How to manage time when you have lots on your plate?

"Eat a live Frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day,” quipped Mark Twain. Hmmn….but the very thought of a Frog* scares the daylight out of many of us! We try to avoid it like the dainty Princess from “the Princess and the Frog” fairy tale. We often postpone big tasks, repeatedly. Big tasks look unappealing and meaningless at present. On the other hand, we love working on small, bite-sized tasks. Completing small tasks provides us with a sense of achievement.

If you observe the working day of an average individual, it consists of ticking small jobs/tasks from a never ending to-do list. While completing small tasks provides a sense of accomplishment, the flurry of small tasks coming one’s way never seems to end. It is as if the to-do list is another “pimple episode” we fought off during our teenage years – the more we plucked it out, the more it appeared on our face. And in moments like these, time just flies, leaving behind a trail of disillusionment and a sense of underachievement.  

So, what is the source of this never ending, never drying stream of small tasks? If only we analyse the root cause or the origin behind those small tasks, we would realise it is nothing but a spin off from those big tasks which we left unattended. For example, the annual health check-up which we postponed is the very reason behind our frequent hospital visits; the weekend spoken English classes which we spurned is why we end up poring over the dictionary all the time; and, the offline client connect which we ignored is the reason behind those frequent email exchanges to clarify a simple issue.

You see, time management is not really about managing time. It is about eating that Frog first – however distasteful and menacing it may look!

*Note: Frog in this article refers to big and difficult task(s).