Break down into ToDos

Here now we move forward to discuss about a planing as an initial process of  a time management in more detail.

What I belive to make things easier when we work hard is to anyhow write down ALL things ToDo out of our brains onto a sheet of paper.

In this regard, a key point is ALL!

In order to avoid a missing thing to do which possibly become a risk making  a breach happen.

From this point of view, what I recommend you is to do “Work Break-down”. To put it simple, cutting a task into several smaller tasks.

In other words, the original task is composed of smaller tasks. Doing this needs a skill, of course. However, it is not too difficult if you  become familiar with following knacks.

5W1H

First of all, better to consider with using some elements from 5W1H For example, “When” shall be a due date and timing to start the next task. “How” implies you which method like making a report or presentation is better to be communicable. Then, have a look at separated smaller tasks all together to find missing one.

Chronological Order

It is also helpful to cut a original task into smaller in chronological order. Because, broken-down smaller tasks are connected each other, as they are parts of the original task and they have chronological orders to proceed.  A certain smaller task is needed to be finished to start another or others.

If a case, one small task has waiting tasks a lot, we should be very careful. Because, it will probably become a bottle neck. We should always pay attention to an order to finish small tasks and relationships among them.

Shorter time period

A duration to finish a smaller task should be short enough to finish in between calendar events. 60 to 90 minute tasks are ideal, since an average time length to keep the deepest concentration is 90 minutes. 60 minute tasks are more convenient to find gaps between calendar events, of course.

If you have a big and long task taking more than 2 hours, it is strongly recommended to analyze the task to find a possibility to make the task apart to a couple of tasks. Because, people needing a time management can not secure continuous time slots more than 2 hours in general.

If a case you really can not separate it, it is worse to find a suspending point, where a process could be separated and a latter part can be a pending issue.

Testing is indispensable

Finally, we would better to test a result before commencing any of separated small tasks. Reconstruct a task from separated small tasks  and compare it with the original task. There should not be any gaps between them. If you find a difference among them, there may be a missing piece, so find it and test again until these become identical.

 

Pocket
LinkedIn にシェア
[`evernote` not found]