If you want to get ahead in life, you must understand and appreciate the importance of time. Some people often neglect its importance but for some, the time you’ve spent doing something else of less importance could be the time spent accomplishing important tasks that will contribute to the quality of life.
Time management is an art that can be mastered by anyone. Once you do, you’ll quickly learn that a 24-hour day can turn to 48 hours with the right amount of planning and organization.
If you are someone who struggles with time, realizing that the day is already over and you have not done half of the things you need to do, here are some time management tips that will help you.
Plan your day
Every day is unpredictable but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan anyway. Write down your activities and tasks and classify them by urgency and importance. Time log them and finished them within that time frame you have set. Spend less time on activities that aren’t important and prioritize those that demand time and effort.
Leave a few blank spaces within the day so you can write any impromptu tasks. Some people do this before going to bed the night before while some prefer to plan their day before starting on with work. It depends on your preference.
Use time management tools
We’ve all been there. We have the day planned at the top of our head and we start the day right. But once you’ve clocked out, you realized that one minute task that you forgot to do.
To prevent this, use time management tools. It could be a physical planner, a desk calendar, index cards, a small notebook, or the most popular ones today are those you can download on your phones and have them sync through multiple devices.
We’ve mentioned this on the tip above, but we’ll say it out again because this is one of the easiest and simplest ways you can manage your time alongside your tasks. Write them out and put them in an area where you can see them and be constantly reminded of tasks of the day.
Do not multitask
Multitasking is such an excellent skill. But we don’t recommend doing this at all. Working on multiple projects all at the same time can drain you out, resulting in fatigue and negative health implications. You are also sacrificing your mental health when you are trying to do thousands of things in an hour.
Some even find multitasking counterproductive, often finding tasks unfinished at the end of the day. Work on one thing at a time. If you are under a time limit, allocate a specific time for a task and stick to it.
Remove distractions
You are productive one moment, feeling like you are conquering the world, but the next moment, you have spent 30 minutes scrolling down Facebook.
Distractions are the most dangerous, productivity-killer out there. And they come in various forms such as:
- Smartphones
- Social Media
- Co-workers
To avoid being distracted by your phone, it’s best to put your phone on silent or mute off unnecessary notifications. We also recommend that you keep your devices somewhere else while you are working, maybe inside the desk, or stash it off deep inside your bag.
While communication with your co-worker is important, especially if you are talking about work-related matters, it is also okay if you ask to chat with them later.
Know that you’re not perfect
You’ve done all of the tips above and more, you’ve meticulously planned out everything, from 5 a.m to the 10 p.m of your day but still, something in the middle goes wrong. A project you’ve been working on took a lot of time than you’ve expected or maybe you’ve overlooked a detail or made a mistake. You are suddenly out of schedule and you just know you will not be able to tick everything off your to-do list for the day.
And that’s okay. You need to understand that you are human and that mistakes and imperfections are what mold you to become a better version of yourself. That no matter how much you plan, time is still unpredictable and you should adapt to it.
