Effective ways to budget your time

So… you’re trying to be more productive.  To that end, you might create a list of all the tasks that you need to perform in a given day.  You know exactly how long it should take to complete each task so mark in all the times beside each item.  What happens with your fantastic list of jobs?  Like most people you will very quickly notice that you did not complete some of the jobs on that list, so you add them to tomorrow’s list.  As the days go by you realize that each day’s list is growing exponentially and your stress levels go through the roof. Life is just impossible in this day and age, right?  Not exactly.  There are plenty of ways to take the pressure off and get plenty of the important things done.  

The list

Okay, so you have a million things that you know should have been done sometime last month.  How are you ever going to organize this list to take advantage of the limited hours in the day?  First things first.  Sit down for 10 minutes and figure out your main goal in life.  If the answer to that is to live an anonymous life, barely scraping a survival until retirement and hopefully, you might be left alone for once, then why even bother to continue to read this post because that one is very easy to achieve.  Just keep your head down and do as little as possible.  Eventually, people will realize you are useless and leave you alone. If however, you have some grand goal like making €1 million then you will have to formulate a plan.  This plan will go backwards from the time you think you will make that first million.  Now consider some of the major goals that must be achieved in order to get there.  Forget about the little things and just list out 10 major goals.  Got the list of goals?  Great, now what can you do this month that will bring you closer to your goal?  Write it down.  What about just this week?  Write it down. Now the actual daily list should have 1 thing on it… what can I do today that will bring me closer to my goal?  Add some more important tasks that must be done today, let’s say… 9 more tasks.  Now go ahead and add all those small insignificant jobs that could be done.  

The “I just don’t give a flying fuck” factor

Now that all possible tasks have been added to the list, let’s say, for example, 30 tasks in total (10 very important tasks and 20 not so important tasks), take scissors and cut off those insignificant tasks and throw them away.  If they will not get you closer to your ultimate goal than they are a waste of time. The, I just don't give a flying fuck, factor. Share on X Dedicate one day per week for doing all of those insignificant tasks that you threw away and one day just for rest.  These days are important.  The only possible exception to this rule is if you manage to clear your priority list early enough each day to make a start at some of those insignificant tasks.  Do not dwell on the unimportant tasks; they are meaningless in the journey towards your ultimate goal.  It’s perfectly okay to live in a mess because you know that someday you will catch up on your work and will be able to tackle the dirty house.