“He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follow that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”

-Victor Hugo

Managing your time and obligations or plans is difficult if no organizational system is implemented.

Without this, it is all too easy to take on everything that comes your way as there is no clear cut list of what is important to you. Figure out what is most urgent and the rest will be much easier to organize.

Easier said than done; I’ve experienced it first-hand, being overloaded with obligations and not having enough time to do everything. Inevitably more and more keeps piling on, a natural process that is nearly impossible to escape.

Busy people will automatically attract more to keep themselves busy with.

Being a difficult habit to implement in your life doesn’t change the reality that when practised, a well thought out hierarchy of importance will make your life much more enjoyable and feel streamlined. Almost like all the pieces of the puzzle are finally falling into place.

An effective system to use for organizing your tasks should account for classification on several points:

– Time sensitivity (how long do you have before you have to resolve this and is there any chance for a delay?)

– Type of task (what area of life can this matter be classified under? Business, personal life, etc.)

– End result (What change or benefit will this provide when completed?)

These three points that I use have helped greatly in placement of tasks in varying levels of importance.

In terms of how I implement this, the tasks get put into one of five levels:

1- Highly urgent matters that are time sensitive and/or will have a negative impact if not completed as soon as possible.

2- Urgent matters that have no set deadline although would be best resolved as soon as possible.

3- Matters that will have a positive impact although are not time-sensitive and have no deadline.

4- Matters that will have a positive impact although are planned for days, weeks or months ahead.

5- Anything that is either not important or likely to have a positive impact, or that is simply the result of a whimsical urge.

Everything and anything can be categorized into one of these five categories, and the best part is that you’ll find that the more you use this system, the more fluid and constantly moving it is, rather than a rigid system.

Very little can be kept in category 1, as there is simply only so much time in a day.

In addition to that, there is never a day where nothing appears that require placement in category 1, meaning that others have to be moved to one of the other categories.

It sounds complicated, although it’s in reality it’s nothing in comparison to the uphill battle of trying to accomplish anything when your mind looks like a storm blew through, with everything scattered around at random, all these matters fighting for your attention.

The more you use this system, the more it becomes a subconscious, automatic action.

The best part is that it works just fine without having to use any task management system other than keeping track of things in your mind.

The different categories allow you to place matters at different levels of your memory, where some are constantly on your mind, some are able to be remembered at a moment’s notice, and others are remembered over longer periods of time, although never forgotten until the matter is resolved.

How does this help in daily life or at work?

Regardless of where or how you use this, it’s main purpose is to be your assistant, putting tasks into their proper place, scheduling your day and making sure that priorities are given utmost attention without other distractions.

When you know that you have a system in place that will prevent you from forgetting what needs to be done and when it needs to be done, you’re never going to have as much stress trying to accomplish everything as soon as possible whether or not they require immediate attention. This is simply because these tasks keep coming to the top of your mind and take over your focus.

What this system can do may seem like science fiction, although that’s what I thought also until I tried it out.

Now I rarely have a problem recalling what matter needs to be resolved and at what time, each week.

What changes have I myself noticed?

These are the major changes I’ve noticed since putting this system to practice:

– Increased focus

– Better memory use and recalling items from memory

– Less stress

– Better time management and use

– More energy to handle all that comes my way each day

– Being more attentive in interactions with other people

– Having better planning skills for how to achieve my goals

Keep in mind, these benefits didn’t all come immediately;

It took some time to notice them, although it was nearly impossible to not keep going ahead with using this system.

All I had to do to remind myself was just look back at how much frustration and stress I had to go through with the way I used to do everything. I’d never want to go back to that, and that gave me the drive to keep going until this became natural for me.

There are many similar systems of organizing your life, many of which may sound very similar to what I’m describing. The idea itself of organizing your life has probably been around as long as organized thought has been a trademark of humans. It’s the matter of finding a way to implement it in your life that matters.

Hopefully this has given you some guidance to find what works for you!