Summarize the following:
The most important step you can take towards working faster and more efficiently is to establish a plan before you start your day. Plan your day the night before and prepare your desk by laying out all your study materials, or prepare your chore list for what you want to accomplish. This way, you can just jump right in the next morning. Write your daily plan down on a notepad, digital planner, or a calendar. Writing things down rather than committing them to memory will help you to remember and actually accomplish your tasks. Writing down all you plan to accomplish in a day can also help you avoid over-booking yourself and taking on more than you can handle in the time allotted. It's good to be ambitious, but it's also important to have a realistic daily plan that you can accomplish. If you find yourself juggling a lot of different work objectives or even multiple jobs at once, considering theming your days to focus on one of these at a time. If you're a student, consider setting aside specific days for specific subjects: Mondays can be reserved for doing all of your science reading for the week, for example, while Tuesdays can be dedicated to math. In an office setting, allocate specific days for specific tasks: Mondays can be just for administrative tasks, for example, while Tuesdays can be focused on creative projects. Stay organized by breaking down your working day into discreet hours, and plan to do certain work only during that time frame. For example, the first hour of your day can be dedicated to answer emails and phone calls. Set a series of alarms to cue you to move on to other work and stay on task during the day. Multitasking can be a double-edged sword: it can be a helpful strategy for getting lots of things done in a short amount of time, or it can spread your time and attention too thin, leading to poor quality work. To reap the benefits while avoiding the pitfalls of multitasking, follow these strategies: Focus on related tasks at the same time. Reduce the amount of mental energy used when switching between different tasks by bundling your multitasking activities together. For example, respond to all of your mail messages at the same time -- email, voicemail, snail-mail. Write down your workflow items. Writing down all the stuff you want to juggle will help you to not get distracted or sidetracked with all the multiple things going. Take some time at the end of your tasks to go over each item alone. This narrowing of focus can help with catching any errors and making sure you've done all you wanted while working on it in a multitasking atmosphere.
Have a daily plan. Give every day a theme. Segment the hours in your day. Learn how to multitask the right way.