Finding order in daily chaos...
...a mental model for everyone
“For every minute spent in organising, an hour is earned.”
Benjamin Franklin
Organising, ordering, prioritisation are natural gifts for some and for the rest of us they come with practice. They come with discipline!
I, for one, cannot function if I have clutter around. Decluttering acts as therapy for me, albeit not at Marie Kondo level. But, at a level that keeps me sane and allows me to function and focus.
Prioritisation is the obvious next step for anyone who yearns for some order in chaos. The chaos we all deal with on an everyday basis. And, don’t even get me started on the countless distractions around. They come in many forms and go from a tiny level to an addiction level. All of us carry one or other badges in that game, I bet.
Just like the countless distractions, there are countless ways to tame the chaos, and find the order we need, desire and aim for. As for me, I follow a very simple and perhaps commonly known model. So common that I don’t even know if it has a name (grin). But, what’s in a name anyway!
Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”
– Stephen R. Covey
As the tasks keep coming to my work desk and home desk (a person has an unending to-do list at home as well, so let’s not forget that), I pass them through these categories.
Urgent and Important (Do it first thing)
Urgent and Not important (Do it anyway)
Important but not Urgent (Do it once you are done with the urgent ones)
Not important not urgent (These are things that can eat dust)
And, then I put them in my diary (you can make a physical or digital diary), which has 4 quadrants that look something like this.
But, what do I do if there are multiple items in a quadrant? Especially that top left one, which actually translates to ‘the fire is on’ quadrant. Well, then you ask yourself: Is anyone dying if I don't do this at this very moment?
And, that’s it. All that is needed after this is to follow the prioritisation with all honesty and I can promise you will be much happier. Not just you, but your boss, your stakeholder and everyone around who needs you to take care of something will find it easier to rely on you. Like any art, it just needs practice!
If you worry about the pain of writing in a diary, worry not! Soon you will not even need to write down. It will become your mental model and your brain will automatically process things per the model.
I hope this takes you one step closer to simplifying your daily life. To happy and chaos free days, cheers!