A Simple Tip to Become Successful: “PPPPP”

Everybody in this world aims to be successful. Though success is viewed differently, either by people or companies, the process on how to achieve it seems to be same for all. Success is not instant – it has to be worked on and it requires planning all the time. If you want to be successful, either in life or in business, you must aim to do well every day.

Here is a simple tip to become more successful every day:

PPPPP stands for “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance” – a simple reminder that everyone must bear in mind while on work. Obviously, when you are performing well, you are positively contributing on the company’s success. In addition, doing it regularly will greatly affect not only the company but yourself as well.

Three Stages of Planning

Stage 1: Know the best time of the day to make your daily plan.

Make sure planning is part of your daily routine. Whether it is in the last minutes of the day or the first minutes of the actual day, you must plan your tasks appropriately. Also, make sure that when you plan, you stick to it and manage to avoid interruptions so you can perform better.

Stage 2: Identify your “fixed time task/s”.

Fixed time tasks are referring to the tasks you need to do at a certain time of the day that cannot be moved. These are not the tasks you usually do at certain times. Identify them and take note of the time you need to accomplish them. They are non-negotiable, stick to them as planned.

Stage 3: Follow the “Urgency-Importance Method”.

After identifying your fixed time tasks, rank your other tasks based on the “Urgency-Importance Method” shown in the diagram below.

The figure above shows a grid with four categories where you can put on your non-fixed tasks based on their urgency and importance. This grid will help you sort out your activities within the day to prevent poor performance.

Box 1 is the emergency zone – highly urgent and highly important. Spending time on this can result to higher levels of stress because of its rushed and hurried environment. This is not a healthy place to spend most of your time. Plan everyday and try to achieve all your goals everyday to lessen the tasks that you’re going to put in here.

It is always better to spend most of your time in box 2. Work on high priority tasks that are timed to manage deadlines and lessen stress.

Items in box 3 are some sort of quick and simple tasks or interruptions. They may be important to the interrupter but not on you. You must not deal longer with these tasks so you can allot more time on the things that are important to you.

Finally, box 4 includes tasks you like to do where you can get some comfort from. Allotting too much time on these tasks creates a bigger problem.

Ranking tasks is very crucial in planning. For you to have more idea with regards to the “Importance-Urgency Method”, take a look at the example below.

Remember it is always best to work on box 2 – this is where you will find development and self determination. Happy planning!
Here is another blog article that might be interesting for you:
Passion and Success: 4 Powerful Tips on How to Reach Your Goals