If there’s anything that refuses to be tamed by humans then it is ‘time.’ You can neither control it nor manipulate it to suit your purpose but you can always create your schedule, respect, and abide by it. These are some of the best ways to utilize time and create something worthy of it.
As a professional or even outside your aspiration and profession, you need to be mindful of time and manage it well. Time management is a critical skill that has a say in your leadership qualities. It does look like a simple process of planning your activities according to their priorities, organizing them in different time slots, and assigning time for each activity. The tricky part is to execute your plans and stick to them while doing so. Unless you execute the plan, you aren’t technically managing your time and that’s where most people get stuck and never make it out of the never-ending loop of procrastination.
Tweaking Your Mind to Manage Time
“Mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master,” what you can think in your mind, you can achieve. Let these two be a reminder and your motivation to get started every day. If you are having a hard time managing time then consider reprogramming your mind. It is easier said than done so we will begin with the hard part – try the mindset shift.
To form any new habit, you need to give it at least 21 days. So, whatever you do you must commit to continue doing it for three weeks. Now, before you begin pause. We often overlook the importance of halting but that’s a crucial block in the structure. Pause for a while and closely look at your current situation, evaluate it critically without getting judgemental. Be honest with the process and jot down your strengths and weaknesses.
Based on your strengths and weaknesses, write down what you want to do to strengthen your strengths and overcome your weaknesses. Once, it is on paper you can revisit it often and thus follow it. There are a few things that are common between successful people across the world; those are – discipline, journaling, and mindset mastery. If you aspire to become successful then you must not compromise with any of them.
Practical Hacks for Effective Time Management
Thankfully we have access to numerous resources, studies, and observations that can help us to find solutions to an almost perennial problem – time management. What you will read hereafter are our suggestions based on experts’ findings, tried and tested and trusted. However, how far these will benefit you depends on how you implement them.
No Multi-Tasking
Multi-tasking is the biggest productivity killer; it would be best to not wear it as a badge of honor. The human brain cannot function on multiple tasks at the same time. So, when you multitask, you push it to perform different functions at the same time which puts it under unwanted stress, leading to abnormal and unwanted burnouts. Multitasking for a prolonged time can seriously harm your efficiency; it affects your cognitive ability. As a result, you slow down, don’t feel satisfied with your productivity, start self-doubting, and ultimately affect efficiency. So, it would be best if you can focus on one task at a time.
Prioritize
Not everything demands your immediate attention; there might be a few that are urgent while some that you may attend later. So, identify which ones are urgent and which are not and line them up accordingly. You must have heard about SWOT analysis which helps in identifying your strengths and weaknesses for deciding strategies. For deciding priorities there’s the Eisenhower Matrix; you can use this matrix to classify important and urgent tasks. The matrix has four sections or quadrants – the first quadrant for important and urgent tasks, the second quadrant for ‘important but not urgent’ tasks followed by the third and fourth quadrants for ‘urgent but not important’ and ‘not important and not urgent’ tasks, respectively. So, place the tasks on your ‘to-do’ list and attend to their priorities.
Assign Time
After deciding your priorities, you will be in a better position to decide how much time you must spend for each task. So, set a deadline for each task and stick to it. Said this, we don’t deny the possibility of burnout, especially when you follow a strict schedule. Thus, we suggest you to ease your schedule a bit with planned breaks using the Pomodoro Technique.
The Pomodoro Technique was conceptualized to break the monotony and stress from continuous activity. Under this technique you work for 25 minutes take a five-minute break and then resume working like this when you take four breaks (which is two hours or 120 minutes of working like this) the fifth break will be 15 to 30 minutes and then continue with the regular cycle of 25 minutes of working followed by a short 5-minute break.
Zero Distractions
The more serious you are about your goals and tasks the less distracted you will be. Considering you are already working or about to start your career, you are an adult with a profound understanding of industry standards and expectations. Hence, you know that you cannot afford to get distracted. So, get back to your why to avoid distractions. No philosophy, technique, or tool can help you unless you consciously avoid it. If you are alert enough to not get distracted then may not need any external help.
Reward Yourself
What you have read so far are DIY hacks to manage time. So, when it comes to rewards for managing time then we expect you to do the honors. If you have been consistently practicing what we suggested above or even trying out your own set of hacks but managing time properly then do pat yourself and give yourself a little treat; you deserve it. It keeps you motivated and fills you up with the zest to improve a little more every time. So, it’s needless to say how important it is but if you look for appreciation from external sources then you may disappoint yourself. So, since you have been putting in the effort by yourself, rewarding yourself would be a better idea.