Datasheet

⻬ To-do commitments: It’s Monday, and you need to send a sales proposal

Friday. You have more than four days to choose when to write the pro-

posal. You can write when and where you want according to your priori-

ties. Simply write each new job on the Tasks list and adjust the Reminder

to pop up according to your will.

Planning your goals and activities

Archimedes taught us his physics principle over 2,000 years ago: No two

objects can occupy the same space at the same time. By analogy: No two com-

mitments can be done at the same time by the same person. So how do you pri-

oritize your commitments and accomplish them all? If you have your list ready,

you have many ways to choose which comes first:

⻬ Choose fun first: If you like it, you tend to do it first. Often, the unpleas-

ant tasks are the ones that you tend to put off and you start them only

when you receive complaints.

⻬ Process by incoming dates: Prioritize by doing the first task in, first task

out, also known as FIFO (first in, first out). However, if a priority change

occurs, this system doesn’t work.

⻬ Prioritize by due dates: Adjust a task list according to the delivery date.

⻬ Handle by importance: Look at your most important goals first. Which

is the most important job? Start doing it.

⻬ Choose important versus urgent tasks: Downloading all your tasks and

time commitments and setting the Reminder alarm with no planning can

cause conflicts. You may end up having to “Be at the board meeting” and

“Deliver a proposal for your Gold customer” at the same time. To avoid

this type of conflict, you need to understand how to distinguish impor-

tant from urgent tasks. Important is what brings results. Urgent is the

pressure for something to get done.

For more on managing your Tasks, see Chapter 2.

Part I: Managing Any Business

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