60+ Time Management Habits To Add And To Remove

Before you step into the new year, it’s important that you are aware of how many good and bad habits you have, and how it’s affecting the time management

Since it’s an important skill that you must have. Having the right qualities can help you in being much more efficient and smart. Here is the big list of what habits you should add and what to remove before you start the new year.

Good Time Management Habits To Add In Your Next Year 

There are different habits you might already have, but you can add more to the list so you can be better in your time management skill, it includes : 

Pay Attention To Personal Social Media 

When you have a Persian social media channel that is way too big then you need it.  With this, it becomes much more difficult to prioritize and what actually holds the interest, 

To find out which channel requires your interest, where you should put more effort, and for what you are going for it. 

Create A Recap List Daily 

For the new year, you need to adopt the habit of creating a daily list, along with reaping what you achieved the following day. 

The point is to focus on reflecting on what you have completed and rate how you felt about it. So you can track if you are feeling the negative or positive patterns.

Strengthen Your Old Connections

Well, there is no substitute when it comes to personal connection. You might have created a lot of connections this year that you want to take to the next year. 

But you need to strengthen the connection first, so plan the schedule to meet those people, talk to them and invest in the relationship even if you don’t need anything right now. 

Add Reading To Your Morning 

Set the time for every morning, you need to focus on reading before you start the day. 

Not only will it help in increasing focus, but you also have better knowledge of approaching the situation, making decisions, and improving knowledge. 

So you can pick the books and what you like to read, fix the minutes and go with it. 

Exercise Before You Do Work 

For next year, make sure you are not skipping exercise to work more.  If you are an entrepreneur, you might have an unpredictable schedule with long hours, this makes doing workouts difficult. 

So you can do a shorter workout in the morning before you go to work. This will help in increasing the focus as well as energy for the rest of the day. 

Reflect On Your Win Of Day 

Take a second and think about what you did during the workday, think about how you can improve on what you do you start doing instead, etc.

So you can carve out the time, at least five minutes to think about one thing that went well and to create a balanced understanding between personally and professionally. 

Do Multitask Less Often

There is no chance that you won’t be doing multitasking, so it’s important that you need to find how much you can afford to do without messing up with health and productivity, 

So give yourself uninterrupted time to think and execute the right strategies to be better. 

Built Framework For Your Growth 

Well, you might have spent a lot of time being busy, some of that might be productive but most of it you have spent on playing whack mole situations. 

In order to avoid this, you need to start your day by writing down the growth goals and deal with only those tasks and interruptions which serve the top goal until it’s get completed, 

Get To Know People Outside Of Work 

Although there are some of the people whom you communicate with daily, it can be the people you work with or staff of yours. 

This year make sure you are putting more time to know how your colleagues, people, and employees are in real life. 

Clean Your Inbox More

Either you can create this habit of doing it every day, or choose to do it more frequently, this can help in keeping the inbox empty. 

Also, you are more important and focused on needed tasks. 

Start Your Work At Same Time 

Starting your work every day at the same time can help you in setting itself into the predictive model. 

Not that having a fixed time can help you in working within the deadlines and avoiding running late. 

Use Timer While You Are Working 

To improve your time management skill, you need to know where your time is going. So you need a timer for that, set it, and track your time. 

This habit can help you in knowing the precise time you are spending on each task. 

Visualize How Your Day Will Go 

Visualize your every day, set aside time for it. You can put at least 5 minutes to simply close your eyes, breathe and focus on what you want the day to go, savor the sense of feeling calm. 

This can help you in getting the ideas of what else you need to make your day like that.

Make Your Daily List 

Even though it’s the most basic thing you need to do for time management, it’s crucial that you make a habit of it. 

So do it daily, this will make you much more frequent and help in tracking work as well as goals. 

You can do everything here that you need to do in your day.

Save Your Changes And Coins

Whenever you find yourself with coins in your pocket and wallet, you can put them in a jar or some other container. 

Saving money is equally important than saving money, also it’s a good habit that you can consider having. 

Expand Your Vocabulary List 

You can manage time to expand your vocabulary,  with this you are investing the time in yourself too, you can get a calendar of words a day, and this can help you in learning something new every day. 

Clean Up As You Get It Done

There is no doubt that cleaning takes a lot of time, you don’t even know but you might end up wasting the whole day. 

So make sure that you need to pick it out as you go, instead of leaving it for the future to get it done. 

So fold the laundry when you are done with the dryer, dump trash when your dinner is finished and with this, you will help in cleaning hours better.

Cook More Often

Even though it seems like cooking takes time, it actually reduces the time if you are doing it smartly. 

You can save time, improve health and make yourself much more productive as well as energetic for the rest of the day.

Be Kind With Others 

Well, you might believe that being kind has something to do with time management?  Even though there is no direct, being kind can help you in boosting the relationship. 

This helps in improving your mental health, so you get a positive vibe too.

Choose News Selectively 

It seems like you are tuned to news 24X7, and it gets too daunting as well as draining the effort. 

You need to pick the news smartly, allot time to think which requires your attention. 

Not just that, you require to pick only what you need to know and want to learn about it.

Think Positively 

Having a positive mindset can help you in thinking better about yourself and improve your time management. 

Not just that, it’s good for your mental and physical health. So for next year, learn how to move on and stop dwelling on negative thoughts.

Get Outside More Often 

Add more time for going out, the bulk of every day you spend on staying inside of your house and office since you need to work. 

Sometimes, you need to take a simple walk in the park or around the neighborhood, this can help you in getting a new perspective and make it more enjoyable.

You can even invite people with whom you like to spend time and help you in getting a better relationship.

Finish Your Work 

Instead of feeling like you are going to do 10 things at once, decide where to focus and get things done first. 

Don’t leave work for the future, it will pile up and it will be hard to get things done. Not just that, in order to get things complete, it’s best to start doing it and actually finish the work. 

Take Care Of Yourself 

Focus on yourself next year better, maybe you want to try a new hairstyle or try to focus on keeping yourself healthy,  whatever makes you feel good, so focus on yourself. 

Taking care of yourself boosts self-esteem and it makes you feel good, along with that it contributes to professionalism.

Be In The Moment 

One of the reasons why you waste more time is not having the brain at the moment. When you are not paying attention, time flies and it will be hard to get your work done. 

So deciding to be aware more, helps you in improving the focus and managing the time well. 

Add More In Skill Set 

Be open to trying new things that you want to add to your skillset. This can be learning a new language, crafting class, etc. 

This can help in expanding your mind, with this you get nice rewards and help in knowing more about what you like.

Revisit Your Goals 

As the new year proceeds, make sure that you keep checking on what goals you are achieving.  Also, there is nothing with starting something new or you can let slide, 

As long as you are not giving up completely, you need to start and revisit it once in a while. 

Creative Your Morning Ritual 

In order to be more productive, you need to create a morning ritual to start your day. 

It can be started with doing meditation and enjoying breakfast and adding things that you would like to do. 

Whatever makes you feel supercharged and kickstart the day with habit.

Add the habits that make you feel happy and improve your day. This will help in improving your mindset and health.

Learn To Singletask 

There are only 2% of people who can actually multitask successfully in the world. 

There is no harm in doing it occasionally, but if you are keeping it constant then it will limit your focus and contribute to the mental clutter. 

So learn to focus on doing a single task you have in hand and complete it within the scheduled time. 

Appreciate Things More 

Practicing gratitude is a great way which can help in creating positivity. Also, you can reduce stress and focus on improving physical health. 

So start with cultivating this habit of applying what’s going around you,  you can start with writing the gratitude journal. 

You can write it in the morning and start with this, which helps in creating a positive environment for yourself. 

Add Healthy Breakfast 

Since you are focusing on creating a routine for yourself, you can focus on making sure that you are eating a healthy breakfast. 

Not just thinking contributes to being productive, but you can have more energy and a clear mind to get your work done. 

Revisit Your Purpose 

One Of the important products you need to have is to eat the frog, do what is most challenging first. 

But with that, revisit the purpose of starting the whole thing, make sure you have a clear purpose in mind.

Write Your Tasks Down 

Having a to-do list can help you in understanding much more about what’s important. Also, the habit of writing things down can make you organized and productive. 

So you don’t have a chance of slipping an important task from your mind. Also with this, you can write down any important points, information, and changes. 

Learn To Respect Schedule And Deadlines 

Schedule and deadlines are two important aspects of time management, you need to have respect , and not take it lightly. However, it’s okay to miss it once in a while, but the habit of making sure you are doing your best to follow the schedule and meeting deadlines should be there. 

First Do The High Impact Work

When you want to be more effective in doing the work and in life, focus on getting done those works first which are high impact. 

By this you can do the actual important work even though you miss a few things, it will not affect that badly. 

Bad Habits That Ruining Your Time Management For Next Year 

Well,  for your next year, you are also required to see which habit you need to remove as it may be killing your productivity. A lot of times you don’t even have the idea of how bad it is until you notice. 

Sometimes they seem natural, but it’s ineffective.  Here are the top worst habits you need to remove from your life in order to manage time efficiently at work as well as in life. 

Focusing On Non Important Things

Often, you can be ineffective because you are not aware of what you need to do. 

For example, if you are planning to meet a person, but you have no idea where they are, you keep driving, hoping to make it. 

That’s how you are mostly with your daily tasks.  Knowing the title of the position doesn’t make you knowledgeable about what you need to do. 

Choosing Tasks “ On The Fly” 

If you are not planning your tasks beforehand or having a general focus, this is going to hurt. 

When you don’t plan, it becomes easier to focus on tasks that pop up and seem like it’s urgent, but it’s not important. 

In order to do that, you push the important task away which affects productivity even if you believe you are doing the right thing. 

Using Task lIst As Mood Enhancer 

Task lists are important, and crossing a task off from the list does make you feel good. 

It gives you a feeling of accomplishment and reduces a burden. 

There is nothing wrong with that,  but it can become an issue when you are doing this to tasks that are easier or just pop up or urgent ones. 

You end up filling task list, doing things that are easy and quick, but it doesn’t making your productive,

Putting Everything In Daily List 

It’s a good idea that you are putting everything that you have in mind in a paper or app. It helps you in getting a  cellar and focus the mind. 

However, it’s called a master list, and when you are using it as a daily list, it can be daunting. 

As you get your work done or finish a task, and you cross off one task from the master list but there are 100 of tasks listed, this makes you disheartened and overwhelmed.

That’s why creating a daily list, exclusively writing what you need to get it done in a day is much better.

Never Writing Anything Down 

The next habit you need to get rid of is not writing anything, it’s dangerous. 

You might trust your brain to remember everything, but there are a lot of things your brain needs to focus on and it’s easy to slop something between the cracks. 

Especially when something urgent pops up, you might forget some important task or information. So don’t clog down the brain. 

Make sure you are putting everything in paper or app, this will help in getting better focus and less tired. 

Checking Emails First 

It sounds obvious to check the email, but if you are doing this in the morning as the first thing,   it’s not good for time management. 

Even though you think it is common, when you are checking emails it’s not good for things. It takes a lot of time and distracts you the whole day. 

Living In Urgency 

According to the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, written by Steven Covey presented a time management matrix divided into four quadrants 

• Quadrant I : Urgent & Important 
• Quadrant II : Not urgent & Important 
• Quadrant III : Urgent & Not Important 
• Quadrant Iv : Not Urgent & Not Important 

Well even if you want to be in Qurantant II,  but sometimes something comes up which is urgent and important, but if you are focusing on Qurandat II, there will be fewer tasks of Qurandant I/ 

But, there are chances that you are living in Quadrant III.  As there are a lot of things that seem urgent such as coworkers popping up, or emails coming in, etc. You waste time on things that are urgent and you feel like it’s important too. But in reality, it’s not. 

That’s why you need to stop living in urgency, just because it’s urgent, it doesn’t make it important too. 

Writing But Never Looking At It Again 

Well, you have a list ready, but you don’t look at it after writing it down, it’s a waste of time. 

Sometimes something happens spontaneously and you are required to focus on that instead of what you had planned. It’s not something to be worried about. 

But if you don’t compare what you planned, and do not check it with what’s important and not, this is dangerous. 

It’s easy to fall into the trap of doing tasks that seem important because it’s urgent. That’s why you need to write things down, but if you are not considering the list you made, it fails the whole point. 

Living With Constant Distraction 

There are some cases where you can’t do anything, maybe it’s the nature of the job or you might have kids or pets at home. 

However, oftentimes, you bring some of the distractions upon yourself.  It includes : 

Chatty Colleagues And Family Members 

It’s hard to move along if you are having colleagues coming by the desk and chatting about things, or if you are at home, it can be your family members. 

Fixing At That Moment 

There are some things that can be corrected once your work gets done, or at your next interval, it can be your colleagues or family members asking for help. 

If it’s possible and not that important, schedule it for later.

One minute Meeting 

There might be people who are constantly coming up to you for a quick one-minute meeting, but if you are having too much of that, you can end up spending a lot of time-wasting it. 

Notification & Emails 

Another distraction is getting the notification, it can be social media, messages, email, etc. Every Time you tap on it, you end up checking the whole thing and switching between tasks takes up your focus. 

Doing All The Easy Tasks 

Some people end up wasting their productive hours checking Facebook or doing non-related work.

Sometimes it can be related to work but it’s not important, you are doing it because it’s just easy for you. 

But it’s not productive, so if it’s not moving forward your career,  life, or goals, don’t waste time on it. 

Saying Yes To Everything 

The habit of saying yes to everything,  if it can be the request from the family to run to the grocery store or a colleague asking for something. This wastes the time, especially when it’s stopping you from doing the important work. 

You can manage some of the tasks if it fits naturally without pushing yourself hard, however, learn to say no.

Taking On Other Problem

Taking the consent to take on the problems of others, you are spending a lot of time focusing on their issues instead of doing your own work. 

Sometimes you have to help others who need it, you can point them in a direction and help now and then,

However, if you are constantly doing that, you might end up hurting your productivity and making them dependent on you to solve the problem. 

So instead of that, tell them how they can solve the problem before they come to you. Then help in showing how they can do it. 

Doing Everything Own 

One of the habits that don’t seem bad but in reality it is, doing everything on your own might make you feel productive and efficient, but when you are doing this,  a lot of time you end up doing tasks in which you have no skill, it wastes time and resources. 

Also if some tasks are not important in the  list but you have to do it, then you can delegate it with others, 

Messed Up Work Area 

When you are working,  make sure you are keeping it organized. Don’t work in a messed up and unorganized area where everything is spread all over. 

If you need something and you have to dig through stuff,  this takes a lot of time and ends up wasting energy. 

When you switch tasks, make sure you put things in their place and organize them to save time.

Long And No Needed Meetings

One of the habits you need to remove is having long and unnecessary meetings, it can be the office, people, or family members. 

You need to understand if the meetings are actually important or not. There are different things where you can invest your time

Switching Task Constantly 

Switching the task a lot hurts productivity as your mind is not made to focus on multiple things at once. 

It also wastes time, and focus, and when tasks are not finished, this leads to feeling overwhelmed. 

So focus on getting the task done before you start focusing on the next things. 

Copy Paste Methods 

One of the reasons why a lot of people fail in time management is that they copy exactly what others are telling and teaching them. 

While it is important to look for other techniques and methods of doing time management, not all of the things work in your favor. 

That’s why you need to realize that each person is different, their personality and styles are different. 

So copy pasting methods can end up damaging the whole thing. 

Overscheduling With No Buffer Time

A failure to allow sufficient time in getting things done, hampers success, health, and integrity too. 

No habit can ruin day and time management,  this is quicker than not planning time between your appointments. 

There are a lot of things that can cause a buffer, it can be sickness, traffic jams, maybe coffee spills on short notice, so you need to be ready and plan the day in order to stay in control as well as keep the levels low. 

Skipping Meals 

Spending time on your work is a good thing, however, in order to save time don’t skip meals. 

Your morning breakfast is important for health, and you should never skip meals just to get your work completed. 

It’s one of the common bad habits people have these days, when you are not having a proper meal, you end up eating what’s easy to access such as junk and unhealthy quick food. 

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