You hope to do several things every day. At the end of each day, most of them are not done. You may be using a ‘to- do- list’ but discover in short while that it is not helping you much. Tasks keep adding to it. In a few weeks, it starts looking like a list of things you will never do and you feel stressed about it.
Making a to –do- list is not enough. It is useful only when you understand the key aspects of it and work on it further.
To begin with, recognize that a to-do –list is only a pool of tasks. It is just a raw collection that gives you no idea of how you will get to it. To make it useful you have to define the ‘when’. Entering detail about when you will do the different tasks, gives to- do- list a meaning .When you begin creating a schedule, your focus shifts to how long you have to work on each task to complete it. This way you are forced to be realistic about your goals.
You cannot do all the tasks on the list on the same day. So, you should learn to prioritise. Rank the tasks using numbers or group them using letters of the alphabet, according to the order of importance. Now start working according to the schedule where your schedule went wrong by paying close attention to how you are spending the day.
Some of the possible reasons are: you waste time, made mistake in assessing how much time a task would take or deal with ‘urgent’ tasks frequently. If the reason is wasting time, learn to concentrate on your work. If you made a mistake in time assessment, prepare a more realistic schedule.
Another way to prioritise tasks is based on the creative energy they require. Separate the tasks into creative and boring ones. This approach helps you to stay productive even during cheerless parts of the day.
Making schedule for items in your to-do-list does not promise that all of them are accomplished. But you can at least be strategic about what is left behind and feel happy that you achieved what you accommodated in the finite space. This way you can begin the next day on a confident note rather than feeling helpless and frustrated about failing.
(i) Answer the following questions briefly:
(a) What makes a ‘to-do-list’ useful?
(b) Why is the ‘to-do-list’ described as a raw collection?
(c) What is prioritising?
(d) How do you become realistic about your goals?
(ii) Find a word in the passage which conveys similar meaning as the following: (1x4=4)
a) many
b) worked
c) compelled
d) Rank things according to importance
Answers
Answer:
A(i) a. Understanding the key aspects of a to-do list and working on it further makes a to-do list useful.
b. A to-do –list is only a pool of tasks just like a raw collection that gives you no idea of how you will get to it, hence a to-do list is described as a raw collection.
c. Ranking the tasks using numbers or grouping them using letters of the alphabet, according to the order of importance is prioritising.
d. Entering detail about when we will do the different tasks, gives to- do- list a meaning .When we begin creating a schedule, focus shifts to how long we have to work on each task to complete it. This way we are forced to be realistic about your goals.
II) many- several
worked-stressed
compelled-
Rank things according to importance- prioritise