Want to be Happy? Finish that Important Task

In an earlier post, I claimed that if you take care of the following three tasks on a daily basis, you can gain happiness in life:

•     One thing that is most important for you
•     One thing to help someone else
•     One thing that gives you maximum satisfaction

Let me elaborate the first point in this post.

You may ask what has the most important task got to do with happiness? Agreed, it can make us successful or more effective, but that affects our happiness only indirectly. But my assertion is that taking care of the important work has a direct impact on our happiness. How?

Very often we tend to put off important tasks that are not yet urgent. Later on when these tasks turn urgent, we have to carry them out under stress. If we are constantly hounded by urgent stuff to be taken care of, and are all the time under stress, we get a feeling of things getting out of control. A major cause of this stress could be that we did not take care of these important tasks in time.

As an example, if you are an student, the important task for you would be to study a little at a time on a daily basis so that learning become an on-going enjoyable process for you. When you do not do regular study, you are likely to be under stress on the eve of examination to cram everything up. Does that make you happy?

I know that we can not wish away urgent tasks and the stress of every-day life in such a simplistic manner. But here is how my suggestion works. When you are in the middle of the hustle-bustle of your day full of tensions, remember to find at least one task that is important in your life, and complete it. If you can find something that you have been putting off for quite some time or dread the idea of doing it, do it first. (Take care of the biggest ugliest frog first). This gives you an instant mental satisfaction, a feeling of control over your life, and most important of all, if you practice it for a month, you will find that your stressful urgent tasks will start magically disappearing, as you have already taken care of them.

Believe me, its really as simple. Just one important task a day can save you the hassle of 10 urgent stress causing tasks later and increase your happiness.

Try this idea yourself for a month and see if it works for you.