In today’s fast-paced environment, it can feel like there’s never enough time to accomplish all of our goals. Between career obligations, socializing with friends and family, and our own personal development, optimizing how we use our time seems to be the challenge of the 21st century.
I am no productivity guru, but I’ve spent a considerable amount of time studying how people get things done and how people manage their time. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a silver bullet. There is no single way that will allow you to get more done overnight.
However, there are a few frameworks I’ve found that can start moving you in the right direction. It might seem odd that I am talking about productivity on a financial blog, but I believe that your income is the most important component of your financial success. And, if you want more income, increasing your productivity is one of the best ways to have more career success and, ideally, more income.
With that being said, let’s think about how you get through your to-do list.
How Do You Get Through Your To Do List?
Imagine you are a financial advisor that comes into the office on a Monday morning with the following to do list:
Call back a client related to a question about their financial plan Setup a meeting with a prospect Create content to market your services on social media Spend 1 hour doing continuing education on an investment-related topic
Which of these items should you do first? Should you do the one that takes the least amount of time, the one that’s the most important, or the one that is most likely to increase this year’s profits?
Whatever you choose, this class of problem falls under the what is known as scheduling theory, or the
