Managing your time wisely improves work-life balance and increases happiness. Good time management also reduces stress and allows you to achieve your goals faster and easier.
If you follow our Facebook page you would have seen our recent series on time management.
If not, we have you covered. The below tips will steer your efforts in becoming a pro when it comes to time management.
- AUDIT YOUR TIME. When you’re wanting to maximise your efficiency and improve your time management it is always important to start by auditing your time. Keep track of your daily activities for a week and find the unproductive spots to minimise and also the beneficial spots that provide the best returns.
- PRIORITISE. Prioritisation is an important part of time management. Start by removing tasks you shouldn’t be performing from your To-Do list and identify three to four important tasks to work through first. Base your To-Do list off importance, and not urgency, to progress yourself. Check out the Eisenhower Matrix for more.
- PLAN THE WEEK. The weekly schedule, done a day at a time, helps to keep you organised and focused. Incorporate your To-Do list into your daily schedule and make sure to prioritise it accordingly. The week can be planned in just a few moments on Sunday evening, leaving you ready to go as soon as you step into the office.
- LIMITS. Assigning time limits to tasks might seem counter intuitive at first but it goes in hand with creating your day-to-day schedule. Making sure to limit your time working on each part of your To-Do list can drive productivity when managed, check out the Pomodoro Technique for example.
- BUFFERS. Building in buffers to your schedule is always an important, and fun, part of the scheduling. It’s necessary to take minibreaks between tasks and give yourself a chance to breathe, so recharge with a short walk or a bit of meditation.
- ORGANIZE. Organisation is key to proper efficiency. Making sure to keep on top of work area and making use of a proper filing system for documents and emails will help to streamline your work. Efficiency is the aim and organising yourself will provide the speed and ease.
- FIND YOUR PEAK. Knowing when your “Golden Hours” in a day are, and how you spend them can be a massive boon to your workday. Find out what time of day you are at peak creativity, energy and motivation, and then completely your most important tasks in this time slot. The improvement will show itself.
- BREAK IT DOWN. Large tasks can overwhelm anyone so sometimes it is easier to use “The Swiss Cheese Method” and break down the larger tasks into more manageable chunks. Considering completing the large task over smaller fifteen-minute time blocks and find yourself chipping through it all in no time.
- DONE LIST. Keeping track of a To-Do list is a no brainer, but making sure to have an unexpected Done list is a subtler habit to form. Jot down your completed tasks over the week as you knock them off your To-Do list and reflect on such at the end of the week. Reviewing this success will boost you up, ready to take on the next week.
- CREATE THE HABIT. With all the previously mentioned being adopted into your newfound system it is necessary to repeatedly perform and improve upon it. It will take slightly more than two months of repetition to formulate it as a new habit. So don’t worry if you don’t see results immediately, productive time habits just take a bit of time.
