Tools & Tips for Protecting Your Time
By Amy Wheaton
Everybody’s busy! Between work, family commitments, social stuff, errands, and everything else that needs to happen over the course of a day, it often feels like there just aren’t enough hours to get everything done. And there’s nothing worse than wrapping up a busy, hectic day of work feeling totally exhausted and spent, but not being able to identify anything tangible you’ve managed to complete.
Here are some of the ways I like to take control of busy days and make sure the most important things get done. Notice how I said “the most important things”? You’re not going to get everything done–make peace with that notion right now. It’s OK!
Limit your must-do list to three things.
The first thing I do when I get to the office in the morning is make my to-do list for the day. I run through Google Calendar and jot down any meetings or appointments, I go through my list from the day before to see what items need to be carried over, and I make note of everything I’d like to accomplish during the workday.
Next, I figure out what the three most important things are–the three things that, if they don’t get finished today, are going to cause the most grief for myself or my team. For reference, today’s to-do list has eight things on it, but three things have stars beside them. If I happen to get through all eight things, great, but I need to make sure my three must-do items are crossed out before I call it a day.
Why three? Three things is totally doable. And it feels a whole lot better to power down your laptop at the end of the day with a sense of accomplishment instead of fretting over what didn’t get finished.
Working in a fast-paced environment means you’ll often have new, competing priorities coming at you during the day, so what seemed crucial at 9am might fall to the back burner by lunchtime. Focusing on doing just a few key things–and doing them well–helps you funnel your energy to whatever’s most important.
Do the biggest thing first.
By “biggest”, I mean “hardest”, not necessarily the thing that’s going to require the most time. It could be the email you’ve been postponing, the awkward conversation you’re dreading, the slide deck you’ve been putting off all week. It’s tempting to save the hardest stuff for later, but you’ll feel better once it’s done, and the rest of the day will feel effortless by comparison. Or, as Mark Twain put it, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.”
When does it not make sense to start your day eating the live frog? If you’re truly a person who does your best work in the afternoon or in the evening, save your big things for the time of day when you’re most likely to be able to tackle them.
I’m a morning person, and by 4 p.m. my brain is basically mashed potatoes, but I have colleagues who come up with incredible stuff long after I’ve been asleep. Know how you work best and roll with it.
Book shorter meetings.
We tend to book hour-long meetings, because that’s what Google Calendar chooses as the default meeting time, and here’s how they go: Everybody spends the first 5–10 minutes making small talk. They’re all on their phones or their computers during your meeting, working on other things, because an hour is a lot of time to expect people to give up (everyone’s busy, remember?). You make your way through the meeting agenda in about 45 minutes, and then everyone lingers in the meeting room–still working on other things or chit-chatting–because they’ve got an hour booked. Then they run to their next (hour-long) meeting. No one sends a meeting recap, and 24 hours later, no one’s totally sure what the point of the meeting was, minus the one person who may or may not have taken notes.
Here’s why you should consider cutting meeting requests back to 30 minutes or less: If you have a clear agenda that’s been shared prior to the meeting, there’s a good chance you can breeze through everything that needs to be discussed in half an hour. Encourage people to come to the meeting with ideas ready to share, and, if you’re the meeting organizer, send out a quick recap email with next steps and action items at the end of your meeting. Fact: People will appreciate you respecting their time by keeping things brief, focused, and on track. No one in the history of the world has been upset about a meeting ending a few minutes early.
I’ve read a lot of articles that encourage sending an email instead of booking a meeting, but I don’t necessarily agree. Having face time and actual discussion can be more useful than an email that people might ignore or misinterpret–and it can actually save time in the long run.
Go offline.
Google Chat, email, Slack…the tools we use to make communication and collaboration easier can also be huge time suckers. One minute, you’re chatting with a colleague about a status report, and the next thing you know, you’re 10 Buzzfeed quizzes deep and finding out what Harry Potter house you belong to based on your ideal pizza order–fellow Ravenclaws, you know what’s up. When you’ve got your head down working on a project, it can be distracting (and frustrating) fielding a barrage of Slack messages, then trying to get back to the task at hand, over and over again.
If you need to focus, don’t feel bad about putting that Do Not Disturb icon in your Slack status for a while. And if that’s not doing the trick, turn Slack off entirely. Leave a note in your status about when you expect to return (for example: Offline from 1–2 pm.) That way you’re setting clear expectations about your availability and your colleagues will know when they’ll be able to reach you.
Email can be another big time vampire. I’ve read articles that suggest only checking email at designated times during the day, but I like to keep on top of my inbox, checking email almost constantly. Over time, I’ve gotten better about deciding what needs an immediate response and what can wait. Winding down the afternoon responding to those important-but-not-super-urgent emails is a good way to clean up your inbox before you leave for the day.
Block time in your calendar.
For me, Fridays tend to be pretty light, meeting-wise, which makes them an excellent time to wrap up the week’s loose ends and plan ahead on big-picture projects. Occasionally, I like to block off some time on Friday afternoon to get caught up on admin tasks and plan for new campaigns, do internal team communications, or research cool creative ideas. Others on my team have gotten into the habit of blocking off chunks of time during the week to focus on writing or brainstorming.
Don’t be shy about booking the time you need to get things done, and treat that time with as much respect as you would a meeting with a coworker.
Take breaks.
It might sound counterintuitive, but taking breaks throughout the day can make you more productive! Even if it’s just a 15-minute walk around the block or popping outside to eat your sandwich at lunchtime, a change of scene can help you solve a problem or come up with your next great idea. When you return to your desk, you’ll be focused, reenergized, and ready to power through the rest of the day. Better yet, grab a work pal and go for a quick walk to brainstorm an issue together or come up with some ideas over coffee.
If you absolutely, positively cannot get away from your desk, there are other ways to press pause during a busy day. The EyeSaver browser extension reminds you to look away from your screen every 20 minutes for 20 seconds. It’s intended to promote good eye health and reduce eye strain, but it’s also a great reminder to take a few deep breaths or grab a glass of water.
Use apps.
I know people who swear by the Pomodoro timer, which alerts you to take a break after 25 minutes of working. There are lots of time-tracking tools that can also help you keep track of how you’ve spent your time. Personally, I like to use plain old Google Calendar. I’ll estimate how long it should take me to complete a task and set it as a meeting in my calendar. Having a deadline–even a self-imposed one with zero consequences–is usually enough to keep me on track.
If there’s a particular distraction you struggle with, there are plenty of tools to help you block it out when you need to focus on your work. For example, the Screen Time function on the iPhone will turn off certain apps after an amount of time you’ve designated (I have all my social apps set to power down after one hour of activity each day). You can block certain websites during an allotted time period. Technology is your friend when it comes to time management!
We’d love to hear your tips for time management. Share your favourite ways to handle a busy day in the comments!
Amy is the Director of Content Strategy at VERB Interactive — a leader in digital marketing, specializing in solutions for the travel and hospitality industry. Find out more at www.verbinteractive.com.
