On any given day there is only so much that we can do. But for a long time I used to feel a gnawing sense in the back of my mind that I couldn’t do all that I wanted to do, and that my most important tasks (MITs) were still being left undone.
I used to feel that I sucked at time management and looked for time management tips on the internet. But none of them really helped.
Thinking of all the things that I wanted to do overwhelmed me and I ended up doing nothing. However now I have finally come to realise that nobody can do all the things that one wants to do. And you don’t even have to. What matters is whether you get your most important tasks (MITs) done.
What is MIT (Most Important Task) ?
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MIT or Most Important Tasks are the tasks that are most important to you, that which you have to get done and that which after getting done, you will feel a sense of satisfaction.
After you have done your MIT(s) you can spend the rest of the day as you would like.
As simple as you find this answer you must nevertheless take a little thought on what will be the right MITs for you.
- Your MIT is not necessarily the one which looks most urgent.
- At least one of your MITs should be long term– something that you want to do or have to do for a long period of time.
For any habit that you want to cultivate, set your MIT around that. For example, if you want to cultivate a reading habit, then you would want to read every day. So you make reading for at least 10 minutes or 20 minutes your MIT for the day.
- Your MIT should be something that will help you grow in your own personal development or help you in achieving your goals whatever it may be. More simply, your MIT should be for you– the tasks which you do for you, for your growth and self improvement.
How to get the Most Important Tasks (MITs) done?
There is really no complication to getting the Most Important tasks done and yet we fail to do them.
However the only two rules that you need to follow in order to have your MITs done are these. It has been working for me as it has for many others who have significantly improved their productivity.
- Set a Mission for the day: Don’t see your Most Important tasks merely as tasks. Regard them as your Mission for the day. You can have just 1 MIT and that’s great. But many times we feel we have more than 1 Most Important Task to do. In any case, don’t have more than 3 MITs.
2. Write it down: Once you figure out what your MITs are, write them down. If you don’t write them down, it means you are not assigning any ‘most important’ tag to it. You may write it down in the morning or the night before.
Personally, I have written down my 2-3 MITs for each day in a week in a notecard which I keep close to me so I don’t have to write it down everyday.
3. Do your MITs first thing in the morning:
Do your most important task first thing in the morning and you’ll never have an unproductive day.
James Clear
This is perhaps the only rule that will really help you to do your Most Important Task. This solely has been the only thing that has helped me cultivate many good habits in my life. This post that I am writing is also possible because I am writing it early in the morning.
Do your Most Important Task FIRST THING in the morning. Tackle your MITs early in the day and you can have the rest of the day by yourself doing whatever you want to.
Let me tell you why you need to do your MITs first thing in the morning:
- Because in the morning your mind is free from all the noise and distractions (unless you decide to check your phone first thing in the morning, check your social media and other notifications just as you begin your day and in turn ruin your day)
- Because your will-power is strongest in the morning and your won’t-power is the least. Hence you would want to take advantage of that.
Hence I by all means strongly recommend you to become a morning person and do your MITs first thing in the morning. However if you feel you are more productive at night. And that is fine too.
But if you just think that you will do them later in the day or at night, you will most certainly fail.
Hence I would suggest you to do at least one of your Most Important tasks in the morning by getting up a little earlier than usual. Even getting 30 minutes early and doing your MIT for 20 minutes count.
Give this a try and keep experimenting.
As for the other MIT that you write down which you don’t do in the morning, set a schedule for when you will do them and stick with it as your personal mission.
Here are a couple of posts that is about why you need to set a schedule:
So this is all for today.
Take care and have a great week ahead!
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