Quiz! Time Management 101

Here’s a simple quiz that will help you know when it’s time to call in a personal assistant to give you a little help with your to-do list.

Get ready, you’re going to answer these questions about different tasks:

What am I really good at?
Which skills should I work to improve, so I can do the job myself?
What do I love to do? What things would I do all day long if I could?
What are the things I despise doing? What am I consistently putting off?

The Quiz

Now, take a piece of paper and divide it into four columns. In the first column jot down about 10 things from your on-going to-do list. In the next column rate your ability to do each task on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being highly capable and 1 being–well, let’s just say you need training. Now, in the third column, rate your interest in doing each task. Again, use a scale of 1 to 5. `1s’ are the the tasks you’d rather never even hear about, much less do. `5s’ are the things you could do all day long if you could. Now simply add the numbers in columns 2 and 3 for each task, and put the total in column 4.

Here’s an example using 5 things on my personal short- and long-term to-do list:

Clean and organize my closet Ability: 5 Interest: 1 TOTAL: 6
Make hotel reservations for our next vacation Ability: 5 Interest: 3 TOTAL: 8
Knit a sweater Ability: 4 Interest: 5 TOTAL: 9
Clean my car inside and out Ability: 3 Interest: 1 TOTAL: 4
Learn basic HTML Ability: 3 Interest 5 TOTAL: 8

Okay, now for the fun part.

The Analysis

If you’ve scored a 9-10, go for it! Do the task yourself and enjoy it. These are the things you’re good at and love doing. On my to-do list is “knit a sweater”, and my total came out to be a `9′. Now, knitting a sweater is a huge commitment of my time, but I love knitting! It centers me. It’s meditation with an outcome. So, I’ll put it in my list of goals for 2011.

If you’ve scored a 1-5 on any task it’s most likely in your best interest to hire someone to complete the job for you. You’ll move it off your to-do list, clearing the way and making time for the things you’re good at. That’s why the At Your Service personal assistants have been hired to detail my car.

Now for tasks getting scores beween 6-8. Hmmm. These require discretion. Do you want to learn a new skill? Are you thinking this might be something you’d enjoy doing if you knew more about it? Maybe here’s where you hire someone to help you with it at least for now, while you take a class or do some research. Learning some HTML falls in this category for me. It’s not that hard, and it would really make this blog look better. Yep. You might see me at Borders looking for the HTML for Dummies book.

Then again, maybe you have a task in the 6-8 range that you know how to do–you might even be really good at it. Unfortunately, the only pleasure you get out of doing it is seeing it done. For me, that’s where cleaning and organizing my closet falls. Sue, at Simplified Living Solutions can be expecting a call. She’s a professional organizer, she’s great at what she does, she loves it! I can probably hire Sue for a few hours, come home and it will all be finished! Voila! I’ll feel great for crossing that off my to-do list and all it took was one phone call!

What’s on your to-do list that At Your Service can help you with? Call us at 314.994.1382 for a free, no obligation consultation. Or send us an email outlining what you’d like us take care of for you.