How Daily Goals Can Help In Time Management and Increasing Productivity Goals are helpful in providing you direction. They are also helpful in time management. You might wonder how goals can help in time management. The answer here is not long term goals but short term daily goals. You might even call them to-do lists. If you don't have a list of tasks to be finished each day, you will not know how to best utilize your time. You may waste it in unfruitful activities. I am a content writer. I spend many hours daily in front of my computer. I have to write a lot of content on different topics everyday. I need to set out with some goal in mind. Everyday before sitting on my computer, I need to decide that I want to write 5 articles on a particular topic today. If I don't decide this, then chances are that when I switch on my computer, I would browse aimlessly. I will end up checking my mails, visiting forums, clicking from one link to the other and before I realize it, a couple of hours would have gone by. On the other hand, if I decide beforehand what I want to accomplish today and by what time, then I will show a lot more urgency. Even if I check mails, it would be only for a limited time. I would keep looking at the watch to check how much time I have spent on unproductive things which are not related to my work. I would try earnestly to cut down on the amount of time spent on these activities which do not produce me income. I will have a clear direction when I sit down to work. But make sure that your to-do list is not very long. I personally don't like to have more than 3-4 items on my to-do list at any given point of time. If there are more items, then we will feel pressurized right from start and might procrastinate. Each day I just set myself 3 or 4 tasks to finish. If I find that there is still more time after completing all the tasks, then I might add another couple of tasks before calling off the day. Sometimes, after finishing 3-4 tasks I might not want to do anything more for that day even if there is still time left. I just want to relax and enjoy the rest of the day. At other times, I would add a couple more tasks to my list. But I will add these tasks only after finishing my original 3-4 tasks. At no point of time do I like to have more than 4 tasks on my to-do list. I think if you follow this advice, it can tremendously help in increasing your productivity levels. Do not think that having too many tasks on your list is good idea. It can be detrimental for your productivity.
Learn more about managing your time better and getting more out of life - time management techniques
Procrastination is bad for productivity. Learn how to beat it - procrastination help Another important point to remember is to set deadlines for each task you want done. You have narrowed down your to-do list to only 3 or 4 important tasks. This is important as it will help you prioritize and focus on the most important ones. Next, you should set aside a time limit for each task. For example, you might decide that 30 minutes is sufficient for activity 1 on your todo list. 1 hour and 20 minutes is okay for task number 2 and so on. Decide on a realistic time frame for each task. Try to stick to that time frame as much as possible. You might deviate 10-15 minutes here and there but don’t allow yourself to deviate more. This is a very important time management technique. By setting time deadlines, you will force yourself to be fully alert and work with urgency. Your focus would be sharper and productivity enhanced inshallah. Time management techniques recap Try out these short term goals for increasing your productivity at work. Become better time manager by doing the following: 1. Set short term goals 2. Have a daily todo list 3. Make sure only 3 or 4 items are there on your list. More items means distraction and procrastination 4. Set aside time limits for each task and try to finish the work within those deadlines