Project Management - Rule No.3 - One at a time

Perhaps , quite rudimentary is this . But i see people ( yours truly ) go berserk when the number of tasks they need to finish follow an exponential equation ( and then comes down exponential) also .Most of the time i find that it is physically and mentally exhausting to a point that pranayama and 3 glasses of water techniques find an companion in trash bin.

Stephen Covey in his bible for personal effectiveness has a chapter dedicated to time management . Its wonderfully written with quantitative as well as qualitative analysis . Before you use the Edward De Bono's techniques to find out a way to manage time, it is essential that you read this book.

In essence, Covey says that you need to prioritise the tasks in four quadrants by classifying them as High/Low Urgent/Important activities. He says to focus on Very Important less urgent activities , so that you will get less "Very Urgent" activities. The missing link is to identify the external factors before hand that create the urgency.

This is a method. When you apply this technique or any other theory that helps you prioritise tasks , it is important to note that your stomach can't take a 29" inch pizza at one shot ( most of us can't) . We have to take up one activity at one time. Before you push this idea into the nonsense quadrant , let me add few things .

Taking up one activity one at a time doesn't mean that you finish one task then take up another . You will most probably end up having an egg in your face! It means that you complete a logical portion of the task, so that there is minimal dependency on you. You do a task and that is approved or reviewed by your supervisor / or you need to collect inputs from your subordinates , coordinate with other groups , process it , give them directions and track their outputs . This is bit abstract, but then the essence is that completion of a logical portion of your tasks is as important to negate working on different portions of different tasks at the same time . Else you will end up seening Mr.Rudran.