Efficient time management is one of the most sought-after things in the productivity world. Everyone wants to be able to manage their time better, understandably so, as good time management is necessary for achieving an elevated level of productivity.
I will give you my top five time management tips for how to manage time better and consequently help you to accomplish greater productivity by being the master of your own life.
Want to become a master of time management? Dive deeper into effective strategies and techniques with our comprehensive guide on Mastering Time Management Skills.
Make a To-Do List
Having a to-do list is essential when it comes to managing your time efficiently; it is one of the best time management tips. If you don’t know what you need to do, then you will end up spending 30 minutes figuring it out. Even worse, you don’t know what you need to do, so you end up doing nothing.
A good app for planning your to-do list is Todoist. But, if you don’t want to use an app, then a piece of paper will work fine.
Start by listing the three things (or more if necessary) that you 100% must complete today. Set these as your high-priority “must-do” tasks. Then, list everything else that you would like to potentially do today and set these as low-priority “might-do” tasks. You should complete the must-do tasks first. Then, if you still feel like it, you can complete some of the might-do tasks.
You should try to integrate making a to-do list into your night routine, so that you start your day ready, and prepared to do what you need to get done. I speak more about creating a good night routine in my article on the best night routine for productivity.
Set Time Limits for Tasks
You should set time limits for each task, and then force yourself to get the task done in that time. This doesn’t mean that you should try to limit yourself to an hour for a task that will take 5 hours to complete, this doesn’t make you more productive. This is one of the time management tips that has helped me immensely with my exams.
This means that you set a realistic time in which you can complete your task, and you use a timer to have a period of deep work without any distractions. This will enable you to complete more tasks in less time as you will spend more time doing deep, undistracted work.
Use a good timer without lots of distractions, like the simple Apple/Google timers. You could also investigate more fun ways of maintaining focused working with time management apps like Forest, which offer you something rewarding for deep work.
Be Organised
You should know what you want to do before each task. An effective way of doing this is by writing a more in-depth to-do list. This means that next to each basic task name, you write a brief description of what this task will entail. Todoist, amongst many other to-do lists, have this feature embedded into them, which makes them especially useful for helping with your time management.
This is a useful idea as it will mean that you don’t spend time deciding what you are going to do, but rather, you spend more time working uninterrupted on the tasks that require the most attention.
Block Out Times
Similar to Google and Apple Calendar, a good Calendar app like Fantastical Calendar will allow you to block out time each day for your required activities.
This can be linked closely to your to-do list making, as your to-do list will be used to state the priority and details of what you want to do, while your calendar will block out the time for said activity. I would similarly recommend that you do this in your night routine.
A useful tip that you can put into practice would be blocking out time in your schedule for the things that you want to do. For example, you may want to meet with a friend from 10-12 in the morning. By putting this in your schedule first, you can plan your day around the events that you already have in place.
Take Breaks
An extremely underrated part of being organised with your time is setting aside time for breaks. This doesn’t mean that you can spend 30 minutes on a task, and then a 90-minute break. You should take small 5-minute breaks between each hour, if possible, where you get up and walk about. Then, take a 30-minute break after 3 hours of deep work to do something you like. For example, make a coffee, read a book etc. This can be customised to your needs, and you can change this over time.
Taking a break is also important as it can help to keep motivation and prevent burnout. Burnout is often overlooked as one of the major factors in procrastination and lack of productivity. Therefore, it is something you should avoid at all costs – if you feel yourself being burnt out, then take longer breaks and don’t feel guilty about it. Just know that when you take a longer break, it is really going to help you to be more productive overall.
Conclusion
Overall, learning how to effectively manage your time through some of these techniques will help you to achieve greater productivity in your life, which will consequently lead to greater success. When it comes to learning how to manage time, you must first understand your own problems with time management before implementing these five time management tips.
It is vital that you persevere when implementing these techniques into your daily life – even if the outcome is not evident after a few weeks, learn to be disciplined and stick to these techniques and the benefits will soon come.
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