Do you still remember the childhood dream? Does it become true? When you work, you meet a lot of excellent people , they work harder than we can, isn’t it? You often fall asleep at night with a trace of sadness, recalled that there is always wasted time, mediocrity and feel guilty. The time flow away quietly in the “I don’t know what to do” . Did you ever know there are only 900 months in a person’s life , among which the best years is “youth”, but it is only 10 years to 20 years time. We are ordinary but have the extraordinary dream. What is youth? Does it only mean our age? Actually, I tend to believe youth is also a possible life to get you rich, and is also a process that you are striving to improve yourself.
The Core Of time management
There are many ways for time management, and GTD (full name: Getting Things Done) is a proven method which is now the most popular method. GTD’s core philosophy is summed up “by recording all kinds of things from your minds and then arrange and finish them by yourself.” With my own understanding, I would like to talk about five GTD’s key steps: collection, processing, management, implementation, review.
- Collection
The human brain can store a lot of things, but limited, do not believe that after a certain period of time you can still remember many things. You brain will release storage load automatically. What you should do is to allow the brain to focus on thinking. When you have any nice and helpful information, tasks, and inspiration, try using the tools to record them before you forget. The tools used should be as convenient as possible.
- Processing
Only the timely processing of information and making timely decisions and grouping all your tasks into categories, then you can avoid the accumulation and fragmentation of information. There are two methods to deal with information: “Two Minutes Principle” and “Four-Quadran Rule”. “Two Minutes Principle” refers that if one thing can be fixed within two minutes, no matter what kind of things, immediately begin to get rid of. “Four-Quadran Rule” is used to category all your tasks into four types:
a. both urgent and important
b.important but not urgent
c.urgent but not important
d.neither urgent nor important
- Plan – schedule
In addition to the existing schedule, you can set a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly events you need to complete and put them discharged into the schedule.
- You can use the theory of “Three Frogs” which means to set three most important things of next day before going to sleep,which you should do after getting up in the second day (The same concept can be used for monthly “three frogs “, quarterly” three frog “, the annual” three frogs “).
- For weekly-doing things, you can use “21 Days Customary Effect”, which refers to if one thing can be performed as long as 21 days, then it will become a habit.
- Things to do monthly, can use the calendar method to put monthly things into the schedule.
- Things to do annual, can use the wish list method, so that ensure you can progress and harvest every year.
- Implementation – resolute execution
This is the most critical step in the implementation of Getting Things Done, and also is the key to success. You have to practice what they preach and developed a plan that you would have to get done. This can be a good boost to your self-identity. When executed you should be at heart, regardless of context, once executed only one thing, neither multi-line work, nor let your job suddenly interrupted. Using the Pomodoro Technique for 25 minutes, concentrate on your work, without doing any thing has nothing to do with that task until the tomato clock sounded, then a short break five minutes continue tomato clock. Every four tomato time can rest for a while . Pomodoro greatly improve the efficiency of your work, there will be an unexpected sense of accomplishment.
- Review – check
Currently I review my plan once a week, using the PDCA cycle method to review for long-term goals, medium-term goals and short-term objectives. If I find some where I do bad and need to be improved. I will just make adjustment on it. This can ensure my plans more effectively and more logical.