a To-do list.
To-do List/Checklist as the definition says is to list out the tasks/things to be done on a digital platform or a paper that acts as a reminder.
In this segment, we will basically understand how to build a better to-do list which automatically leads to better planning, less confusion, and satisfying results.
Start your day by creating a checklist. Some tips for you :
- Keep more than one to-do list: Yes that’s right! This allows to approach each category of action items with a different mindset. For example, for an instructor/trainer, the categories could be training/ emails/meetings/content.
- Keep your to-do list short: There is a difference between reality and fantasy. Keeping a to-do list only for the particular day helps you complete the tasks without getting distracted.
- Avoid oversized tasks: Break the down the bigger task into small activity and put each activity in the to-do list instead of the entire task.
- Add time for each task: Giving yourself a realistic deadline would always push you and help you be more result-oriented. Also, this would make sure that the pending tasks do not move to the next day’s list.
- Add verbs to your task: For example: Instead of writing a project report, write start project report/ complete project report. Just ensure clarity.
- Prioritize: Be realistic for today and leave the rest for tomorrow. To avoid missing anything, you could create a separate day-wise checklist and keep adding as the day starts.
- Paper vs Digital platforms: Well completely depends on your compatibility with either of the two.
I like to do things on paper and strike off the completed tasks, kind of works for me.
A digital platform has its own perks like :
- Allows you to share the list with the team.
- Lowers the frequency of back and forth emails within the team.
- Allows you to access the past records.
- Great at filtering and searching.
Advice: Look for an App/platform with a simple design to avoid the hardship of navigating it.
Recommendation: Trello. Personally like it.
We at Maven Silicon train our engineers on how they can optimize their time in order to succeed as a part of our VLSI RN Course. The better planning for what matters the most helps in achieving the desired results and thus, transforms them to be more confident and industry-ready.