Time Mastering Tools, Techniques and Templates
“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau
Are you pathologically addicted to productivity; or want to create more time for you creative work, time mastering tools and techniques will help you in a long run.
Tools
From simple tool like Google Calendar on your mobile to time tracking tool app Toggl, whatever you use make sure you don’t become slave of that tool.
For managing projects and tasks you could use Asana or Trello; while Asana is simple, free and intuitive: Trello is visually appealing and will keep your project tasks like building blocks.
Personal tasks or office tasks that involves big team, Asana and Trello both are great tools
“Habitual procrastinators will readily testify to all the lost opportunities, missed deadlines, failed relationships and even monetary losses incurred just because of one nasty habit of putting things off until it is often too late.”
― Stephen Richards, The Secret of Getting Started: Strategies to Triumph over Procrastination
You will never be able to make up for the lost time, but you can still learn how not to procrastinate, create more time , and re-invent your future, and for that, it is never too late
Techniques
“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.”
– Benjamin Franklin
In a minute, tomorrow, next time — what’s your favorite excuse? Do you have a laundry list of tasks somewhere? What will you do with those tasks? How will you track and complete?
Don’t make your life spent on just thinking about those tasks? Those tasks may look big but you know — if you have to eat an elephant, make sure you know how to cut it? and what parts to eat first and what you can keep in the refrigerator
Divide tasks into:
- Urgent
- Non Urgent
- Important
- Non Important
Then create plans ( task breakdown )
- Daily plan
- Weekly/Monthly plan
- Quarterly/Yearly plan
Use Timer(s) to track your tasks
- Simple Kitchen timer
- Pomodoro timer / Triple Timer
- Highly customizable multi-timer app ( It can run many timers at once or separately. Each timer can have different name and reusable many times. Also, different alarm sound and length, vibration on/ off for each timer)
Templates
Managing tasks, creating agendas or building new habits — these templates will make you smarter and allow you to take control of your life.
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.”― Lao Tzu
Go through these templates; use what works for you. Print all, use them daily, weekly, and monitor progress — and within few weeks you will be not just using your time but investing your time. Get busy being yourself
- Daily To Do List, with misc, critical, notes, and next day section ( download )
- Daily 24 hours, 15 minutes window — Time Tracking ( download )
- Monthly habit mastering planner and tracker ( download )
Time management has enormous implications for individuals, organisations and the whole economy, once mastered you benefit in all areas of life
