In order to achieve the highest potential in life, the most important thing we must have is 'self management skill'. For those who want to overcome their bad habits (such as procrastinating school assignments, procrastinating on studying, can't finish what you have already start, etc), you can do a self management to develop your personal excellence. Before you start to develop your personal, you have to identify in what quadrant you're staying first because the basic knowledge in personal development is to know about four main types of a person - as we know in the explanation from the best seller book in the world wrote by Sir Stephen R. Covey "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" (I recommend you to read this outstanding book^^).
Here are the classification and explanation of each quadrant :
1st Quadrant : Important and urgent (e.g. last-minute assignments and project)
2nd Quadrant : Important but not urgent (e.g. spending time with your family and exercising)
3rd Quadrant : Not important but urgent (e.g. some phone calls and text messages)
4th Quadrant : Not important and not urgent (e.g. watching YouTube videos or going on Facebook)
So, in what quadrant are you? If you want to be an effective student, effective teen, or effective people, your goal should be to spend at least 80% of your time on quadrant 2 tasks; ideally 100%.
Secondly, if you want to be an effective person, you can do some suggestions below :
1. Set your time for everything.
Count everything. Finish your task on time and be discipline in every steps you take so what you have already start will give the best output. If you do your task, for instance, your school assignment, in a last minute or in one-two days left before it collected, you will be in a hurry and it will disturb your focus and consequently, your output will not be maximal. You need to be responsible to finish what you have already start.
For collegian or students, if you face exams, you can set the time and develop plans. Here are some questions to consider as you devise your plan :
- When will you start studying?
- How many hours each week will you block out to study?
- Which topics do you need further clarification on?
- Which homework assignments will you review?
- How many practice exams will you do?
- How many times you will review your notes and textbook readings?
- What distractions are you likely to face, and how will you overcome them?
Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail !
2. Make an appointment with your self
In order to finish your assignment on-time with the best (at least, good) result, you have to make (an) appointment/s with your self. Be commitment. For example: Finish My Math Homework on Monday, 3 to 4 pm. When it turns to 3 pm, do your homework directly and don't procrastinate it. When your friend ask you to play basket ball at 3 pm, you'll be able to say "I'm sorry, I have an appointment at that time". From now on, be discipline to your schedule especially in doing your school assignment, because in college you'll appreciate any time you have. In college, there will be many assignments that spend most of your time so you must be smart to manage your time. Ruthlessly cut away the unimportant (focus on the important thing) and allocate breaks strategically.
3. Optimize time pockets
Do you know what 'time pocket' means? Time pockets refer to pockets of time you have in between events. For example, you are on your way to school or college and it takes 50 minutes. During the trip to your destiny, you can use your pocket time to do something useful (e.g. reading lecturer's slide, school book, dictionary, etc.) that will bring benefits to you. You will be amazed at how much can be done in just a short amount of time!
That's all the three strategies that can be used to maximize your productivity. There are so many ways to develop your effectiveness that you can find in website or books :) See ya!
