Time management can affect your way of life, especially in unusual circumstances like working from home. In fact, if you don’t know how you can manage your time well, you can end up wasting an entire day, or even year, without getting any work done. If you’re one of the many people who procrastinate or can’t handle the thought of a schedule, keep reading for some great strategies below!
To better manage the time you have in a day, have ideation! Always let your mind to create what you want to be done. Prioritize everything inside the idea and cross ideas off one by one as you accomplish them. Get into this habit, and you should reach more goals and have more time in the day.
Create a to-do list every morning before you begin your work. Sometimes time is eaten up in the day simply because you don’t have a plan. Even a light sketch of a plan, like a simple to-do list, is enough to save you precious minutes, even hours, during the day.
Think about the things that are costing you time. Be smart when it comes to time usage. Do not look at emails outside of a few designated times each day. Looking at them off and on all day can eat into the time you’ve set aside for other tasks.
Prior to calling someone on the phone at work, take a few minutes to plan out the questions that you need to be answered. Often a lot of time is wasted simply through the rambling that occurs on the telephone when you don’t know what you really need. Having a sense of your goals prior will help keep you on track.
When time is really of the essence, keep any sort of social media out of your workspace. Social media can be an extreme time suck, literally eating minutes and hours if you aren’t careful. To truly focus, you’ll need privacy away from these sites. It may be tempting to take a look, but remember how efficient you’ll be without it!
Read More: Time-Wasting Habits: A Personal Audit
Break down your tasks into smaller ones. Sometimes having a big task or project that is big can be overwhelming. Instead of getting overwhelmed, think of the task in smaller parts, and work on each smaller part. This can help keep you focused and help you use your time wisely.
Make a list of the important tasks that you have to complete for the day. This will help you prioritize your tasks better. As you complete and check off each task, you will feel good about your accomplishment, and it will motivate you to move on to the next task.
If you are in charge of a large task, break it down into manageable smaller tasks. This will enable you to concentrate on a small portion of the task without getting overwhelmed. By using this technique, you can ensure that you stay on schedule to complete the larger task.
Make your lunch the night before. If you go to work every day and think you “don’t have time” to figure out your lunch in the morning, do it the night before. That way, you can create your lunch without rushing. Not only that, but that simple step will stop you from spending your most productive part of the day in the kitchen.
…Old clocks like these transport me. You suddenly see the passage of time from the ticking sound and the antique look. It’s unique.
Get out of the house if you’re finding your concentration lagging. Sometimes a change of location is all that you need to renew your focus and operate much more effectively. It can be a real blessing to time management to change things up a few times during the day.
Sometimes, better time management can be as easy as having a clock within your line of vision. There are many times when you get so engrossed in the task at hand that you can lose track of time. If you have a large clock right in front of you, it will help keep you aware of your usage of time.
In order to manage your time well, you’ve got to manage your health well. Studies show that people who don’t get proper sleep or nutrition don’t function as well throughout the day. When every minute counts, you want to be on top of your game. Eating and sleeping well is half the battle!
Decline any tasks that are really nonessential. Take care of those things that are urgent or important. Most of your time will be spent on matters that are both urgent and important. Anything that falls outside of these two categories does not deserve much of your time if you want to get things done.
Look at your long to-do list. Are any items bigger than you can mentally handle right now? Get a smaller pad or piece of paper and break it down into baby steps you can take. Using a sub-list for the coming week on a big item means you can at least whittle down a big task to something more manageable.
Realize that you have one life to get everything done. That knowledge will help you to stay away from things you don’t want to waste your life doing, and it will help you to make time for what matters to you. This is the only life you have, so make time for all you want to be, do, and have.
Consider what must be done versus what doesn’t have to be done. You may think everything is “top of the list”, but when you really look at those items, you’ll see certain things there that don’t need immediate attention. Put those to the side so that you can be more effective with your time.
Try implementing a reward system for yourself. After you complete your tasks on time, make sure that you treat yourself to something that you want. Just make sure you do this after you have completed your schedule or to-do list. You shouldn’t indulge in fun stuff until you finish your work.
Time management can improve the way you live and the way you perceive things on a daily basis. Most people who don’t partake in managing their time are really cutting their way of life short. Use the tips from this article to help you turn your life around and manage your time in a proactive way.
Read More: Time-Wasting Habits: A Personal Audit
