When I started writing this article I had a reading and writing assignment to complete, a set of kanji (Chinese characters) to memorise and several more minor things that were on the to-do lists on the wall behind me. I had enough time to do all these things and I could easily have done them right there and then, but instead I started writing this article.
All these tasks had deadlines, unlike this article. If I don’t hand in an assignment by the deadline I’ll only get, at best, half marks for it. If I don’t memorise a week’s kanji well enough by Monday then I’ll fail the test that takes place that morning. But, there I was, writing this article for which there was no deadline, no disciplinary action and no grade.
I clearly didn’t know how to prioritise, right?
I’ve always been an academic sort and when I get a new piece of homework I like to get started on it early, do it well and finish it before the deadline.
When I started at university a few weeks ago, as an experiment, I took this to the next level – when I received homework I completed it within two days of receiving it. This was physically impossible for the homework that required memorising information – as long-term memorisation has to be conducted over days, weeks and even months. But in the case of essays and reading I would spend four or five hours straight in an evening to get them done.
My theory was that it would be best to get the necessities over and done with first and after that I’d be free to get on with personal development, learning Japanese and writing this blog for the rest of the week without the thought of that essay deadline creeping closer or that play to read by Thursday.
This theory proved incorrect for several reasons:
1.
Work that has to be done tends to never completely end. You ‘finish’ that essay only to realise you need to collect a cover sheet for it. You complete that assignment and find that the subsequent one is due in two weeks from now and so, heck, you may as well make a start on that one too. Oh, and now there’s some useful workshop being held and you really ought to attend that.
This goes for any sort of obligatory work you may be engaged in, whether you’re at university or not. It’s the stuff you ‘have to do’ to comply with the education / employment system demands and the demands of your friends/family. Often this sort of ‘have-to’ work doesn’t completely end for the day, or the week, so trying to get it all out of the way in one go will usually be a losing battle. This is largely because various people are setting you the work when they want to set it.
2.
You tire yourself out with all that crappy stuff you just wanted to get out of the way. Once it sort of is you’ve spent x many unfulfilling hours at it and you’re too tired or too fed up to get on with what matters. Even if you can bring yourself to get on with what matters you will have probably spent the best of your energy on the stuff that didn’t.
3.
You’ll find it harder to cultivate routines. If you spend the first two or three days of the week getting the unimportant stuff out of the way then you’ll only be able to spend four consecutive days doing what matters. To most effectively make something a routine you have to do a particular activity every day if possible, or at least every week.
Getting homework done well and on time is almost always a sensible practice. So is revising well so that you pass exams with good grades. In fact, completing homework properly and getting it out of the way is a good routine to cultivate for a child.
Once a person is old enough to get on with things that will be more worthwhile to their lives than school work they should put those things first.
Completing all the work-related paperwork first thing in the evenings and at weekends is a good routine to cultivate for an employee who never wants to be anything else.
If you want to quit your job someday then you must find something that will further you towards that goal and put it first. Even if you just want a promotion you could well find that the paperwork you have to do may not be as important to your career as something you could bring to the company that you don’t have to do.
In a nutshell, do what matters every day.
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