How to manage time effectively digitalbloggers.com /jonboy/how-to-manage-time-effectively/
6 steps to managing your time more effectively If you feel that time is always against you, and your most important goals are never achieved at the end of each day, then you need to prioritize and learn “How to manage time effectively”
1)
Keep a TO-DO-LIST
It may seem simple but you’d be surprised how many people do not create a “To Do List”. Don’t try to remember everything in your head, why would you do this. You MUST write down your daily list of tasks on paper every single day. Ideally you would create your “To-Do-List” the previous evening or before you start your day. The act of writing down your daily goals on paper will bring clarity on what needs to be done. Go do it now!!!
Efficiency is not the same as effectiveness
2)
Prioritize your TO-DO-LIST
All things do not matter equally. You might have lots of things on your “To-Do-List” but you need to prioritize these and bring to the top your most important tasks, the tasks that will push you forward the most towards your goals. I see so many busy people in the office, it’s full of them, but they’re mostly busy doing unimportant tasks, the easy ones. Don’t get drawn into this trap. Forget about the easy tasks, yes they make you feel good, make you feel like you’re busy but these won’t get you where you want to go. Successful people don’t worry about completing everything on their list; they make sure they complete the most important things on their list every single day. Prioritize your “To-Do-List” in order of importance and what will serve you best.
3)
Schedule your day
Even the perfect schedule on paper can change dramatically. After all there are many things outside of our control that can affect our schedule and we’ll need to adapt to this when these situations arise. This doesn’t mean we don’t create a schedule though, oh no, if you fail to plan then you plan to fail and that’s not “How to manage time effectively” You have created your “To-Do-List” and “Prioritized” it, now you need to create a schedule for your day. Give each task a time window and start with your most important task first. Everything after you’re most important will feel like a bonus. Don’t worry if you go over your time window for each task. The idea of giving everything a time window is to become more aware of how long certain tasks will take you. This will, in the end, make you much better at scheduling your day as you’ll more confidently predict how long certain tasks will take. Remember your most important tasks will be at the top of your schedule so do worry if the less important tasks roll over to the next day.
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You’ve already been super effective completing your most important tasks.
You must create a schedule for your day. If you fail to plan then you plan to fail
4)
Eliminate Distractions
There will be many distractions to your schedule. You need to be prepared for this and it’s important that you eliminate as many of these as possible. It’s not easy if you work in a shared office but maybe you can move yourself to a quite area or corner of the room. Make sure you close down your emails, stop any news alerts appearing on your screen, put your phone on silent and remove from eyesight. Make sure you have water and any items you may need to complete your task nearby. I won’t listen to music when I’m trying to concentrate as this doesn’t help me, but what I find highly effective is wearing my earphones. This lets people know I’m focused and do not want to be disturbed. To be honest if someone tries to distract me when I have my earphones in I just ignore them but make a point of going over to them later and asking if what they wanted was urgent. It’s important that you don’t wear your earphones all of the time but this can really be a powerful tool because people will associate you wearing earphones with you doing important work. And if you have good earphones it will also reduce the noise you hear around the office. It’s worked perfectly for me. Have a think about this the next time you set about an important task. Remove distraction and you’ll be more productive.
5)
Don’t Procrastinate
If your goal is to learn “How to manage time effectively” then “procrastination” is something you need to take seriously and work hard to avoid. Procrastination is your enemy when it comes to time management. When you set about doing your most important task first, the one that will move you forward the most and closer to your goals it’s surprisingly strange why our minds resist so much. First you’ll tell yourself “maybe I should do the other, easier tasks first” this is only natural but don’t listen, don’t fall into this trap. As soon as you realize this is happening take immediate action. When you start taking action it generates the impetus for further action until you really start building up some momentum with the task at hand. This really is the best way to deal with your procrastination. Realize when it’s happening and why, then push through until it gets easier. Remember you really will feel great when you’re most important task is done. Everything else will feel like a bonus.
6)
Take Regular Breaks
This is a nice one to finish. Regular breaks are important and you should take some time for yourself whenever you have finished a scheduled task. It doesn’t have to be for 15 min but maybe you can grab a coffee or step outside for some air. Please don’t underestimate the importance of stepping away and taking a break. You’ve scheduled time to complete an important task; you’ve focused on this until it’s done, now take a break, congratulate yourself and clear your mind ready for the next scheduled task.
I hope you have found this helpful. It’s not easy to be this disciplined throughout the day and as I previously said there are many things that will unexpectedly arise. That being said if you 2/3
want to know “How to manage time effectively” then you really should be trying to implement the above 6 steps until it becomes a habit. Give yourself a break if it doesn’t go exactly as you planned. If you’re trying to implement the above steps then you’re doing more than 95% of the people out there and will greatly improve your time management.
I have previously written a post titled “ How do I achieve my goals” which ties in quite nicely with this article. You can check it out here. Please leave a comment below or connect with me via my social media links on this page. It would be great to receive some feedback from you.
Best of luck on your journey.
Jon Petrou-How to manage time effectively-Top of page This entry was posted in time management, Uncategorized. Tags: business, effectiveness, efficiency, goals, prioritize, time management ← Previous Post
About Jonathan Petrou Hi everyone, I'm 32 years old and currently living in Berlin. I'm originally from London and arrived in Berlin via Amsterdam where i spent four great years of my life. l moved to Berlin with my girlfriend for a new adventure. New city, new apartment & new jobs. After arriving in Berlin I had what you might say was a "Wake Up Call". Realising the career I was trying to create for myself was not what I wanted, not something i was passionate about. I was really not happy and finding my new life in Berlin very hard going. I decided to draw a line in the sand and made a commitment to myself that I was going to make some changes. Find my purpose, my passion and make some changes, but most importantly not allow myself to return to the place that had made me so unhappy. So... I"m now trying to make some big changes in my life and as I do this I would like to motivate and inspire people to do the same. This is the reason for the my blog. Change is hard at the best of times, people need support, so as I grow, learn and make progress i want to share my experiences in the hope of helping others do the same.
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