Time MANAGEMENT TIPS – Why You Need to Make the Most of Your Time

Time management is more than just having more time. It’s actually more of making the most out of the time that you have, making sure you use it effectively and productively.

Sometimes life gets busy and you really need to get on top of everything. It’s kind of hard to do that when you always feel like you are lacking time.

This blog post is going to outline time management tips that you can use to maximise your time effectively.

The following time management tips are placed into different categories:

• Pre-Planning
• Planning
• Doing

PRE-PLANNING

Before you actually plan your time.

1) Know Exactly What Your Goals and Objectives Are

Of course, in order to know how you’re going to maximise your time, you need to know first what your goals and objectives are. Clarity is essential in order to know how we are going to spend our time. We need clarity on the following:

1. Our goals and objectives – we need them so that we can know exactly what to do next and how to do them.
2. Our systems – the processes and steps needed to accomplish the goals. It is where we make a list of everything that we need to do so we can have a visual picture of what exactly is needed to get the goal done. We create systems based on that.
3. The deadlines or sub-deadlines – if you have a project or assignment that already has a deadline, then it’s already done for you. Knowing the deadlines set in place for the projects and assignments will help you give an idea on what you are going to prioritise.

By doing all of this, it will give you a good idea for how you’re going to utilise your time.

2) Prioritise your goals and other commitments

After you have all your goals and deadlines clarified, the next step is to put them all in order of importance. Here are a few approaches that you can do this:

Consider the Consequences

This is when we put focus first on the most important tasks and priorities that have the most serious consequences, whether it is positive or negative in any area of our life.

For example, if you were to neglect one of your priorities such as your health, then that would be a negative impact to your health, so therefore that priority is what you’re going to make time for in that day.

Look at the long-term consequence of when:

• You do the task
• You don’t do the task

For example, when you look into the long-term consequence of doing an important project:

• If you do the task, then the consequence of that would be that you won’t lose your job, you’ll gain praise, and leads to more opportunities.
• If you don’t do the task, then the consequence of that would be that you would end up losing your job because you never completed the project.

Sometimes, it’s not always about doing what you feel like doing, it’s more of doing what your future self would thank you for.

Parkinson’s Law

I won’t go in too much detail with this one, but pretty much explaining in an analogy, think of your deadline as a small fire. The closer it gets to the deadline, the bigger the fire gets.

So when is the best time to put out a fire? Right away?

Pretty much, if you have a deadline on a task or a project, the best time to get started on it is right away, otherwise the fire would get bigger.

Applying all of this to what has been mentioned above, if you’re not too sure on what projects or tasks to prioritise, think of the long-term consequence of not doing it, and look at that deadline as a small fire, the longer you put it off, the harder it is going to get.

3) Know your non-negotiable commitments

If you need to, list down all the priorities that you have that are absolutely non-negotiable. For example, the days you work are non-negotiable (otherwise those long-term consequences would happen), as well as your exercise, or your family time, the list goes on.

Just think of those priorities that you have that if you didn’t do them during the day, or during the week, there would be long-term consequences that you don’t want to happen.

4) Create a NOT-To-Do List (to limit distractions)

To be honest, a NOT-to-do list is much more effective than an actual to-do list.

HOW?

Well, all you need to do is list all your distractions, put it into a To-Do list, and if you didn’t do that particular distraction for that entire day, then you can tick it off.

There’s something about ticking off your to-do list that is so exciting and intriguing for some people. Having a not-to-do list is just using that excitement to our advantage. The fact that we want to tick things off a to-do-list will be the motivator to not do what distracts us.

PLANNING

Planning Your Time

1) Schedule Your Week Ahead of Time (at the start of the week)

Here’s why planning your schedule at the start of the week is the most important aspect of time management.

In another blog post where it shows you how to plan and prepare your week, it outlines the reasons why you should plan your week at the start of the week:

1. You save valuable time each day – this is because whenever you start planning your day, on that same day, you waste valuable time that you could’ve used to just get started into what you need to do.
2. Reassurance that everything you need to get done will get completed on time.
3. Make less decisions throughout the week – because really, making decisions do take up time. Because we want to save time, it’s better to get it over and done with, so that throughout the week, we don’t waste time on trying to make small decisions.

The following reasons above is key to having effective time management. Honestly, it’s pretty crazy to think about how much valuable time could actually be wasted by simply just figuring out what we’re going to do that day.

To help plan and prepare your week, you can read this blog post which expands on it more and even provides you a step-by-step guide to planning and preparing your week. It will make a difference to your time management.

2) Know Your Temperaments

Our temperaments is basically the time of the day we work best. For example, one popular advice is to do your deep work in the morning. However, while this works for some (including me), it may not work for others. For others, they may work better late at night.

There’s no point in doing deep work in the morning if we’re feeling tired and don’t have the energy to work, but if we have all the energy late at night, then obviously you would work at a time that you have the maximized energy.

You work according to your temperament, so that you’re able to work effectively as you can. Whether that is early in the morning, the afternoon, or late at night, what matters most is that you plan out your day to allocate work at a time where you’re the most focused.

If you’re unsure on what your temperament is, then you can do some trial and error here.

Schedule out your work time at different times of the day throughout the week, and evaluate what time suits you most based on the following factors:

1. How focused you are.
2. How much you get done.
3. How effective your work is.

Of course, sometimes we may not get to work according to our temperament. For example, we may focus best in the morning, but that time is taken up due to work, and the only time we get to work on other projects is late in the afternoon. If this is the case, then we find ways to adjust our temperament. This may include getting enough sleep the night before so at the end of the day, we’re not that tired.

3) Calendar Blocking

A continuation from point one of planning your week and blocking out your time at the start of the week is key to having maximised time management. Since we had already went in detail on why planning our week ahead of time is important, a quick step-by-step process to planning out your schedule is below:

(From the blog post – How to Plan & Prepare Your Week)

1. Put in those “already committed” appointments and events – these are all the events and appointments that you have already listed in Step 3.
2. Put in your non-negotiable priorities – this is where you put all the priorities that are absolutely non-negotiable. Obviously it should include work (otherwise consequences would happen), exercise, self-care, appointments, etc. Just think of those things that would have severe consequences in the long-term if you don’t prioritize and do them in the week.
3. Schedule in other priorities that are important (but weren’t as urgent as the non-negotiable ones) – This may include catch ups with friends, running errands, etc. Just think of those things that are really flexible to move around. For instance, while a non-negotiable priority such as work isn’t so flexible if your shifts are fixed, catching up with friends is easy to move around as you can do them at any time of the day.
4. Schedule in time to work on your other goals – If you find yourself with extra time (and you don’t feel burned out), it’s also good to find the time to work on your other goals. Again, we can’t rely on our brain for everything and to follow through, so it may help you to follow through on working on your goals if it’s scheduled in. While you should make sure that you have the physical and mental capacity in the day to do them, just remember that if a goal is really important to you you will find the time to do them.
5. Schedule in the things that you want to do, but they’re not really important nor urgent (honestly, sometimes you don’t even have to include this) – These are all the tasks, all the stuff that you want to do, but it wouldn’t add much value to you. This may include social media time, TV time, internet time, etc. To be honest, you don’t really need to add this into your schedule. You can just leave the extra time spaces blank and that tells you already that it’s your free time.

The step-by-step process outlined above can be tweaked based on your needs and your priorities. Everyone is different depending on how much time that they have. For example, those who have hectic work days or shifts may not have time to include those other priorities such as catch ups with friends, so they go on and just work on their goals instead. It all depends on your personal circumstances and your situation.

Important to NOTE: Include EVERYTHING on your schedule. What is easily forgotten is travel time and the time it takes to get ready, get things set up, etc. Don’t forget to include and time block those little activities that we can easily forget about.

DOING

These time management tips are for when you are now actually in the day.

1) Pomodoro Technique

This is my personal favourite productivity “hack” because it had enhanced my productivity a lot.

To sum it all up, the Pomodoro Technique is a time management technique where you break down your work day into 25 minute chunks of time, separated by five minute breaks (the pomodoros). After about three to four of those pomodoros, you take a longer break of 15 to 20 minutes.

I’ve used this technique for when I’m studying or when I am doing business and blog work, it had helped me so much.

This prevented burn out during the day, and it helped me to not dread on the tasks that I had to do.

Sometimes, we procrastinate starting a task because the idea of working on it for hours sounds dreadful. However, if we say to ourselves we’re only working on it for 25 minutes, it seems a lot more doable to start.

So if you look at your goals/priorities (from pre-planning) and at your schedule (from planning) and you find that you have a long work day ahead of you, you can break it down in pomodoros, and it’ll make those tasks a lot less dreadful and save you from a lot of burn out.

2) 2 Min Rule

(Yes I put the 2 min rule in number two on purpose)

Have you ever got those mini tasks such as washing a dish after you’re done with it, or cleaning up your work space after you’ve done everything? How long do those actually take?

The two minute rule in this sense, is that if a task takes two minutes for you to do, then just do it.

This saves a lot of time later on in the day from a big pile of dishes and a whole space to clean. If you do it as you go, it saves you much more time later on in the day.

If it takes two minutes to respond to a message, then respond to it. If it takes only two minutes to refill a water bottle, then just do it.

If it takes less than two minutes, than just do it.

3) Have Plans for DEAD Time

Have you ever found yourself, when you’re out, waiting in line, or waiting for something and you just don’t know what else to do other than go on your phone and do random things? That little time is called dead time.

Overall, dead time refers to those little blocks of time that you have in between doing something. You want to plan out what you want to do at that block of time, so you can even save more time during the day.

First, list all the small tasks that you can do anywhere in short amounts of time. For example, it may include answering messages, checking some emails, or doing some brainstorming for work. So the next time you’re awaiting something, you can save time later on in the day from doing them.

4) See What Tasks you can “Kill two Birds with one Stone”

While multitasking isn’t recommended for tasks that you need to have full focus on, there are some tasks that you can do mindlessly while also doing something else at the same time.

For example, I used to listen to my audio-only lectures while I would be cleaning up my room. Because cleaning my room didn’t require my undivided focus, I was able to listen to my lecture at the same time… pretty much “killing two birds with one stone”.

Just be mindful of which tasks that you are able to do mindlessly and can add something else with it. What is a better feeling than completing two tasks at once to save time?

Make Time MANAGEMENT more about making the most out of the time you have, rather than trying to have more time.

At the end of the day, every person has the same amount of hours in the day, and it is up to us on how we make the most of it.

It’s hard when it feels like there’s so much going on, but when we learn how to manage our time effectively, it also gives us room to do the things that we love most.

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