Make Progress with MITs (Most Important Tasks):

Big ambitions often fail to get the attention they deserve in the day-to-day grind- it’s commonplace to become swamped with routine responsibilities. I realize that for people who feel stretched thin enough as it is, the notions of lifestyle design and long-term goal-setting may seem impossible.

There are some techniques though that nearly anyone can employ to make time for these pursuits. One that I recently read about and implemented for myself is Leo Babauta’s Most Important Tasks (Oops, I guess it was mentioned here earlier)..

It’s really simple. Before you go to bed, identify one or several MITs for the next day. As the name implies, these are your personally identified most important actions that you need to take.

I’ve been designating goal-related actions to be MITs. They are steps that should directly enable me to move closer to achieving my goals.

Things like work, errands, and appointments are all important as well; you definitely don’t want to blow these things off to write your future best-selling novel. However, they will get done whether or not you label them as MITs. Things like writing 1,000 words, getting in an intense workout, or working on your project motorcycle are more MIT material.

We often know what steps we have to take to move closer to our goals, but it’s far too easy to let day-to-day obligations zap us of the energy and motivation to work on them. By precisely labeling what steps we need to take and when, and making ourselves accountable to take those steps, we can ensure that we give our goals a fighting chance.

The morning is often a perfect time to get MITs accomplished, especially if you wake up a bit earlier than the rest of the world. If you’ve spent 5 minutes in the online personal development world, you’ve probably read about the benefits of becoming an early riser. While I don’t think it would universally benefit everyone to the same extent, waking up likely will provide plenty of benefits.

By the time I’ve spent the greater portion of the day on other matters (work, homework, errands, etc), it’s tough to buckle down and work on my goals. This is especially true when they are long-term in nature and no immediate benefits are likely to be realized. For this reason, I like to wake up earlier than my first scheduled obligation and get something accomplished. I’m not the type that can roll out of bed and immediately began doing creative or otherwise mind intensive work, but I do enjoy working out first thing in the morning. I consider a strong morning workout to be an MIT, so it feels good to get this accomplished before anything else.

I used to be a fan of morning classes, that way I could get them out of the way early and have the rest of the day to do whatever. But it was often hard to get much quality work done in the afternoon- I’d often be sluggish and less motivated to sit down and do work than I was in the morning. Because of this, I now prefer later classes. I can spend the mornings working on the things I deem to be most important, school-related or otherwise. I’ve found that how I spend my time before noon is an extremely good indicator of how the rest of the day will unfold.

Some people may not be like this, either because of personal preferences or other circumstances. That’s perfectly fine. It doesn’t really matter when MITs get done- what matters is that they do get done. Just make sure that you’re doing all you can to carve out the necessary time to work on what’s most important to you, whether that be at 5:00 A.M, over the lunch hour, or while you’re burning the midnight oil. Your future self will thank you.

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