3 Time Management Tips To Live By
Time management is hard. We are all connected at every hour. It’s tough to claim to be too busy or out of reach of any incoming email, text, or phone call. Not so long ago, when you went home from a long day at work, you were able to relax. Now, with many individuals turning their bedrooms and offices into work from home (WFH) destinations — complete with desk ornaments including a zen garden because you don’t want to feel too stressed — the work stays with us. This has made time management even more difficult. Oh right, and there’s the whole COVID pandemic that sent tons of individuals home with their kids or out of work entirely. Well, things are opening back up and you have piles and piles of work, activities, and hobbies you want to catch up on. There are three simple ways to do this.
As an added bonus, check out the end of this article for a link to a book created to explain how to be even more productive. I get nothing by referring you to this book. It’s just a great read!
Tip 1: If it takes 5 minutes, do it now
Some of you may know about the 2-minute rule: if it takes 2-minutes, don’t procrastinate. I like to extend this. There are many things that add up in a day. The key is to not let them pile up on your to-do lists. If something takes 5 minutes and you’re not doing something important, go and do it. I’m not saying to leave that meeting with your boss and go change your clothes from the washer to the dryer. When that meeting is over, however, get up there and do it. Small wins make it easy to stay motivated during the day.
The best way to determine if something is important is to use the Eisenhower Matrix. The image below showcases this.
Check out how you can organize tasks to fall into one of the categories. Make sure you’re choosing appropriately. I’m not saying that your laundry isn’t important, but it definitely isn’t urgent. Dwight D. Eisenhower created this methodology to become as productive as any person can be, and you can too. Organize your tasks into these categories and see which ones you want to deal with “immediately”. Remember, immediately does not mean that you’ll overlap and drop a Quadrant I activity to do something that takes 5 minutes.
Tip 2: If it takes 15 minutes, set aside a little time in the near future
15 minutes is 3 5 minute tasks. Sure, you’re noticing my awesome math skills, but take a step back and think about that. If you were going to feed your dog, change the laundry, and call the bank you might as well do one of the mid-length tasks you have on your list. These are tasks you don’t want to build up the most as they can seem like Quadrant I activities in disguise. Think about some of these tasks: vacuuming your room, folding the laundry, generating a report, etc. These tasks can sometimes seem urgent and important. Sometimes, they are. Maybe your boss came to you and asked that you have a report on her desk by the end of the hour. Then it immediately becomes a Quadrant I activity and probably supersedes any other activities you were working on.
You can accomplish a lot in 15 minutes. Don’t sell yourself short.
15 minutes a day! Give me just this and I’ll prove I can make you a new man.
- Charles Atlas
Tip 3: If it takes 20 minutes or more, plan for it
Yes, you’ll have to plan for the previous segment, but this is the category that makes the “long-term” to-dos. Plan for these accordingly. If you’re a meetings-heavy individual, block off time on your calendar or choose a day where you take no (or limited) meetings. If you have a procrastination problem, don’t overburden yourself. Here’s the trick that I use to focus:
Break down longer tasks to fit the previous two categories.
I’ll give you an example. I report monthly KPIs that take me hours to collect and generate. For each channel that I am supposed to gather a KPI for, there are sub-channels that I need to put together. Eventually, after hours of work, I have a nice collection of information. The way I address this task is to segment the tasks into 15-minute increments. I focus on one of the channels and finish that. I even break up the larger task by not completing it all at once. Right now, I’m writing this post in between my monthly reporting since I just finished a channel.
Sometimes, you won’t be able to break down a task fully. Just don’t let the other tasks build up so you can focus. It’s easy to put up a corkboard and add a bunch of things you want to do. Before long, you’ll have filled up the corkboard, moved to your monitor, bought a planner, piled up notebooks, and purchased index cards to hold even more things to do. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Take a break, relax, and know that you can use the time management rules to better complete your tasks.
The Productivity Project
One of the greatest productivity books that I’ve read (and often goes unnoticed) is The Productivity Project. In the book, Christ Bailey discusses how he took time off from everything other than practicing different productivity methods for a year. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the ability to do that myself, so I defer to people like him who are dedicating their lives to being productive. It’s a great read and describes the best methods, with proof, to becoming a more productive version of yourself.
Stay productive everyone!
