How The Most Important Task (MIT) Method Can Boost Your Productivity And Career
You only have so many hours in the day to accomplish everything you set out to achieve. Prioritizing your tasks and employing the Most Important Task (MIT) method can pay huge dividends, make you far more productive, and help your career.
What Is The Most Important Task (MIT) Method?
Not all tasks are created equal. Some tasks need to be accomplished before others because of deadlines, time-sensitivity, or have the most significant value to you and your organization. The Most Important Task strategy forces you to determine the most important tasks and then tackle them before all other obligations.
Employing The Most Important Task (MIT) Method
At the beginning of each day, spend a few minutes creating a list of two or three most important tasks or MITs. You then put everything else to the side until these MITs are completely finished. You can create a general to-do list, but the MITs are your number one priority because they are the most significant or are time-critical. Don’t divert your focus or energy on any other responsibilities until these MITs are completed.
To determine your MITs, you can ask yourself, “What are the most important tasks that I need to accomplish today?” and “What are the challenges that if I achieved today would make a huge difference?”
There’s a form you can print out to make prioritizing your MITs even easier. David Seah offers an “Emergent Task Planner” – a free downloadable PDF that you can print out for free to plan your day. The ETP enables you to organize your day with each MIT, the time it should take to accomplish, and schedule your workday.
If you have employees working for you, consider delegating your less important jobs to your workers.
How Parkinson’s Law Will Assist With Your Productivity
You should impose an imaginary deadline to accomplish your MITs. The reason you should create an artificial deadline for your MITs to motivate you and so you won’t procrastinate. Parkinson’s Law was developed by Northcote Parkinson is a Raffles Professor of History at the University of Singapore, and was first published in The Economist in November 1955. Parkinson’s Law maintains that work expands to fill the period of time available for its completion. If you have the entire day to finish the MIT, you may procrastinate, and not finish the project until the end of the workday. Knock out your MITs in a timely manner, then you have time to complete your less important tasks.