Recently I posted a video blog about procrastination. Ian from the Philippines decided to send in his own top five list. Here are his top five tips to handling your tasks more efficiently.

• Look at what needs to be done and set goals. I believe that a person shouldn’t do work immediately. Doing work without a goal is really pointless seeing that you have no direction. Ask yourself, “What am I going to accomplish when I finish this work?”. Once you have the answer in mind, set the goal. Do you want to aim it high so when you reach it you’re really good… or would you prefer to set it lower so you can reflect on it when you make a mistake? It depends also how well do you know the job you’re doing. If you’re sure about what you’re doing, go ahead. If you’re unsure, either call someone for help or just don’t do it. Remember, “He who asks a question is a fool for 5 minutes. He who doesn’t ask is a fool forever”.
• Arrange your tasks accordingly. It is really good when you arrange your tasks like this:
  • Urgent and Important
  • Urgent but Not Important
  • Important but Not Urgent
  • Unimportant and non-urgent.

  It’s your best option to tackle all urgent matters first before the non-urgent ones. Although you may be thinking “Of course I know that”, in this hectic pace of life, most people tend to forget this. I think that the arrangement already mentioned is self-explanatory so let’s move on.

• Divide and Conquer! I don’t like doing tasks at once and some of you reading this may not too. When I have multiple large projects at school, I spend a few minutes thinking of how to divide these tasks accordingly. Given the million-dollar question “When’s the submission date?” I tend to do the one closest first. If it’s several weeks away, I usually divide it by spending a few hours every day to complete it. Honestly, I’m not a perfectionist so I don’t really give a 100% output, but of course I should and must. The output in the end will definitely look better than a rushed project. Remember that you shouldn’t lose sleep just because of a large task. Make use of the given time wisely or suffer the consequences.
• Set a schedule. When I was younger, I enjoyed making schedules for myself every school year and until now I do. Every year when you do the same tasks at the exact same time (giving respect as well to daylight savings), life becomes dull. Try and do variations to the same tasks once a year. This will give you a sense of variety in your life. Just make sure that your schedule is one that balances your tasks and relaxation time which leads us to the last.
• Relax. Take it easy. Giving some time for yourself is the best time you might even have. Have fun with family. Go out with friends. An ounce of relaxation is better than a pound of therapy. Enjoy your life while you’ve got it. This is a great stress-buster. Cheap (well it’s free. Fees may apply) and effective!

Tips for Handling Tasks Efficiently

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I hate having to do the dishes. Flat out… HATE it. Does anyone like it? Seriously. Flyboycom in our chat room sent these tips in to help us try to make washing dishes a little more fun.

• Turn on the music. It’s amazing what a little music can do. I modify my song selection by my mood. Sometimes I want a quiet reflective atmosphere to allow me to relax and contemplate while I wash. Other times I’m energized, and upbeat songs are better to motivate me. Find your songs and turn them up.
• Make an assembly line. With one person scraping, one washing, one drying, and one putting away, the chore runs smoothly and quickly. Instead of assigning one person to do the dishes on different nights, round up everyone and have it done in a fraction of the time every night.
• Have a conversation. One couple I know purposely avoids using the automatic dishwasher in the evenings. After dinner dishes has become their time to talk and reflect on their days. It may seem weird to think of reconnecting with someone over a sudsy sink, but it works. Washing dishes can be a monotonous chore. The benefit is, that your hands keep working in rhythm, while your mind or your mouth goes on with something more interesting.
• Have a reward. In one friend’s family, there is no dessert until the dishes are done and the table is cleared. There’s very little complaining about the chore now, just a knowledge that as soon as everyone chips in, there will be dessert. Find a way to reward yourself for completing the dishes and the time will fly.

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Can Washing Dishes be Less of a Chore?

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The viewers on live.pirillo.com witnessed a bit of a disagreement between Ponzi and I, regarding division of household chores. For the most part, we agree on who should do what… but there are always going to be contention points. Ponzi has come up with a solution.

Our biggest contention point is the laundry. Who should do it, sort it, fold it, put it away? Neither of us really enjoys laundry, and sometimes we leave it to Wicket and Pixie to do. However, that tends to create an even bigger mess. Lucky for me, Ponzi subscribed us to Chorebuster.net. Well, maybe lucky isn’t the right word to use.

Chorebuster is a free service which allows you to manage the household chore division fairly. Simply input the chores (daily and/or weekly), weight them by the amount of time it takes to do each one, and let the site randomly assign the person with the chore. It’s very simple to do, and can potentially save you a lot of headaches.

However, I don’t much care for it. It’s not the site itself I have a problem with. It’s just too much organization for me. I know what chores need to be done, and I prefer to just do them. Ponzi, however, is more of the organized type, so this works perfectly for her.

Of course, since I’m married, I of course agree with Ponzi that this is going to be excellent for us. It’s great and wonderful! Yes, dear.

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Managing Household Chores by Using the Internet