Comments on: Time http://workandwok.com/2009/10/26/time/ a rest stop for the working mother Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:21:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Keeping the connection with your family while travelling | Work and Wok http://workandwok.com/2009/10/26/time/comment-page-1/#comment-29 Keeping the connection with your family while travelling | Work and Wok Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:22:44 +0000 http://workandwok.com/?p=259#comment-29 [...] how, I feel time deprived when I am in Singapore.  I yearned for more time in the day and time to do things that I would do [...] [...] how, I feel time deprived when I am in Singapore.  I yearned for more time in the day and time to do things that I would do [...]

]]> By: max http://workandwok.com/2009/10/26/time/comment-page-1/#comment-26 max Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:40:37 +0000 http://workandwok.com/?p=259#comment-26 Knowing we should prioritize is one thing. Knowing HOW to prioritize is another. IMHO, I think many people equates importance to priority. I once learnt something from a time management course which I found to be very true. I was taught that this should be the correct sequence of doing things (from first to last): (1) Urgent and Important matters (2) Urgent and Not Important matters (3) Important and Not Urgent matters (4) Not Important and Not Urgent matters Very often, people try to finish item (3) before item (2). Because Important matters sometimes takes more time to complete (that's why they are important, right?), by the time they are finished, item (2) might be already overdue. This may sometimes lead to more issues and generate more problems solved. I had a friend who procrastinated for one whole month in paying his credit card bills because he had to rush out that all-important work plan. Then he got slapped with a late payment fine of $30 dollars, and reality set in... that's too unacceptable! Now he has more urgent yet unimportant things to do: rush off to pay his bill before the 24%pa interests chalk up too much, then call up the credit card company, wait 20 minutes on the phone to get through to someone, spend 10 minutes selling his excuse to try to waive his late-payment fine, then realized that he couldn't understand the service operator's heavy accent and vice versa, and spend another 30 minutes waiting for and selling his excuse to the operator's supervisor. So I do agree with "the mum" that it is crucial to overcome the 2 main causes of procrastination (which apply to me very often too), I would like to add that knowing how to prioritize is important as well. Knowing we should prioritize is one thing. Knowing HOW to prioritize is another. IMHO, I think many people equates importance to priority.

I once learnt something from a time management course which I found to be very true. I was taught that this should be the correct sequence of doing things (from first to last):
(1) Urgent and Important matters
(2) Urgent and Not Important matters
(3) Important and Not Urgent matters
(4) Not Important and Not Urgent matters

Very often, people try to finish item (3) before item (2). Because Important matters sometimes takes more time to complete (that’s why they are important, right?), by the time they are finished, item (2) might be already overdue. This may sometimes lead to more issues and generate more problems solved.

I had a friend who procrastinated for one whole month in paying his credit card bills because he had to rush out that all-important work plan. Then he got slapped with a late payment fine of $30 dollars, and reality set in… that’s too unacceptable! Now he has more urgent yet unimportant things to do: rush off to pay his bill before the 24%pa interests chalk up too much, then call up the credit card company, wait 20 minutes on the phone to get through to someone, spend 10 minutes selling his excuse to try to waive his late-payment fine, then realized that he couldn’t understand the service operator’s heavy accent and vice versa, and spend another 30 minutes waiting for and selling his excuse to the operator’s supervisor.

So I do agree with “the mum” that it is crucial to overcome the 2 main causes of procrastination (which apply to me very often too), I would like to add that knowing how to prioritize is important as well.

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