Everyone on this earth has the same amount of hours every day.
Well, Time cant be stored, borrowed, or saved for later. It is finite but still, there are so many examples who make the best out of it, do more work, stay productive, enjoy life, and be successful.
But on the other hand, some don’t feel like they have enough hours to do their daily work.
Adapting to the good techniques of time management can help you in simplifying how you can work with getting them done faster and in better ways.
So for busy people, here are some of the tips and strategies that might help in making time management more effective.
Do The Complete Time Audit
The first thing you should do is a time audit, which means understanding where you are spending your time and for what.
Also, you might believe that it takes you an hour for checking and replaying the emails every day, but there are chances that you are spending extra time on it as it can be done within less time period.
Well for doing this, you need to track and write down the amount of time you spend on doing the particular task and project. Do it at least for two or three days, and write it in a notebook.
Track your time doing all tasks, including answering emails, etc.
This is helpful and gives you an accurate understanding of your current situation.
Consider Using The Rapid Planning Method
Well, the RPM or Rapid Planning Method by Tony Robbins is an effective way of doing the time management system.
It’s a different way of thinking and a powerful way of identifying important tasks.
Also, distill the steps that can help you in achieving that. RPM asks you to define what you are looking for, identify the need, and list the steps for achieving it.
By connecting the tasks to the ultimate goal, RPM helps in maximizing the sense of fulfillment.
With this method, you can also ditch the to-do list and prompts to take action.
Make Sure You Have A Goal
To make sure that you have successful time management, you need to understand why you are going for it.
It’s important to have goals beforehand. For example, it can be a reason that you noticed yourself spending three hours on answering emails every day.
Or go over by twenty minutes for the meeting and spend fifteen minutes for the lunch where you have planned for thirty minutes.
Well once you notice the problems, you need to create the goals and where you want to see the improvement.
It can be spending less time on things that are trivial.
Giving more time to self-care, lunch, or relax.
Stop going over to the meetings which don’t need too much time.
So when you have the goals set, it can help you in measuring if the time management is working for you or not.
Practice The Chunking
The next you can follow is practicing chunks. Well, it’s especially helpful if having too much work on hand is making you feel overwhelmed.
Chunking can help as it’s the process of grouping the information together into chunks that can be managed so you can use it for achieving it.
This can help you in reducing stress and to make sure you do it effectively, here are some basic steps to follow.
Step 1: Write Everything In One Place
Get the ideas in writing, it’s the first thing to do and called capturing. Also, you need to document the task in order to complete it.
Along with it, you need to write everything for tasks, including the goals, situations, and ideas that demand attention.
Well, you can arrange and remove it later but do this for the entire week.
Step 2: Look For Common Threads
The next step is to look for the threads in your tasks that are common. Also, you need to chunk the items depending on the different areas, and how it affects them.
It can be related to the family, fitness, and money, etc. To highlight all the threads in tasks that you find have similarities with each other.
Step 3: Highlight What Important To Do
The last step here is to decide on what is important to work. You can choose which task is important within the chunks or category depending on the setting and urgency,
Arrange Tasks Depending On Priority
Being a busy person means you have a lot of tasks on your plate and it’s become overwhelming to pay attention to everything.
This leads to confusion about what to start first and wastes a lot of time on starting the tasks.
That’s why you should prioritize the work which is needed to get it done first.
According to the Mark Twain theory, eat the frog first so you know that the important work is done already and it makes you much more relaxed throughout the day.
Well, the phrase ‘ eat the frog’ here means that you need to do the work which is most challenging or important in the morning, and leave the less important for later.
Not just that, you can also record the tasks on a notepad and rearrange them depending on the priority level.
Focus On Your Energy level
To make sure that you focus on your work, it’s important that you have a work and life balance, but it’s important to maintain your time.
By focusing on what you need to do instead of on what you expect that is important. This helps in freeing up time and working on improving the value of life.
Time Targets are designated to divide the four zones of your productivity and fulfilled to focus on energy to manage the time.
Its includes :
Zone 1 : Things That Matters Most
You want to be operating the zone whenever it’s possible, here spending time doing things that give you fulfillment and working on achieving the goals.
You can spend 100% of your time but you might have more things you need to focus on.
So your aim should be at least 65% of your time to zone 1 for creating a fulfilling relationship as well as finding the meaning of work.
Zone 2: Things Your Life Is Not Planned For
You can schedule the time for things you have known about and plan according to it.
However, you don’t know what will happen next and there might be something unexpected that occurs.
It can be something related to your family or work emergency. Or your train gets late or something.
Health is also important and there are chances of getting injured too. So it’s important that you have a plan ready for it and for that you need to spend 20% time.
Zone 3: When You Are Stressed
Life can get stressful, and no matter how amazing you are doing or the great state you are in, this can still affect you.
You might feel stuck in getting into busy work and doing errands that can be done by others.
Also, you need to understand if it adds value to life and if they are not doing it, it’s best to avoid it. And here you can spend 10% of your time.
Zone 4: When You Exhaust, You Operate
Everyone needs time to reconnect with themselves. This is important to destress and relax, but also keep it for a short period of time.
So you need to withdraw from other zones often which can lead to losing momentum. And from there you start to lose the grips that you have on your goals and increase the feeling of unfulfillment.
That’s why you need to take breaks when you feel it’s an absolute necessity for your body and mind. But don’t spend more than 5% of your time.
Batch Works Which Are Similar
To make sure your mind is on roll, you should batch the tasks together which have a similar way of nature.
This gives you much more clarity and rests for your busy mind of yours. You can stay on a similar mindset while you do the work empowering the finish much faster.
For example, if you have 30 minutes on hand at the end of the day after completing the work, do the small task which takes hardly 5 minutes instead of burdening it for tomorrow.
Focus On What You Are Doing Right Now
Even though it’s the most basic tip, it’s vital that you focus on one task at a time.
When you are a busy person, you have a lot of work to get done which needs your attention and lets your focus be scattered.
Not only do you end up not focusing on what you should be doing, but also it will burden the schedule later.
According to the University Of Michigan, the research found that productivity can drop by 40% when you are doing professional multitasking.
There are several tools that can help you in focusing on the work, it can be time blocking. However, it’s on you ultimately to remember not to distract and focus on your task.
Consider The Time Blocking Technique
Well, the technique is quite popular and it can help you in blocking time to do the schedule‘s tasks one by one.
Here you need to identify the events which are non-negotiable, it can be an important meeting and appointment. So start with blocking the time for these, and then you can move to block time for the next task.
This gives you a much more clear idea of how much time you have on hand, and what work you need to do next.
To make it less confusing, you can consider getting the productivity planner for yourself as they have pre-designed sections.
This is especially empowering when you have a lot of work to do in a day and you need more ideas about how much time you have to spend on it.
Do Meetings That Have An Agenda
One of the reasons why you feel like your time is getting wasted without having much work done is doing an unnecessary meeting.
There is no doubt that meetings can be time-wasters, and regardless of what profession you are in, you have a fair idea of how much time it can consume.
That’s why you should ensure if the meeting is actually important or not, and have an agenda to keep it more effective and efficient.
Before you schedule the meetings, focus on what defined goal it has and the results you are hoping for.
These details should include everything, and if you are not the one who is organizing the meeting, it’s best to ask the organizer for it.
Capitalize On Extra And Free Time
Even having the five minutes extra on hand can help you in keeping the schedule much less chaotic. So if you have done your work, or the meeting ends early and you have some minutes extra on hand.
You can use it for doing small tasks so it won’t plague you later.
The tasks include various things, it can be :
- Creating the agenda for the next meeting
- Scheduling the appointments
- Forwarding the details regarding the projects to coworkers
- Cleaning your working area or desk
- Reorganizing the to-do list
Say No To When It’s Needed
To have the time management that works for you, the first thing you need to understand is the importance of saying no.
A lot of time your schedule gets busier when you say yes to tasks that are not needed to get done right away. That’s why you should know how to defend your time.
So not just focus on prioritizing the task and organizing them, but ensure that you are not adding the tasks which are unnecessary for you.
Take Time Off Between Your Busy Schedule
Regardless of how busy your schedule is, it’s important that you take breaks between your work.
This will help your body keep away from shutting down and refresh your mind to improve your focus.
So get away from your desk and walk around the office, or go and grab something to eat and enjoy the sun.
More To Explore:
- Most Effective and Proven Time Management Tips, Techniques & Strategies
- 25 Effective Calendar & Schedule Management Tips
- Beginner’s Guide For Time Management In 2023
- A Guide To Time Management For Dummies
- Why Your Time Management Fails: Everything You Must Know
“Vision, strategy, and inspiration – these three words describe me the best. I am the founder of “TheLeaderboy” dedicated to leadership and personal development. As a self-taught practitioner, I have been studying the principles of effective leadership for the past decade and my passion lies in sharing my insights with others. My mission is to empower individuals to become better leader