Time is one of the only things in life where we experience true equality. There is no discrimination. No matter your race, age, gender, financial status, or religion, we all have the same amount of time each day. It is about how you choose to use that time which can make the difference.
Do you often feel a sense of busyness, like there isn’t enough time in the day? Then, learning effective time management is the best place to start. If you take control of your time, you will experience more balance in your life and make quicker steps towards your bigger goals.
Why should you practice time management skills?
Efficient Time Management 🕐 = Less Stress🔻 + More Productivity 🔼 & Quickly Reaching GOALS ✅
Let’s get into it. Here are 5 tips to managing your time:
1. Analyze How You Currently Spend Your Time
It may seem common knowledge to assess what you spend your time doing for a few weeks before deciding what changes you may need to make to your routine. There are tools out there you can use to track your time, like Toggl, Rescue Time, or Top Tracker. Here are a few questions to answer that will keep you on the right track:
- How much time is spent procrastinating online?
- Where is the majority of your time spent?
- Do you feel you use your time wisely every day?
- Write down your accomplishments. What did you do each day?
- How many of the activities did you perform are helping you with progress towards your goals?
- And More.
2. Identify Priorities and Deadlines
Once you answer the questions above, separate your tasks into categories in order to visualize their importance and urgency. These include any work deadlines, household chores, errands, exercising, cooking, and anything else that qualifies as a TO DO.
4 recommended categories:
- Important &Urgent**
Complete these immediately - Important & Not Urgent**
Need to Be Done, but no Deadlines (most time will be here) - Not Important & Urgent**
Try to eliminate these or limit time here - Not Important & Not Urgent**
These tasks do not pertain to your goals & may be considered fun, enjoyed activities like, movie watching – scrolling Facebook
These categories are meant to help you see your priorities visually and make the most of each day, but always leave time for yourself.
3. Set Measurable, Realistic Goals
Goal setting is a common practice and you do not achieve great things without them; however, it must be done the right way. Aim for your goals to be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Assignable
- Realistic
- Time-related
Always write these down. Research shows that the process of writing things down significantly increases your chances of following through.
4. Plan Ahead and Practice Time Blocking
Forming productive and routine habits are just a few ways to effectively manage your time from day-to-day. You can start by planning ahead, make a to-do-list before bed each night. The key here is to be specific, and limit the number of tasks you wish to accomplish. This is the only way to avoid becoming overwhelmed by daunting never ending task lists that can keep you up at night. One technique that works splendidly is “Time Blocking.”
Time blocking is meant to help you eliminate procrastination, improve motivation, and give you a realistic view of your time. Take a calendar, like google calendar, and write down your tasks for the day in 30-minute time blocks. These blocks will also include your exercise, small breaks, and self-care time. Try it today and see your productivity rise!
5. Try to Eliminate Bad Habits and Find Balance
Once you feel more organized, get a realistic view on your time, and truly understand your goals, it is your chance to eliminate any bad habits and the balance will come. Consider limiting or ridding your day of time killers such as, social media scrolling, attempting to multitask, delaying decision making, worrying, and procrastination. As you begin to limit the items above from your day-to-day to do’s, remember that you must also add-in time for yourself. Every person needs short breaks from work, your mind will function with greater clarity once you give it a chance to recharge by doing something you love. Consider adding short reading breaks, art, music or a walk outside into your time blocking calendar. These activities may help increase your happiness levels and bring your LIFE into BALANCE, which all of us know is a guiding principle of the world.