10 Time Management Tips That Actually Work
Time management can help you with time organization and make the most with your time. Here are 10 time management tips that are practical and will 10X your productivity. Beat the Time Management Challenge with these tried and tested time management hacks that will help you make time for everything and stay productive.
Do Brain Dump
Do not rely on your memory and put it down on paper. When you have things written either in notebook or digital list you are aware of things taht need to be done. Otherwise you either miss tasks or feel overwhelmed with taks and thoyghts in your head, once you write it will be done. Trust me on this.
Keep a running To-Do list of all the tasks that you need to complete and each day keep adding tasks to it as and when you come across them. Having a task listed on a To-Do list will help you prioritize and schedule them rightly.
Prioritize Your To-do List
To make the best use of your time, you need to know the priority of tasks that you need to complete. It is one thing to make a to do list but which task to do when will help you manage time better. Prioritization must be done based on importance and urgency of the task. You must read my post on How to prioritize tasks, it covers the details of techniques one can use to prioritize to do list and be efficient.
Audit Your Day
To improve time management you must know where and how much time your spend each day. Do do this review your daily routine and observe and make note on the time you spend. This will help you plan your day better and manage time will, sometimes you will be surprised to know how much time you are spending on unimportant things without even realizing it. When reviewing, you must consider things like:
- Which tasks take most of your time
- Things that distract you
- How long you take to complete different tasks
- Things you find challenging to completeÂ
- Your energy level throughout the day
Once you have reviewed your day, identify things that are promoters and those that are detractors. All the things that are enablers i.e. those that help you get things dome must be part of your day or explored more to make the most of it. All those that are disabler i.e. things that lower your productivity must be eliminated or limited from your routine.
Limit Distractions
For making the most of your time you must get away from distractions as they reduce your focus and result in a waste of time. Identify the things that most commonly distract you and make means to limit or avoid them.
I find notifications from my phone distract me and break my focus. At times I lose my train of thought with notification interruption. So, I turn off all the notifications when I sit for a deep work session. At work, people interrupt most often, in that case, I like to put on headphones, and this limits people from disturbing me.
You will need to identify things that are distracting you and try to eliminate them to improve time management.
Plan Your Day The Night Before
For better time management, I highly recommend planning your day the night before. By doing this you are very clear on the things you need to do today. Planning your day in advance helps you be more effective as you can sketch your day well based on your priorities and not get carried away by the day and others’ schedules. When you plan your day in advance you can start your day immediately with the work at hand rather than wasting time thinking about what to do. I can vouch for this as the day when I miss planning my day, I lose time and also get distracted easily.
Identify Your Power Hours
Power hours are the time duration when a person is able to intensely focus on a particular task. You are in good energy and very effective during these hours. You should identify your power hours and try to plan critical thinking tasks during that part of the day.
I also, feel that our energy also affects productivity. When I am late for lunch or have missed my lunch at work, my energy levels drop and I am not at the best of my mental capabilities to think well. That’s the reason why I like to schedule the most critical tasks in the first part of the morning as I feel more productive during that time also when the most important work is done I feel much more calm and under control.
You must find your most productive hour and make the most of it. Not necessarily all are most productive in the morning some people find nights more productive, also your environment defines your productive hours too, when I was working from home, the time my daughter used to take her afternoon nap was the most productive hour for me.
Identify 3 Non-Negotiable Tasks
Based on your task list and priorities identified when planning your productive day, always include a maximum of 3 most important tasks that you need to complete on the day. These tasks should be a significant part of your To-Do list and must definitely be completed on the day. Do not try to plan more than 3 in a day as it may not be possible to complete and these significant tasks will mostly consume more time compared to trivial tasks also these kinds of tasks tend to be more energy demanding and you may not be able to stay up with your plan if it is not realistic.
Try Time Blocking
Use Time Blocking and allot specific time for a particular task and put all efforts into ensuring the task is completed within the stipulated time frame. The deadline you set for the task allows you to stay focused and productive. You are less distracted and more productive. I like to timebox the most critical task or my nonnegotiable tasks so that I am more positive about completing them. Routine mundane tasks like answering emails, etc. can be batched together to be completed together for a specific time block. you can read more about it in my post on Timeblocking.Â
Make Daily Routine
Having a daily routine will help yoy managem your time better and improve productivity. When you build and follow a routine you remove the decision fatigue of making basic decisions. By following a particular routine you nurture your mind to take care of the tasks and it knows what to expect next. In this way, our mind knows what to expect next and avoids overwhelm.
When you are building a routine try to make them as per your need to reap the most benefit of it. The most common routines that you should have are a morning routine and an evening routine. To make a daily routine you can start with a morning routine so that you can have the right start for the day. You can read my post on 5 steps to build a morning routine before work to make your productive day morning routine, for more morning routine ideas read 50 Good morning routine ideas that suit everyone.Â
P.S. You may also like to read Simple After work evening routine.
Plan Buffer Time & Breaks
A common mistake in the search for time management is to over plan and not taking break. Productivity is not only about doing tasks but doing work effectively without burining yourself. Also by taking break will help to you be more efficent as a rested mind will perform better. Many of us feel guilty when we take a break from our work. But taking a break allows you to be more focused, and improves your performance and creativity.
Also, have a buffer time during the day to take care of any work that was planned and could not be completed due to un forseen situation, the buffer time gives you space to breath in can be on top of your tasks.
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