Adnan`s Crazy Blogging World

Let me admit that I am one of those people who are not good at organizing tasks; be it at work place or at home. It’s not that I can’t perform those tasks on merit, it’s just that I am so poor to manage them that I often end up in a situation where I have to justify others for not completing things on time.

Self-management and organization is not a rocket science. All you need is commitment. You should also not expect yourself to act like a robot. After all we are humans and driven by emotions and moods but still one can try to manage things out. TO-DO list is the first step towards self-organization.

According to Wikipedia:

A task list (also to-do list) is a list of tasks to be completed, such as chores or steps toward completing a project. It is an inventory tool which serves as an alternative or supplement to memory.

So it’s not difficult neither it’s something which was recently discovered. I must admit that most of our ladies are very good organizers and managers. I think this is something which is built-in feature in them and many of them use it quite efficiently. After all it’s their talent that they have been managing homes for centuries and I do appreciate and admit their untiring efforts for us which keeps our lives in shape.

Khair, so yesterday I decided to jot down all my tasks which I am supposed to do till Sunday and here is my TO-DO list:

1. Making an Important call in the morning (Done)
2. Writing a utility to parse HR Data provided by my HR department(yeah at times I like to do office work at home,specially if it’s challenging)
3. Mind Map for a proposed system architecture( again office work)
4. Experimental work for to display pre-fetched report data in chunks (again office work)
5. some official research work regarding Web 2.0 implementation.
6. Error handling techniques while there is no exception handling support(yeah again office work)
7. A note on Corporate blogging(to convince my management to get out of conventional and ancient marketing techniques and implement something NEW which is cheapest as well). Pray that I write something convincing enough which could be injected in their brains.
8. Reading Talbis-Iblees. So far it’s an awesome book and will be writing about it in near future(In-progress).
9. picking up clothes from Tailor’s shop(Done).
10. Buying a pair of sandals(Done).
11. Shopping from Tariq Rd(Done).
12. Writing an HTML control for a task(again Official)

If you notice,  I have not mentioned any DUE date. I am on 1st step and setting a due date will not be a good idea since I could miss it and it would not motivate me to step ahead. What I did successfully that I know what I have to do. The next thing I did that I set priorities of my tasks. It can vary and mostly depends on what is more required. It’s not necessary that you gotta do those task first which are easy. At times you got to do those tasks first which are not easy but important and this is how I completed my tasks on the basis of importance. The tasks which are completed by now were not performed in an order since there was no time limit was set but these tasks were important so I had to do complete them by today anyway. You may say that unintentionally the due date was set but it was not so restricted. Now since I have completed fewer tasks, now I will reset priorities of remaining tasks on the basis of importance than easiness. I will be following 80-20 rule here. For instance, I think that making a mind map will not take much time but it’s going to help my management to have a pictorial view of what they are thinking about. Then task#4 is important but not easy since I will require to have a bit research and I am required to find a workaround of current problem.

You do not need some special weapon to make a TO-DO list. Just try to record it somewhere other than your brain. Our brain was  not built to remember things which are not supposed to be remembered. It’s for sake of processing so use it for that purpose. There are several tools available for both computers and mobiles which you can use to manage your day. Mobile provides an easier way to make a TO-DO list. Since you keep it with you all the time therefore you may also set reminder for your tasks. Sites like TA DA List and Microsoft Outlook are also very efficient tool for task management.

Beside maintaining a TO-DO list,I have also started maintaining Activity Log in which I log every activity I do at office:from office work to having a cookie or even going washroom. I also write the duration of each activity since it’s helping me to figure out the reasons of procrastination. It’s a simple Excel sheet with following Attributes:

By level means your motivational level. Are you feeling Good enough at the time you are performing that activity or are you feeling down? By recording your energy level helps you to plan your future tasks accordingly. I would recommend you guys to grab a book by Mindtools , it’s pretty awesome book as it would help you to manage your time as well as your tasks. yes it’s not free . I have already given this to few of my friends, if one needs then he/she can mail me

I hope things work out for me and I get able to manage myself

p.s: Tariq Rd looked pretty deserted at 2:00 PM today. I went there after an year. Maybe it’s due to recession or something else. Just bought 4 shirts and 4 trousers and they are enough for 8 months atleast :P. I was hungry so naturally I ate out. I had a beef Burger and Mix chaat plate(Uni :P~~). I bought a pair of sandals from HUSH PUPPIES Hyderi. This is the first time I bought anything from HUSH Guys. I am an old EBH customer but this time they didn’t have some good varieties. Things are pretty expensive. I got a pair of sandal in RS.1900, yeah 1900 but ..I had no choice!

p.p.s: This post was not in my current TO-DO list