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| •Activity Logs -
Finding Out How You Really Spend Your Time |
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| • How to Use Tool |
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Activity logs help you to analyze how you actually spend your time. The first time you use an activity log you may be shocked to see the amount of time that you waste! Memory is a very poor guide when it comes to this, as it can be too easy to forget time spent reading junk mail, talking to colleagues, making coffee, eating lunch, etc.
You may also be unaware that your energy levels may vary through the day. In fact, most people function at different levels of effectiveness at different times. Your effectiveness may vary depending on the amount of sugar in your blood, the length of time since you last took a break, routine distractions, stress, discomfort, or a range of other factors. There is also some good evidence that you have daily rhythms of alertness and energy. |
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| • Keeping an Activity Log |
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Keeping an Activity Log for several days helps you to understand how you spend your time, and when you perform at your best. Without modifying your behavior any further than you have to, note down the things you do as you do them. Every time you change activities, whether opening mail, working, making coffee, gossiping with colleagues or whatever, note down the time of the change.
As well as recording activities, note how you feel, whether alert, flat, tired, energetic, etc. Do this periodically throughout the day. You may decide to integrate your activity log with a stress diary. |
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| • Learning from Your Log |
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Once you have logged your time for a few days, analyze the log. You may be alarmed to see the length of time you spend doing low value jobs!
You may also see that you are energetic in some parts of the day, and flat in other parts. A lot of this can depend on the rest breaks you take, the times and amounts you eat, and quality of your nutrition. The activity log gives you some basis for experimenting with these variables. |
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| • Key points |
Activity logs are useful tools for auditing the way that you use your time. They can also help you to track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness throughout the day. By analyzing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate time-wasting or low-yield jobs. You will also know the times of day at which you are most effective, so that you can carry out your most important tasks during these times. Activity Logs are taken much further in Mind Tools' "Make Time for Success!" With more than 100 pages of time tested tips and techniques, this course helps you learn how to leverage all of the opportunities that life has to offer.
In the next article we look at Action Plans, useful tools for planning small projects. To read this, click 'Next article' below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath. |
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| • Action Plans - Small Scale Planning |
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| • How to Use Tool |
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An Action Plan is a list of tasks that you have to carry out to achieve an objective. It differs from a To Do List in that it focuses on the achievement of a single goal.Wherever you want to achieve something, draw up an action plan. This allows you to concentrate on the stages of that achievement, and monitor your progress towards it. To draw up an Action Plan, simply list the tasks that you need to carry out to achieve your goal. This is simple, but still very useful! |
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| • To-Do Lists - Remembering To Do All Essential Jobs, In The Right Order |
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| • How to Use Tool |
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A 'To-Do List' is a list of all the tasks that you need to carry out. It consolidates all the jobs that you have to do into one place. You can then prioritize these tasks into order of importance. This allows you to tackle the most important ones first. To-Do Lists are essential when you need to carry out a number of different tasks or different sorts of task, or when you have made a number of commitments. If you find that you are often caught out because you have forgotten to do something, then you need to keep a To-Do List. Whilst To-Do Lists are very simple, they are also extremely powerful, both as a method of organizing yourself and as a way of reducing stress. Often problems may seem overwhelming or you may have a seemingly huge number of demands on your time. This may leave you feeling out of control, and overburdened with work. |
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| • Preparing a To-Do List |
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The solution is often simple: Write down the tasks that face you, and if they are large, break them down into their component elements. If these still seem large, break them down again. Do this until you have listed everything that you have To-Do. Once you have done this, run through these jobs allocating priorities from A (very important) to F (unimportant). If too many tasks have a high priority, run through the list again and demote the less important ones. Once you have done this, rewrite the list in priority order. You will then have a precise plan that you can use to eliminate the problems you face. You will be able to tackle these in order of importance. This allows you to separate important jobs from the many time-consuming trivial ones. |
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| • Using Your To-Do Lists |
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Different people use To-Do Lists in different ways in different situations: if you are in a sales-type role, a good way of motivating yourself is to keep your list relatively short and aim to complete it every day. In an operational role, or if tasks are large or dependent on too many other people, then it may be better to keep one list and 'chip away' at it. This may be that you carry unimportant jobs from one To-Do List to the next. You may not be able to complete some very low priority jobs for several months. Only worry about this if you need to - if you are running up against a deadline for them, raise their priority. If you have not used To-Do Lists before, try them now, as they are one of the keys to being really productive and efficient. |
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| • Key points |
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Prioritized To-Do Lists are fundamentally important to efficient work. If you use To-Do Lists, you will ensure that:
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You remember to carry out all necessary tasks |
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You tackle the most important jobs first, and do not waste time on trivial tasks. |
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You do not get stressed by a large number of unimportant jobs. |
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To draw up a Prioritized To-Do List, list all the tasks you must carry out. Mark the importance of the task next to it, with a priority from A (very important) to F (unimportant). Redraft the list into this order of importance. Now carry out the jobs at the top of the list first. These are the most important, most beneficial tasks to complete. |
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