Time Management Tips to Increase Your Productivity - Part 1
Success in almost anything requires time management skills. Sometimes, there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish everything you need to do. But if you want to accomplish more than others in a shorter period, you need to improve your time management.
Time management
Time management refers to how you schedule and organize your time for different activities. There are several different tools and techniques to help you get more done in less time. In this article, we'll explore some time management tips that will help you organize and manage your day with the highest efficiency.
Importance of time management
Time is your most precious resource. It's prone to waste, is not compensable, and cannot be stored, but you can manage it and make the most of it when you focus on important activities instead of non-important ones. Every work takes time, and just taking a moment to think about your time before you spend it will improve your management and increase your productivity immediately.
If you think that time management is just a tool, like a calculator or a cell phone, and something to increase productivity and make more money ultimately, then you got it wrong. Time management is not a secondary activity or skill, it's the primary skill on which everything else depends.
“Think of time management as a way to take you from wherever you are today to wherever you want to be in the future” - Motivational Speaker Brian Tracy.
1. Eat the frog
Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do every morning is to eat a frog - get a difficult or unpleasant task out of the way first - you can spend the rest of the day feeling good because you know you're done with the worst things that will happen to you all day long.
A frog is the biggest and most important task you'll likely put off if you don't take quick action. If you have two frogs, start with the bigger one first. That is, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task and then move on to the other.
2. Work on the hardest task
The key to reaching high levels of time management, performance, and productivity is to develop a lifelong habit of tackling your main task first every morning. You have to develop this routine before you do anything else without spending much time thinking about it.
Successful and productive people start working directly on their major tasks and then adjust work steadily and focus until they accomplish those tasks.
“Implementation Failure” is a major issue for businesses today, and many people confuse the concepts of activity with achievement. They talk incessantly, have endless meetings, and make great plans, but in the end, no one gets the job done or gets the desired results.
3. Don't seek quick solutions
Practice is the key to mastering any skill, and luckily, your mind resembles a muscle - it gets stronger and more skillful the more you use it. With practice, you can learn any behavior or develop any habit you deem as desirable or necessary. So, choose the task you hate doing every day, then build the habit of waking up every morning and doing it first.
How to manage time more effectively?
To earn more money, you need to learn how to manage time effectively. There are two main sources of value in the business world: the first is time, and the second is knowledge. Time is the currency of the era, so use the following three techniques to manage your time and get back on the right track to success:
1. Promote a sense of urgency
Speed is the most important currency of time, and your “sense of urgency” is the most important quality you can enhance in terms of time management. That is, act quickly when you have the chance. Speed is essential to success, and all successful people not only work hard but also fast.
2. Stop stalling
Procrastination is not just a waste of time, but also a waste of life. You need to develop the habit of time management to act quickly when needed, and you need to develop a good reputation in terms of speed and responsibility.
Small tasks should be done immediately as soon as they're needed. The habit of taking action quickly will get you a massive amount of work done in a day, and will earn you a reputation for being a reliable person when work needs to be done quickly.
3. Work on tasks right away
Start working on the task as soon as it comes up, focus and start working. A lot of time can be wasted on choosing a task, thinking before starting it, then leaving it and returning to it repeatedly.
General Time Management Skills
Getting prepared the night before will have a huge impact on your success. Here are 3 general time management skills anyone can acquire to help get more things done:
1. Write down your thoughts
Write on a piece of paper all you plan to do and include everything, even your plans for lunch, exercise, and making dinner for you and your family in detail, then organize the content by asking yourself: “If I could only do one thing on this list today, what would it be? And if I could only do two things at a time, what would they be ?" etc. After that, when you start working the next morning, start with the first thing you've chosen and set yourself up to work only on it until you finish it before moving on to the second thing.
2. Avoid distractions
Checking your email first thing in the morning is a distraction. It starts with just one email, and before you know it, it's been several hours into your day, and you haven't even started on your first task yet. So, keep your phone away to avoid distractions from your most important task.
3. Make a to-do list the day before
The last way to ensure a productive day is to prepare a list of goals and tasks the night before. Your ability to make good plans before work measures your overall efficiency. The better your plan, the easier it is for you to overcome procrastination, get started, then keep going.
By writing down your goals before you go to bed, you'll think about the things you need to do, and prepare yourself mentally to do them before you wake up the next morning. When you plan each day in advance, prioritize your list, and stick to your plan, work will go faster and smoother, you'll feel more powerful and efficient, and you'll get more done faster than you thought possible.
Time management: To-do lists
Create a to-do list for each day
When you think about how helpful planning is in improving your productivity and performance, it's surprising that very few people practice it daily. Planning is so easy, all you need is a piece of paper and a pen. The most complex time management applications follow the same principle. Creating a to-do list is one of the best time management tools you can develop.
Turn creating a to-do list into a habit
Always work according to a list, and when something new comes up, add it to the list before doing it. You can increase your productivity by 25% or more from the first day you start working this way.
So, write your list the night before at the end of the work day, move everything you haven't done during that day to your to-do list for the next day, and then add everything you have to do the next day. When you make your list the evening or the night before, your subconscious thinks about your list all night while you sleep, and you'll often wake up with great ideas you can use to get your work done faster and better than you initially thought. The longer you take to make written lists of everything you need to do in advance, the more effective and efficient you'll be.
Types of to-do lists
There are different to-do lists you need for different purposes.
- You have to create a master list where you write down everything you can think of, and want to do sometime in the future. Here, you write down every idea that comes to your mind or every new task or responsibility, and then you can sort the items later.
- You should have a monthly list prepared at the end of the following month, which may contain items removed from your main list.
- You should have a weekly list to plan your entire week in advance. You should create this list during the week.
- Move items from your monthly and weekly lists to your daily list of specific activities you'll accomplish each day.
Check off accomplished tasks
As you work through the day, cross out the items on your list when you complete them. This activity gives you a visual image of accomplishment, and generates a sense of success and progress. Seeing yourself make progress in accomplishing your list motivates you, boosts your self-esteem, drives you forward, and helps you overcome procrastination.
Workplace Time Management Tools
One of the best time management tips is to work in a tidy office, and an organized workspace. Just like a good chef cleans the entire kitchen before and after cooking, you need to organize your workspace completely before you start your work.
1. Organize your desktop
Sort all your documents into appropriate files, whether on paper or online. Keep your computer desktop tidy, and follow the rule that if you can't see your desktop background image, you have a lot of files, and some should be removed.
Many people may think they work more effectively in a messy work environment and a cluttered office. However, every study conducted with these people shows that when they have to organize their work environment so that they have only one task, their productivity doubles at once.
2. Organize of your desk
Be organized and tidy, and make sure that office supplies are stored in their appropriate places and are available at hand. You'll find nothing more detrimental to competence and effectiveness than having to start, stop, and start all over again due to lack of prior preparation or proper supplies.
People who work with desks full of stuff are found to be spending a great deal of searching for materials they need in the chaos each working day. Psychologically, seeing a desk full of things subconsciously reminds you that you're unorganized and leads to constant distraction because your eyesight and attention move from one item to another all the time.
Email Time Management
Keep your inbox organized. If you don't need an email, delete it. Choose a specific time during the day to respond to all your emails at once. Don't answer once you receive them, as some people are slaves to their email. They're alerted with every new email and drop whatever they do to check their inbox. That is, they drop the task at hand and then pick up where they left off; as a result, they immediately lose momentum and productivity.
1. Respond to all emails at once
When replying to emails, group emails together and respond to them all at once. Don't reply to them as soon as you receive them, and do all similar tasks simultaneously instead of doing some tasks now and others later.
Grouping your tasks means doing similar things at the same time. Everything you do has a “learning curve,” and when you complete a series of similar or identical tasks sequentially, this learning curve will enable you to reduce the time required to complete each task by up to 80% by the time you complete the fifth task.
2. Write short and sweet emails
You have to firmly decide not to let your inbox take control of your life. Instead, discipline yourself to use your email as a business tool. Make your responses quick and to the point. If they're quick, you'll save more time for other emails and make it easier to read all correspondence.
3. Create Email Folders
If you manage multiple email addresses from a single account, assign a standard and logo to each account. This way, you'll know which are personal emails and which ones are work-related. Then, you can postpone personal emails for later without reading them right away. This will leave you room to deal with your most important tasks.
4. Check your email twice a day
It's enough to manage your email only twice a day or less. It's better not to open it on weekends, spending more quality time with your family and friends and on your personal activities.
So, check it once in the morning after you've started working for a few hours, and respond to all new emails you might have. This will leave you free in the morning to work on the most important tasks of the day. Check it again late in the afternoon, then leave it to the next day and focus on all the other work you have to do.
Some of the most productive people use auto-reply. The response is a pattern: "I reply to my email only twice a day, due to my busy schedule. If you send me an email, I will get back to you as soon as possible. If it is an emergency, please call the following number…”.
How to manage time better?
There are three things people spend their time on: conversations, ideas, and actions. How you manage your time within each category will decide how successful you are in life. No amount of money or resources can make up for lost time.
Learning how to manage time better is crucial to leading a fulfilling life and succeeding in your career. So, start evaluating how you spend time by keeping a record of what takes up the most of your time and attention in your daily life. Identifying which tasks require the most time is the first step in developing a plan to increase your productivity.
How to invest in your time better?
Depending on what you do, time can pass at lightning speed, or at a snail's pace. Although you may be busy all day, it's not necessarily synonymous with productivity. Still, by managing time wisely, you'll reduce the time you waste during the day and increase your productivity.
So, list the most important tasks, and allocate time to each task. Sticking to the time allotted to you will serve as an expected goal, and maintain your energy and productivity. Also, allocating time for breaks is essential because overworking will dampen your motivation and reduce your productivity. Thus, eliminate unnecessary tasks that take a lot of time, and find shortcuts to tasks in your day that are necessary but not at the top of your priority list.
Having a clear goal, organized time to work, and a set time for a break will make you happier and help you manage your time more wisely.
Highlights
In this part, we talked about the most difficult and important task, techniques for effective time management, general time management skills, task lists, time management in the office and email, and how to manage time better. In the second part, we'll look at the four things we should avoid in time management, the technique of prioritizing in time management, and four time management tips for creating a balance between your professional and personal life.