The 5 Choices

The 5 Choices teaches us how to reach our highest potential in the workplace and achieve the top level of productivity through a series of tips and tricks and work habits that can change your life right away if you’re willing to give them a try.

Struggling with procrastination is a real thing, and it all boils down to one main issue – we don’t know how to manage our time. What’s worse is that we think we’re good at doing so. That is why we also reject scientific methods and advice on the matter, thinking that we know better.

Let’s debunk this once and for all – you’re never going to move past your recurring procrastination without a system. A time management system can help you organize your tasks more efficiently and finally get things done. Let’s start with the four quadrants so you get a better idea of what I’m talking about.

The four quadrants of your time are:

Q1 – which includes your important and urgent work. (E.g. emergencies) Q2  – which includes important, but non-urgent tasks (E.g. work, preparing for meetings, etc.) – this is where you want to spend most of your time  Q3 – which includes urgent but non-important work (E.g. checking emails) Q4 – which includes time spent on meaningless things (E.g. checking social media)

Carry out a self-analysis and think about where you spend most of your time. Your work day should imply a lot of Q2 time, less Q1 and Q3 time, and minimal Q4 time. Structure your work in these four quadrants. Every time you feel like doing something, ask yourself where your task fits in. That way, you’ll know how much time you should spend on it.

By now you know that you should be spending most of your work time in Q2 doing important but non-urgent work. But what is that? Our jobs are complex and they require many tasks, so what’s important may seem blurry at times. Well, this is why you should define your role titles and statements. Your role title is the main category of work you’ll be doing, while your role statement defines where you want to be. Let’s focus on an example: your role title can be “professional wedding planner’’, while your role statement may look like “I want to become the best wedding planner in town.” This set of statements can help you start organizing your goals and your schedule. Now that you’ve defined them, you can start setting goals and objectives to achieve them step by step. Make sure to time-bound your goals so that you have a deadline to focus on. Then, it’s time to set your schedule. Given a…