We all want to be in control of our time. We want to manage our life in a way that we can balance all of the things we want to do (leisure) and the things that's making it possible for us to do so (career). This is the ideal. Life however is not that simple. Entering our adult life has its excitement and joy but it also has with it the challenge of taking responsibility for how we use our time.
One of the challenges that I faced as I enter my adulthood is time management. It seemed that as I made my way out of college and into the workforce, I suddenly found myself surrounded by deadlines, tasks, and priorities. Adding to all these is the necessity of handling my personal life in areas like my finances, relationships, and personal development. I found myself juggling them all for months, feeling stretched out in the process, until I read about a time management concept called The Rule of 3.
The rule of 3 concept is originally from J.D. Meier's book Getting results the agile way. But I was introduced to it through another time management book called Eat that Frog! by Brian Tracy. A classic book in the topic of time management, Eat that frog! is a collection of proven techniques in dealing with procrastination or being overwhelmed at work. One of the techniques Brian Tracy included is the rule of 3 and it's a concept that helped me become more effective.
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What is the rule of 3?
The rule of 3 is simple. Identify three goals or tasks that makes you produce the most value in your work or personal life and focus on them exclusively. Brian Tracy's reasoning was that "90% of the value that we contribute to our company [or personal life] is contained in [these] three tasks. Everything else [we] do is either a support task or a complementary task that could be delegated, downsized, outsourced, or eliminated."
The power of this technique lies in its capacity to clear our minds of low value tasks. This guarantees our productivity and saves us from the trap of being in "motion" (keeping ourselves busy without clear priorities) and positions us into taking "action" (activities that are aligned with our goals.) All those time and energy we saved by adhering to the rule opens us up to give attention to other equally important things such as our relationships, education, or our hobbies, while also making the quality of our work better.
Application
The essence of the technique lies in our ability to identify the top 3 tasks in our life or work that produces the most value. In this, making the question specific is a great help:
1. What are your 3 most important health goals right now?
2. What are your 3 most important career goals right now?
3. What are your 3 most important relationship goals right now?
It is best to write down the first three things that come to mind because most of the time, according to Brian Tracy, they are the most accurate depiction of our goals. They come directly as a response of our subconscious minds, making them genuine and honest. Whereas, overthinking will just make us complicate our priorities.
Once we have identified our top 3 tasks, we must take action on them immediately. We must funnel our time, energy, and effort towards their accomplishment. In this context, other tasks will seem secondary which is why we will be able to delegate, reschedule or eliminate them altogether. We can be focused on doing the things that gives us great value in proportion to our time spent doing them. We can work with ease, knowing that we are doing and accomplishing our most important tasks.
Follow through
The evident challenge of practicing the rule of 3 is accepting the consequences of ignoring or eliminating our low value tasks. Every workplace is teeming with them: non urgent emails, unnecessary chat with a workmate, unimportant calls etc. At first, it would seem difficult to develop a tolerance to avoid them which can make many of us uncomfortable.
We must, however, strive to develop a thick skin and be committed on our top 3 tasks. We must remain our sense of priority, and get back on track whenever we get derailed by emergency events or true urgent matters. The truth is that we are always in control of ourselves in the workplace, not only of our tasks but of our attitudes and emotions as well.
Our true productivity should always be our guiding principle. It is up to us to structure our work and personal life in due accordance.
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The rule of 3 is but one of many techniques that we can use to manage our time. If put to use well, it will save us time and energy that we can spend for other pursuits that makes us happy.
What's your 3 most important tasks today? By identifying them, focusing on them, and working on their completion, you may find yourself closer to your goals or at least, you have put yourself on your way to their attainment.
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