How to Manage your Time and Get More Done (Realistically)
Delve into an approach that works to boost productivity during the pandemic and WFH era
Is it possible to crunch time in the day without having to sacrifice sleep to get more done?
How do some people achieve the same goals that you have, in the same time?
Is it possible to become more productive despite a busy schedule?
The answer is Yes. However, these are questions, we ask ourselves almost every day.
So, how do we get more time to do the things we really want to do?
Let’s begin by revising our concept of time and accepting these 3 facts:
1. Time is a non-renewable resource
2. Time cannot be multiplied
3. We all have finite amount of time in our lives
Lost time cannot be renewed and we obviously cannot multiply time to get more hours in a day to do more stuff.
So, let's begin by understanding why we can’t do more stuff in a day.
Psychology
We all know the theory behind time-management and there are things that we already do to try and save time.
Prior to the pandemic, we were all hustling during the week, to save time during the weekend.
Have you ever thought about why you preferred eating out or ordering food?
Or picking up frozen fruits /veggies or pizza on your way home from work?
Or trying out those meal-prep services that deliver 5–6 ingredients in the exact amount required to cook up a meal?
Subconsciously or consciously, we were all doing this to save time. Because for some of us, cooking takes up time.
Prepping ingredients, chopping veggies, actual cook time and cleaning up is a tedious process that takes up a considerable amount of time.
The same goes for shopping appliances. We invest in washing machines or coffee machines because we want to save time.
However, the pandemic reversed our idea of saving time and now it’s all about how to kill time when you’re home, now that you are saving those commute hours and drive hours.
So, right now the question isn’t about how to get more time? It’s about how to manage your time.
Mood/Emotions
We have all tried to-do lists, calendars, checklists and time-management software. But we still find it difficult to squeeze more tasks in.
It’s because even though the tools help us to evaluate and achieve more time. They don’t help us to evaluate our emotions, such as tiredness, motivation and emotions.
Today, it is more about managing ‘yourself’ than managing your ‘time’. We struggle to regulate our mood and emotions than save or make time to do things.
We wake up every day to find that our feelings such as fear and panic rule everything that’s on our to-do list or schedule.
And, it is possible to regulate our mood and emotions. In fact, it's much simpler than trying to save time like in the pre-pandemic days.
The simplest way to do it is to get into the Knitty gritty of our schedule and evaluate how exactly we spend our time these days.
Audit Time
Getting Audited for our taxes puts us on a check. The same way a time-based workflow audit will bring out the details such as ‘how much’ and ‘where exactly’ is our time being spent to put us on a reality check.
We all have 168 hours in a week.
And, a definite set of hours dedicated just for work.
Like, 40hrs of work a week!
Regardless of the fact that you are a night owl or an early riser, on average, a person is likely to sleep 8hrs during the total 24hr day.
Doing the math, that takes up 56hrs of sleep during the week.
The remaining time is free and not committed.
So, make a time-based workflow by recording the number of hours you are going to be awake!
Some people are awake for 18hrs a day, which means they sleep for 6hrs/day or less.
The key is to divide the number of awake hours (example: 18hrs) into smaller chunks of 30 or 60-minute intervals and record activities consuming the time-intervals.
Another tip is to record the same for work hours and evaluate how many hours exactly is work, lunch and meetings.
Prioritize
Now, that the time audit has revealed exactly how long every task takes.
It’s time to prioritize.
Things like Personal Hygiene, Commute etc. cannot be cut short so it’s important to understand what to cut to make time for the task you really want to do.
Prioritizing tasks means focusing on the ones that matter most because it doesn’t make more time. Nor does it help you achieve all the items on your to-do list.
It only helps us juggle the time at hand and borrow it from one task to add it to another.
For example, you really want to make time for a professional course that can help you level up your career. So, try to cut tasks that can be pushed back to next week or next month and start on the course now.
Or try to borrow time from one task to bring in the new task and balance the day.
You have to make those big decisions and decide what to sacrifice, in order to make time for your goal. Otherwise, goals keep getting pushed back.
If you still can’t cut time, take a look at weekend hours or sleep less, to make time up for the goal you really want to achieve.
Say No
In order to make time for the goals you want to accomplish, you have to say no to distractions that crop up all of a sudden. For example, unexpected movie dates and new releases on Netflix that crop up, right in the middle of the week.
Those can be pushed back to the weekend.
Saying no doesn’t mean it’s the end. You are always saying no to something while saying yes to something else.
Also, It’s just about swapping the important task to now and the less important task to later.
You may be doing something that doesn’t require that much of your time. So, don’t be a perfectionist in the minor tasks and instead allot time to your goals.
Don’t Eliminate Distractions
It’s impossible to cut distractions and leisure activities completely out of your life.
Realistically, when we try to cut everything and shift our focus only on the goal, we spiral out and give it up completely.
Because our brain tends to work on the reward system.
Also, gaming, watching TV and other leisure activities are much needed to keep focus.
So, instead of trying to cut them out completely, try to limit the time you spend on these activities and always try to swap them with work first.
And you can enjoy and indulge in guilt-free leisure time over the weekend.
Since you’ve successfully given your time to goals over the week.
It’s like a cheat day over the weekend!
Conclusion
Take advantage of every single moment every single day. It’s never too late to invest time in your goals.
When you borrow time from other tasks for your goal, you end up achieving the goal. By doing a little every day.
Instead of trying to allot and dedicate a huge chunk of your future time.
Because realistically it doesn’t work. It’s all about giving priority to the things you really want to do.
Also, do a 2-week or 3-week time audit sprint to evaluate progress and plan ahead.
So, make time for your goals with the belief that achieving your goals will create more time tomorrow.
