11 Powerful Time Management Tips on How to Manage Your Time

Nobody is born productive, but you can cultivate it over time

Nobody is born productive, but you can cultivate it over time and this change cannot happen until you take a big step and change your MINDSET. How you manage time is very important.

The only thing everyone has in common no matter your money, fame etc is TIME. Yes! we all have the same 24 hours a day, just to remind you. So, behind every success, there is someone doing his or her best every day.

WHAT IS TIME MANAGEMENT?

Time management is the way you organize and plan your activities in a given period of time. Time management is important when it comes to been productive and get a whole lot done in a short time.

Although time management does not really exist because let us face it time passes whether you like it or not and you can not stop it or change it or even make it bend. But you can manage yourself and the way you approach things.

So, this post will show you some time management skills to help you take control of your time by getting rid of distractions and improve your productivity. Finally, this will help get you a step closer to your dreams and goals.

3 STEPS TO MANAGE TIME EFFECTIVELY

Before you manage time effectively there are 3 important steps you have to follow if you want to conquer and win in this new path of time management and productivity you have chosen.

STEP 1: TRACK YOUR TIME FOR A DAY

First, you have to ask yourself a question, where does my time go? With this question in mind, you will have to track your time on a typical day to answer the question.

Before you learn how to manage your time, you need to understand how you spend it. This helps you know what you are doing wrong.

So, when you wake up tomorrow write down your wakeup time in your planner and as your day goes by write down everything you do and the time it takes you to complete each task

For example, how long it takes for you to bath, eat, and get ready for the day. Also, time to do your workout or the number of hours you spend in the office etc.

If you work from home on your computer and phone, check your screen time. This would show you what website and apps you spend your time and the duration.

Get every detail to the last because it would help you in your next step to managing your time effectively.

STEP 2: ANALYSE YOUR SCHEDULE

You have to be very honest with yourself if you want to be productive and manage your time very well.

Did you spend 10 minutes working and you get distracted doing social media for the next 1 hour or so? You have to admit it, tell yourself you are not been productive.

So go through your schedule you tracked, then highlight any time you did something not productive. Add up all the time you wasted and see how much time you blew away in doing activities you get no result from.

With you tracking your time and analysing it, you will see areas you need to improve on.

STEP 3: CHANGE

This is the time to start making changes to your schedule to manage time better. You have to cut down on your bad habits and work on been productive.

So here are some tips that will help you drop all your time-wasting habits and be a better time manager.

HOW TO MANAGE TIME — 11 POWERFUL TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS

1. FIND THE PERFECT PLANNING METHOD

How to manage time is by planning, this helps you know what you are supposed to be doing and when to do it. You need to find the planning methods that work best for you.

Having a to-do list is one way but it doesn't work for people that need a bit of structure in their day. I will recommend hourly planning so you know exactly what to do every time of the day.

You can also do weekly planning, bullet journaling or plan digitally with your computer or phone.

2. SET GOALS AND REWARD

Setting your goals is very important for planning your day, by doing this you will not fall out of your schedule. When you have your goals set it can help you to be productive so you can achieve that dream.

You may have a lot of things you want to accomplish but you cannot do them all at once, so work on them one after the other. You should set goals regularly every month or week, so you can always be on track.

So after achieving any goal you can reward yourself. Knowing that you have a reward for doing something can be motivating. Your rewards can be anything, big or small like having a treat or getting some hours to watch a movie or just to rest.

3. PRIORITIZE YOUR TASK AND DISTRIBUTE YOUR TIME

To-do list is an effective way to manage your time. Write down all you have to do for that day. Then prioritize them according to how important or urgent they are.

Use the Eisenhower’s Decision Principle in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Important and urgent are tasks that need to be done right away. Important but not urgent are important tasks too but you can decide when to do them.

Urgent but not important are tasks that need to be done immediately but when completed does not have a lasting value. Not important and not urgent are usually leisure activities, these are things you do not really need to do but want to do.

You can make it really fun for yourself by colour coordinating your tasks on your list.

4. SCHEDULE YOUR DAY AHEAD OF TIME

Waking up in the morning without a plan or knowing what to do during the day is a big NO. It can make you forget important stuff or do more work than you can manage.

Take time at the end of each week to plan your activities for the next week. Before you go to bed go through your schedule for the next day just in case you need to add or remove anything.

Secondly, take time to plan out your outfit for the next day, plan your meals because deciding what to eat can take a lot of time.

If you like homemade meals then give yourself some hours during the weekend to plan and do some meal prep for the week.

Similarly, if you love to do takeouts write down a list of the food and restaurants you will be ordering from in advance.

5. PUT TIME LIMITS TO TASKS

Multitasking is not efficient and does not save time. It can also slow you down and you may complete your work in low quality. So instead of multitasking have a specific time allocated to completing your task for the day.

Starting from your morning routine, do you take 30 minutes to get ready or work for 4–8 hours or exercise for 30mins, get every activity a duration. When you give time to your tasks, you accomplish a lot throughout the day.

6. BATCH SIMILAR TASKS

If you work from home or an entrepreneur, this method will go a long way to help save your time.

For example, as a blogger, I dedicate Sundays to create pins for my post and schedule them out for 2 weeks. With that, I am not bothered about posting daily.

You can take pictures for your Instagram one day, film your content, pick one day to do your meal prep for the week and go grocery shopping.

7. BLOCK OUT DISTRACTIONS

Distractions can be a problem for a lot of people and it makes you waste your time. So when working put your phone away, block out your social media notification.

If you work from home create a designated workspace, this helps your brain know that whenever you are in this space it is time to work and be productive.

8. SET CLEAR DEADLINES

When do you need to complete a task or finish your assignment or publish that blog post? If you do not know this it would be hard to keep track of your time.

It is easy to do everything when it should be done if you set a clear deadline for each task. You can mark your deadline in your planner or calendar to remind you. Having a deadline also helps you know the task you should be focusing on at a particular time.

Always set deadlines 2–3 days before the actual deadline, this will help you finish on time and you won't be stressed out.

9. DELEGATE YOUR TASKS

The goal is to do more in less time, but you cannot expend time or get more hours in a day. So delegate your tasks, delegating is giving someone else the responsibility of taking the lead and trusting them.

You can delegate small tasks like hiring someone to schedule your activities for the day, getting a cleaner for your home or big work-related tasks.

According to Rory Vaden in a TED x Douglasville video people that want to multiply their time think of the significance of the task. The think about what they can o today that would make tomorrow work better.

You multiply time by giving yourself the emotional permission to spend time on things today that will give you more time tomorrow

Rory Vaden

10. TAKE BREAKS AND UNWIND

Have you wondered why there are lunch breaks in jobs, seminar or conference etc? When you are doing something or learning for long, your brain can stop working properly.

I have found myself reading for long and my brain could not comprehend what I was reading again.

The same when you are learning or working, your brain needs some minutes to rest. After a few minutes, you will feel refresh and ready to be productive.

During your break of 15 minutes — 1 hour, you can grab a snack, watch a movie, listen to music or talk to a friend.

You should also have a specific time you unwind, you stop working for the day and have time for yourself.

11. DO A WEEKLY REVIEW

Look at the past week and reflect whether you were able to achieve your goals and complete your tasks. When you do this you will see your progress and areas you need to work on more.

CONCLUSION

Just because we are talking about managing your time and being productive, you should not over pack your schedule.

Give room for things that may just come up because in life anything can happen that needs urgent attention. You may even be tired or sick, so you need some time to relax.

Remember productivity is about getting things done fast and effective so you can have time to take good care of yourself and do things you love.

I hope you found this post on how to effectively manage your time in 10 ways helpful?

THANKS FOR READING XOXO

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