How to Start Managing Your Time in the Most Effective Ways!
10 Most Efficient Time Management Techniques to Follow
With today’s hustle-bustle lifestyle, one of the most difficult things that an
individual faces is Time Management. It can be a bit of a task, but if you
succeed in this task, it can make your life more manageable and smooth.
If you effectively manage your time, then it creates a sense of control over your
life and also makes your life more disciplined, which can help with
● Relieving stress and anxiety
● Increased self-confidence
● Better work quality and workflow
● Ability to do more work in less time
…and so much more!
One way or another, all these traits play a vital role in your
self-growth.
So today, I’m going to share a few strategies with you that can be proven
helpful in your self-growth journey and will also guide you to manage
your time effectively.
1. Plan Ahead, Create a Schedule, Be SMART
A good amount of planning is necessary for effective Time Management.
Set SMART goals:
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Following these parameters can help you create a realistic timeline for your
goals, which makes it easier to achieve them.
2. Follow the 4 D’s of Execution
• DO the most important and urgent tasks first, as they are the ones that
contribute to the success of achieving your goals.
• DEFER the important but not-so-urgent tasks for later. Give them a
temporary pause in your schedule.
• DELEGATE the urgent but not-so-important tasks to someone else, as they
might not be contributing factors to your long-term goals.
• DELETE the unimportant and not-so-urgent tasks from your schedule. They
can work as a distraction and take up your time unnecessarily. Try to do them in your free time, if need be.
3. Start Early in Your Day
If you start your day early, you can make the most of it. You will have the maximum number of hours at your hand to work on.
You can plan your day in a
better manner with a fresh and calm early morning mindset, which will be very
productive in completing all your tasks.
4. Break Down a Big Project Into Small Parts
Sometimes the enormity of a task can leave you baffled in your attempts to complete it. In that case, instead of moving towards it all together and getting
astray on the way, it is better to create an outline of your ultimate goal and then
break it down into simple and smaller steps.
After that, try to achieve those
steps one by one.
With every completed step, it will create a sense of accomplishment, which will
boost your confidence and motivate you to work with more diligence towards
your goal.
5. Task-Batching
Putting together similar kinds of tasks can save a lot of time, as they can all be
done at once. This is a very efficient productivity technique. You don’t have to
spend your whole day switching between different tasks, which affects and
reduces productivity.
6. Set-up Deadlines
Knowing how and what amount of time you are spending on your tasks is very
important. Every task must have a dedicated timeline within which it needs to
be done.
A fixed timeline works as a running clock in your head, which helps you
avoid procrastination.
Although it is always better to finish your tasks before
their deadlines.
7. Avoid Multitasking
Focusing on one thing at a time is better for efficiency than focusing on multiple
things at the same time.
You need to give your undivided attention to whatever you do, as moving back
and forth between different tasks can cause mental tiredness and confusion,
which is going to impact your overall productivity.
8. Organise Things, Wisely!
Keeping things organised helps you stick to your planned schedule. You should
create a priority list rather than a to-do list.
To-do lists contain all the tasks
that need to be done, which may include both important and unimportant
things. But here, your focus should be on prioritising the most important things
first, which is crucial for your goal attainment.
9. Learn to Say NO
It is important to set boundaries and remove non-essential tasks and
activities from your schedule.
You should know what needs to be prioritised and
what does not, in order to get the desired outcome. Unnecessary things, which
can work as distractions, need to be avoided in the daily schedule.
10. Take a Break
While doing all the hustling through your day, it is also important to take a small
break in between all those juggling tasks.
The break can be of any form,
whether taking a small walk around your neighbourhood or listening to your
favourite music; whether a phone call to a friend or a good session of
meditation, anything that helps your mind get refreshed works just fine here.
Remember, “Practice Makes a Man Perfect.” The more you practice these strategies, the more you excel in your Time Management skills.
So instill all
these above-mentioned strategies into your routine to get the best results out of
it.
As rightly said by Robert Kiyosaki,
"Your future is created by what you do
today, not tomorrow."
Thus, it is important to get your things done without
falling into the lap of procrastination and to manage your time in the right
manner.
Do you also have any procrastination stories or difficult scenarios related to
managing your time correctly? Would love to hear all about it. You can comment down below to share any of your experiences and views.
