Why Prioritizing Tasks Can Help You Be More Productive (And How You Can Start)

Being organized and more productive is a choice in itself, and it’s always the first steps that are the most difficult to do. However, this can be done through a process known as compartmentalization – the act of blocking out certain thoughts or distractions so that nothing can get between you and the object of your focus.

While it’s often frowned upon as a poor coping mechanism in response to traumatic events, compartmentalization can be used in a good way to focus on tasks and get them done within your projected schedule.

The Benefits of Compartmentalization
To be able to compartmentalize tasks means that you can shut out everything distracting you and focusing solely on the task you have at hand. For others, this is called “deep work”, and for others, this state of super focus on any given task is called “flow”.

These are the benefits of compartmentalizing tasks, whether it’s at work or in anything that you choose to do in your life, from hobbies, passion projects, and so on:

• It saves you more time to focus on the things you want to do. With proper planning, prioritizing, and the will to get things done, you can free up more of your most important resource – time.

• It gets tasks done on your projected schedule. Getting tasks done on time also allows you to be more productive, allows you to focus on more tasks that would otherwise take longer to accomplish.

How You Can Get Started
The simplest, and arguably the most effective way to start organizing your life and your day is by reaching for the nearest calendar.

It lets you plan what you need to do from Day 1 to your target date, and steady progress onwards can be marked on your calendar. As you move along, you will find that it’s much easier to see how much you have accomplished when you have a detailed account of it.

Here are a few things you need to keep in mind when you start compartmentalizing your tasks:
• Accept that some things will be out of your hands. When you encounter a problem that’s interrupting your task, ask yourself: “Is there anything I can do about it?”

If yes, then there is something that you can do about it. If no, then the problem is out of your hands and you might as well move along to the next thing on your list or priorities.

• Reframe problems as questions. Instead of seeing the problem as a problem, pose it as a question: “Is there anything you can do to get around or solve the problem?”

The most important thing you need to keep in mind when doing anything at all is to choose one, and only one, thing to focus on at a time, which is much better than dividing your attention and focus between different tasks at the same time.