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9 Rules or Useful Tips for a Simpler Day
Life can be as complicated or easy depending on how you approach life. We are pressed for time to get a lot done within the limited time we have in a day. Due to the fact that we have limited time and a lot we need to accomplish, many go into the day trying to complete so much in a day without a deliberate plan of action or following basic rules or useful tips to make things easy for them.
Those we tackle a lot with the mindset that we will end up completing a lot in a day, we often end up less productive instead. These 9 useful tips for a simpler day will help you plan out your day and achieve far greater results than before.
These are the 9 rules or useful tips for achieving a simpler and a fruitful day.
- Know What’s Important. Before you begin each day, spend a few minutes say 15-20 minutes to identify what’s important, and eliminate the rest. Identify the most important things in your life (4-5 things), and then come up with the activities, tasks, projects, meeting and commitments that will lead to completing those important tasks identified. Also take time each day to identify 1-3 Most Important Tasks (MITs), at the beginning of your day. Or the night before, for the next day.
- Visualize Your Perfect Day. What one might envisage as a perfect day may differ slightly or to large extents even having no similarities at all. To some,a perfect day will be traveling to a dream destination to while away time. To another it may be completing a book idea once the person sits to write. The perfect day can be summed up as the day in which are able to derive utmost satisfaction you were looking out for in that day. The perfect day may also vary from day to day depending on what you want to achieve in a particular day as the utmost priority. Take a minute to visualize what it means to you.
- Say No to Extra Commitments. Every day comes with it, countless number of things that will require your attention. However, having identified the 1 to 5 important tasks that when accomplished will give you satisfaction and or a perfect day, you need to block out all distractions and other commitments that were not planned for the day. There may be instances where emergency might require slight change. Things time not made for in a particular day should be clearly defined and if it can be scheduled for another time do so.
- Limit Tasks. An exercise to do in the morning is to list your 1-3 most important tasks. List any other tasks you’d like to do. Strike out ones that can be made away with. Try as much as possible to limit your list to 5-7 tasks per day (these shouldn’t include little things that can be combined and dealt with together. . Having few tasks to complete helps you focus. Truth is you’re not going to get everything done in one day so do the important things.
- Have A “No Disturbance Time”. Having identified your most important tasks you want to accomplish in the day, you need to apportion time for each task. These times should be used for the scheduled task. Do not compromise on same by indulging other activities not scheduled for that period. And once you begin working on a task, give it your full attention and cut off all distractions. Turn off the internet, mute calls and overcome temptation of checking emails. If your tasks require sitting however, take some 2-5 minutes stretch breaks. Your health is as important as your task. Do the most important task, then the next one if you have time.
- Slow Down. A lot to accomplish and little time usually results in us being anxious to rush through our days trying to get things done. Some important rules or tips to enjoy what you are doing is to slow down. Immerse yourself in the task at hand. Be in the moment. No need to be rushing to complete one task after another. Pause, take a moment to reflect, smile, enjoy the current task before moving on.
- Single-task tactfully. Want to accomplish more and achieve desire result? Want to be efficient? One task at a time, with full focus on that task. Practice mindfulness as you do the task — it’s a form of meditation. Watch your thoughts wander to what you need to do later, but never too far from the task at hand as this can spur some creativity when tactfully done. Your day will be much simpler, and much more enjoyable, when you practice being present with your current task.
- Batch Smaller Tasks. Create a “small tasks” section under your most important task for the day. These tasks however shouldn’t get in the way of your important tasks. These tasks can include, reading and replying emails, making phone calls and any other task that requires less time to complete and can be left for later without issues. If you they must be done in the day, batch them and do them in one go. It’s best to do these later in the day, when you’ve done the important tasks for the day. Don’t let the small tasks get in the way of the big ones. Don’t spend too much time on these as they can subtly keep us in a loop resulting in distraction and time wasting.
- Create Space Between. We often schedule our tasks and meetings together, and leave no spaces between them. The space between things is just as important as the things themselves. Leave a little space between each tasks for a short break to stretch, walk around, get a glass of water, perhaps do some simple breathing meditation for a minute or two. Enjoy the space.
Conclusion
These 9 simple rules or useful tips mentioned above when put into practice I believe will yield great outcomes and have simpler days. You are not bound to strictly follow these useful tips as they are not commands to be followed by all means.
However if you do use them,these useful tips outlined will be of great and tremendous help to you as you will begin to see significant improvement in your day and each day afterwards will be simpler and fruitful.
