State your goals
We talk about the goals of the “big picture” both in work and in personal life. For example, you want to find work-life balance, exercise more, or be more involved in your children’s after-school activities. Once you’ve laid out your goals, you’ll understand how you can break them down into small tasks and focus on how to fit them into your life.
Track
You can spend a week or more on this, but pay attention to how long it takes you to do the most simple but routine activities – washing, eating breakfast, making the bed, washing the dishes, and so on. Most people don’t really realize how long it takes to shower or underestimate the time it takes for large tasks like writing a term paper. If you know exactly how much time you need to complete certain tasks, you will be more organized and get things done much better.
Prioritize
Divide your cases into four groups:
— Urgent and important — Not urgent, but important — Urgent, but not important — Neither urgent nor important
The essence of this action is to have as few cases as possible in the “urgent and important” column. When things pile up at this point, it causes stress. If you manage your time well, you will spend most of it on “not urgent, but important” – and this is the item that can bring you the most useful things, and you will not feel overwhelmed later.
Plan your day
Here you have learned how much time you need, what tasks you face. Now start planning everything. Be flexible. Think about when you do the most work? When does it get easier for you? Do you like to spend your evenings relaxed with friends or do you like to work in the evenings? Think about what works best for you, make a plan around your preferences, and don’t be afraid to make adjustments.
Do the hard things first
Mark Twain said, “If you eat a frog in the morning, the rest of the day promises to be wonderful, because the worst of today is over.” In other words, if you have something difficult to do during the day, do it before the rest of the day so you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day. Just “eat a frog” in the morning!
Record
Check your to-do list, keep track of whether they are completed or not. The main thing is to write down your affairs. Regardless of what you use to keep track of your current tasks, it’s best to have one notebook and keep it with you at all times. You can also record tasks on your phone, but be sure to take it with you. Look for handy apps to help you with this.
Is it worth your time?
Remember your goals and ask yourself if certain things can help you achieve them. For example, an extra hour spent on work that no one asked you to do could be spent at the gym, playing the piano, meeting friends, or your child’s basketball game.
Just get started!
If you have a strong urge to put things away, just do it. Learn to instantly do the things you want to do, and this can turn on your intuition. You will feel better once you start making some progress.
Be mindful of the time
Let’s say you have a 15-minute “window” before some important business, you pick up your phone and look at your Instagram feed, right? But you may be surprised at what you can do in those 15 minutes. Consider that four of these 15-minute windows is an hour, and often there is more than one such “window” during the day. Do something useful for yourself or for your loved ones so that you do not waste time on people on social networks who are not related to your life.
Computer to help
The Internet, email, social media can distract you and eat up hours of your time. But the computer can be your assistant. Look for tools to help you track and plan your time, remind you when you need to do something, or even block you from accessing websites when they tempt you the most.
Set time limits
Set the maximum allowed time to complete the task. You can do it faster, but if not, this limitation will help you not to overdo it. If time is running out and you haven’t completed a task yet, leave it, take a break, plan when you’ll return to it, and set aside a specific amount of time to complete it again.
Email is the black hole of time
Email can be time consuming and stressful. Try to remove everything that does not interest you, does not concern you, remove advertising and store mailings. Respond immediately to emails that require a response, rather than keeping in mind the fact that they will need to be answered later. Forward emails that are better answered by someone else, flag emails that will take longer than you have now. In general, deal with your mail and organize work with it!
Take a lunch break
Many people think that working without lunch is more efficient and productive than interrupting for an hour in the middle of the working day. But this can backfire. Those 30 minutes or an hour will help you perform better for the rest of your time. If you’re not hungry, go for a walk outside or stretch. You will return to your workplace with more energy and focus.
Plan your personal time
The whole point of working with your time is to make more time for the things you want to do. Fun, health, friends, family – all this should be in your life to keep you in a positive mood. Moreover, it motivates you to keep working, keep planning and have free time. Breaks, lunches and dinners, rest, exercise, holidays – be sure to write down and plan everything that brings you happiness.