Tips to make the most of your time
/As things begin to pick up this autumn and in-person schooling resumes (for most), it can be difficult to break old habits and make the most of our days. How will we ever fall back into our old routines and be as productive as we used to be? Time management is a key skill we’ll need to develop in order to be successful.
Here are two articles that will hopefully help you learn more about how you can practice time management in order to make the most of your time!
Time Management Is About More Than Life Hacks by Harvard Business Review
Have you ever tried using an app to boost your productivity ? Have you ever created a regimen per the advice of an article promising success but still did not quite manage to achieve your goals?
Most articles about time management dive right into the hacks and tools one can use to make effective use of their time instead of targeting the underlying cause of misused or wasted time. These ‘hacks’ and ‘tools’ tend to not work when one doesn’t know how or when to use them.
For example, a person can’t become a professional photographer by simply buying the most expensive camera and high-tech accessories - they need lessons on how to operate their equipment, knowledge on composition and lighting, an understanding of the elements of photography such as space, texture, and colour, and much, much more. The same applies to effectively managing your time.
This article explores and helps the readers develop an understanding of three important skills: Awareness, arrangement, and adaptation so that they can successfully manage their time.
5 essential time management techniques by Timely
Reiterating the idea mentioned in the article mentioned above and as Timely succinctly puts it: “Time management isn’t really about managing time at all—it’s about managing yourself.”
You don’t need fancy tools and apps to keep yourself on track, although they do help once you’ve developed the basics of managing yourself and understood what works best for you!
So what are the essentials?
Creating a to-do list! Seems simple enough, right? Unfortunately, many people overlook this simple yet crucial step because it just seems so easy! Keeping a mental checklist does not help at all since it's so easy to forget and get distracted. So write those ideas down; it doesn't matter if it's on your phone, laptop, or some scrap piece of paper you find at the bottom of your backpack!
Prioritize! Again, seems simple enough, right? And yet, so many people disregard this step! A common pitfall that many people encounter is assuming that all tasks hold equal importance - but this is not the case at all. Do not complete tasks in the chronological order that you think of them! Instead, take the time to assign each task a value - similar to the rock, pebble, and sand method.
a. Your rocks should be the tasks that have the greatest consequences if not completed - such as completing an assigned part of a project. These typically take a lot of time to complete and should be tackled ASAP.
b. Your pebbles can be tasks that are urgent, but not to the same degree as the ones mentioned above - they typically have a loose timeframe and can be fitted in-between ‘rock’ activities or directly after. These tasks tend to mistakenly be held at the same value as your ‘rocks’ and prioritizing between them can be difficult. Giving too much time to these can be detrimental and take away from more important things.
c. Finally, your sand. These are the least important tasks you need to complete. Sometimes everything you need to do seems urgent and it requires a lot of thought and effort to differentiate between their importance. Your sand is what you should complete after accomplishing all your rocks and pebbles since they are usually low-effort and not as time-consuming.
Focus and manage distractions. Did you know it takes around 23 minutes to refocus after being distracted? Now think of all the notifications you receive on your phone - messages you receive from friends, updates from those you follow on social media, sales alerts, etc - those add up! This is where those productivity apps come in handy. After you’ve learned what times work best for you and your focus, be sure to block out distractions for that timeframe and set restrictions to help you stay on track!
As mentioned above, block off the times where you’re able to get the most done! Use the very first article attached to figure out what works best for you and then set aside that time to complete tasks - and plan those blocks accordingly! You can set aside two 15 minute blocks a day that you dedicate to returning calls, replying to Slack messages, work emails, or LinkedIn messages! Time blocks are great because they set limits and prevent you from multitasking. You can set longer blocks for group calls related to projects, homework, studying, or anything else that is time-consuming and highly analytical.
Finally, track the time you’ve spent. Reflecting on the progress you’ve made is immensely helpful since it will help you compare your expectations with what you achieved in reality. Was the time you spent on your tasks similar to what you predicted with your allotted time blocks? Did you find any time drains or were some of the tasks you anticipated to be immensely time-consuming not that bad? Tracking and reflecting will help you keep improving your processes so you can be as efficient as possible!
Read more about these tips on Timely’s website! And I hope you, dear reader, find these tips helpful!