June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hack - Day Ten: Set A "Main Task" For Each Day
Hello and welcome to the tenth day of the June 30 days writing challenge. If you want to know all the details about this specific challenge, have a look at the introductory post. In short, I will be posting every day a short tip, or technique, or opinion, something that you can call a "life hack". Feel free to join the challenge and post your own life hacks. I will do my best to upvote each day at full strength (about $3 at the current STEEM price) 3 posts tagged #challenge30days (leaving a link to your posts in the comments will also help).
Set A "Main Task" (And Secondary Tasks, If You Want) For Each Day
Like I already told you, in the 8th day of the challenge, I keep a very simple activity log, which is also my '"to do" list. It's a very simple, journal-esque style of putting in written form my plans. There are no other bells or whistles that I'm adding to each task, which means I have no time blocks, or priorities. It seems to be working fine for a few good years now, and I have no intention of changing this approach.
But, on top of this very simple list, I also have another concept: setting up a "main task" for each day. By "main task", I mean more often than not a simple thing that must be done during a specific day. It's not very long or difficult, but I assign a lot of importance to it. It might be a coding related thing, a journaling thing, or a personal task, like doing a long run or going to a social event.
When I first started to do this, I didn't feel any benefit right away. It took a few weeks until I realized that I felt lighter and more focused. The fact that I was constantly keeping my promises (made to myself, obviously) gave me an unexpected feeling of accomplishment. It didn't really matter that it was a simple task, the mere fact that I was able to follow up on the entire process, from choosing it to completing it, to crossing it off of my list, was fundamental.
In time, I learned how to pick this "main task" of the day. If I am on a positive energy streak, I pick something that may take a couple of hours. If I'm more tired, I bounce back and pick something easier or less time confusing. But I always finish the task of the day, no matter what.
As you may imagine, some "main tasks" of the day are related to my Steemit presence. One of them is the market snapshot, and, since I started to also do some 30 days challenges, it's the post from that challenge. Which leads me to another spin off of this life-hack: secondary "main tasks".
It may sound like a contradiction, but it isn't.
After a certain time of always doing your main task, something interesting will happen: you'll feel compelled to do more. And just picking a more complex, or more time consuming, task, won't cut it. You really feel the need to accomplish more. So, I decided to add up to 3 secondary "main tasks" per day, with a caveat: being secondary, it meant they may be skipped if there were really bad circumstances. And that leaves the "main" main task to carry out the bigger focus, and the secondary tasks to chip in if I'm really feeling good, or inspired, or compelled to do more.
So, there you have it: a little canvas for planning the day, flexible enough to be adjusted to any schedule, but powerful, effective and, why not saying it, really easy to implement.
I'm really curious to read about your life hack today. Leave a comment with a link to your post, if possible.
Previous Posts In The Challenge
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hack - Day Nine: Keep A Journal
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Eight: Keep An Activity Log
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Seven: Implement A New Habit With A 30 Days Challenge
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Six: Put It In Front Of The Door
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Five: The Pomodoro Technique
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Four: Keep A Clear Mind By Unloading Ideas Immediately
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Three: Intermittent Fasting
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Two: The "2 Minutes" Time Management Rule
- June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day One: Avoid Fighting With A Simple Visualization Technique
- Announcing The June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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Setting a task daily and finishing that task daily will make you punctual!
In my studies, I could use this hack and don't have to trouble myself during exam times by over burdening myself... I could set the main task which I have to do and secondary tasks as u said... My life hack to add to this would be to motivate yourself by assigning certain refreshing things to do after the completion of the tasks.. It could be anything .. Getting yourself some fast food... Take a walk.. Like that
I must say you are doing your main task perfectly, I haven't seen anyone posting with this much effort and regularity.
It seems we have a similar topic in today's challenge. Setting a task and achieving it is self fulfilling.
Here is the link to today's challenge:
https://steemit.com/challenge30days/@yungchief/june-30-days-writing-challenge-life-hacks-day-ten-settings-a-daily-task
Hello again,
Here's my #challenge30days post for today:
https://steemit.com/challenge30days/@acesontop/june-30-days-writing-challenge-life-hacks-day-ten-reboot-yourself-with-shavasana
Have a great Sunday!
I have used this method of my main task, many times doing things online, even placing Steemit as a foundation, it has happened to me. Currently my main task is focused on finishing a course on graphic design software that I am learning to use. I dedicate a few hours a day and the rest I leave in the background. The important thing is to complete it.
Excellent way to focus your goals in one day. I'm going to apply this list of main tasks. Here I leave today's publication: https://steemit.com/wrinting/@lmrey/june-30-challenge-of-writing-days-day-ten-practice-gratitude-every-day
I hope you visit me and see your comments
You are most panctual in your work , i really like your work system .
You are always inspire all steem worker .
Thanks for sharing @dragosroua
Upvote you ...
Wow. Thisis amazing. What time of the day do you make your list. Do you make a new lost everyday? This is really something i should try, j know i feek better when i do something i want even if i fail.
Super important, this one.
If you can set a task every day, and achieve it, not only do you get the things done that you want, but you also create a habit. And that habit, once instilled (after say, 60 days) can last a lifetime.
You can literally train yourself to be more productive.
But, it's important that your daily task, while worthwhile, is achievable. It's no use setting a big goal, which might not be possible to achieve in a single day - break a big task into smaller tasks if necessary.
Another thing you can do, to make this stick, is to set a daily reward, which is earned for completing your task. It might be, I get to watch 1 hour of Netflix (if that's your thing) in the evening if I complete the task.
The "reward" (something you might've done anyway) re-enforces the action.
@m-ssed-t: I like the reward approach you speak about. It is true that the satisfaction of achieving your target at the end of day is a great feel factor, but sometimes you have to do tasks that are not to your liking. In those situations, a reward based approach serves as a motivating factor...
Having a limited amount of entertainment time along with the work really helps me keep everything sorted out. I never thought of it as a reward but I can see how you'd look at it that way