Blog, Pitang.

How do you start your week? Do you plan out how you will tackle your pending tasks? Do you know what you need to make things happen? Are you able to define the results you want to achieve in the short, medium, and long term? Do you think it's important to have personal and professional planning? How productive have you been? Do you celebrate your achievements?

Stay calm, don't despair if you couldn't answer the questions above, if you're not yet managing your activities well, and your to-do list just keeps growing every day.

Managing your activities is important so you can plan your time in advance and achieve greater focus on your accomplishments, becoming more productive.

“When we start to have more time, what we gain is control." Christian Barbosa

4 tips to be more productive

Here are some tips that I already use and that you can adapt to your reality.

1. Start by listing what you want to accomplish in the year.

How about choosing an activity to develop throughout the year? You can list the knowledge you want to acquire over the year and set activities and timeframes for it. You can set goals to achieve and break them down into smaller activities to reach your results.

2. List the activities you need to complete during the month

This way, you'll be able to plan what you need to accomplish in the month, allowing you to identify your busiest days in advance. You can also distribute other activities across the following months if you already know when they should or could happen.

Plan the best days/weeks to carry out these activities. Ideally, you should reevaluate pre-planned activities right when the month begins.

3. List the activities you need to complete during the week

Ideally, you should think about these activities right at the beginning of the week. Sunday is the ideal day. 

I usually plan the whole week, and at the end of each day, evaluate what was accomplished, reallocate what I couldn't get done, and validate what is planned for the following day.

4. Celebrate every small activity completed – it is your achievement.

Did you plan the activity, or did it pop up unexpectedly, yet you managed to get it done and still stick to your plan? Celebrate! Your celebrations are self-motivation for you to keep going and persist. And if you can't accomplish everything you planned, replan.

How the Time Triad can help your productivity

I learned from Prof. Christian Barbosa, an expert in Time Management, to plan for 3 days and then plan again. By acquiring the habit of short-term planning, you can extend your planning to the week. That way, you gain a better self-view regarding productivity. He also advises taking short 5-minute breaks during the day, as it refreshes the mind and maintains focus.

“Productivity is essential for people to be able to live in a more balanced way.” Christian Barbosa

Prof. Christian Barbosa draws attention to time management throughout the day, as urgent or circumstantial activities often pop up and directly affect our daily schedule.

He created the TIME TRIAD methodology, where he proposes that activities are divided into 3 criteria, which represent the way you use your time:

1. Important activities 

These are activities that bring meaning to your life. They are the activities you can plan in the short, medium, and long term, and that can be completed within the time you set.

2. Urgent activities 

These are activities where the time to complete them is short or has already expired. Typically they are unforeseen, drop out of nowhere into our daily routine, and generate stress.

3. Circumstantial activities 

These are unnecessary activities for which we often have to stop our planned tasks in order to handle them; usually, they yield no results and waste our time.

So, whenever you go to plan your day, keep these criteria in mind. The ideal approach is to focus on important activities and try to anticipate urgent ones so they can be handled as important, as well as completing important activities as planned so they don't become urgent.

Oh! Don't forget to set aside time for your self-care.

As Christian suggests, the triad below is the ideal time distribution to bring happiness to your life:

“We have to increase the important, decrease the urgent, and almost eliminate the circumstantial.” Christian Barbosa

Unfortunately, we cannot do only what was planned, but we can organize ourselves to handle urgent and circumstantial activities so they have the minimal possible impact.

Take your time! 

Do you want to start planning your week? How about starting by planning your day?

Then you move forward to apply Christian's tip—planning for 3 days—and after that, you'll be ready to plan your week.

Don't give up, persist. Plan and replan. Celebrate. Over time, this cycle will become stronger and will help you in your self-knowledge.