The Power of Regularly Scheduled Plans
おはようございます。
空が青く高く、確かに秋晴れというよりは関東の冬晴れでしょうか。
＝＝＝ほぼ毎朝エッセー＝＝＝
Don't you wonder why there exist regular meetings, events, lessons, etc.?
They feel like somewhat boring events in our lives, so we tend to be less enthusiastic about them. However, I recently noticed that there is an important meaning to regularly scheduled plans.
It is often said that to-dos can be segmented into four categories: #1 high urgency / high importance, #2 high urgency / low importance, #3 low urgency / high importance, and #4 low urgency / low importance. It is clear that to-dos in category #1, high urgency / high importance, should be tackled first. But the category of to-dos to tackle next becomes the big question. People tend to tackle those that are in category #2, high urgency / low importance.
What happens then?
The small pebbles of to-dos in category #2 fill up your time and capacity. Then you would end up having no time and space left for those in #3, low urgency / high importance, and they are normally much larger in size, like rocks, and much more time consuming. Consequently you'd end up making excuses that there is no time and energy left to tackle the to-dos in category #3.
Ironically, if you don't tackle to-dos in category #3, then #2 to-dos would never decrease. If you spend enough time and energy for to-dos in category #3, the #2 to-dos would decrease, or even disappear, so you would be able to concentrate more on to-dos with high importance.
Here is the rationality of having regular scheduled plans.
If you schedule #3 to-dos regularly, such as annually, monthly, weekly, and/or daily, you can actually spend time on and put effort into them. The more time and effort spent on them, the lesser #2 to-dos would occur, and consequently the better the situation would be. Since time and resources are limited, it is better to spend them on more important issues.
When scheduling plans, it is good to make them in the mornings with far less disturbances from outside. You can concentrate and have good control over what you plan to do. My problem is to overcome the allurement of sleep, but knowing all the benefits that I can gain justifies me to jump out of bed, throwing away my excuses.