6 Effective Time Management Strategies Everyone should Know About
What is time management?
Today’s market world values companies that are not only capable of providing a large number of services in a short time, but also that they do not compromise on the quality of the services they provide. This implies well that the world revolves around the one -be it an organization or an individual- which is efficient in its domain as well as quick in producing a large number of results in the shortest possible time. This comes from managing time well, the basic concept of which is:
“The process of designing and implementing conscious control of time spent on daily activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.”
How to manage our time?
The question that arises is, how to use our fullest potential which is well-reflected in the outcome of our tasks. For that, a three-step method is followed.
Step 1: Recognizing the problem
The first step is to inspect our everyday routine and closely analyze when and in which activities we tend to waste our time. This is called Time Audit, which is knowing when we are being productive and when not. Some people are habitual of surfing through their Instagram feed, others can’t help watching series on Netflix and the list goes on.
This step often helps us to recognize the problematic patterns we encounter every day and choose a plan (or make one) that assists in eliminating those patterns we repeat daily.
Step 2: Devise a plan that works for you
The process of choosing or inventing a time-management plan suitable for you needs careful completion of step number 1 as its prerequisite. Below are the 6 key tricks to manage time well:
i) Pomodoro technique 🍎 :
This method is used when undergoing tasks requiring high focus for a long duration such as studying, writing a report that may need hours for completion, etc. The trick is to divide your day’s active hours into 30-minute parts. After every 25 minutes of focused work, take a five-minute break. Use these five minutes to freshen yourself. Next, take another round of 25 minutes and repeat. After every four or five reps, take an hour or two off and rest and then repeat.
The time figures here vary from person to person according to what works best for them. This technique prevents the lack of focus arising from continuous brain activity in case of tedious tasks ending either in the task unaccomplished by the time it could have or if accomplished, the quality is compromised.
ii) The Eisenhower Matrix:
Dwight Eisenhower said,
“What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important”
And that’s the basis of this technique. Urgent means that a task requires immediate attention whereas important tasks are those that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals.
This Matrix helps us take quick decisions based on urgency and the importance of tasks. (Urgent + Important) tasks are our top-most priority, while not urgent and not important tasks should be placed at the bottom-most position of our things to-do list.
iii) Time blocking 🕑:
Fundamentally, time blocking is all about reserving a segment in the calendar for a certain task. The time blocking technique encourages one to divide his day into tasks that are needed to be completed, reserving particular time for each task. This helps us keep our focus on that particular task for the time reserved for it.
While a standard to-do list tells us what needs to be done, time blocking tells us when we’re going to do it.
As a behavioral designer, Nir Eyal says,
“In this day and age, you cannot call something distracting unless you know what it’s distracting you from”
This works best for people who do not have flexible routines, i.e. they have similar routines every day and that they are not bombarded by urgent tasks which tend to disturb their schedules.
Major drawbacks include spending an ample amount of time on scheduling every minute of your day and that there’s a good possibility of overestimating your strengths and not having work done by the time block leaves you stressed out.
iv) Eat the frog 🐸 / Glass jar :
Mark Twain said,
“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”
This is well-explained with the following famous example. If you need to put rocks, sand, and water in a jar and you try to put the water first, the rocks won’t go in. When applied to productivity, this is a method that says you need to focus on your largest tasks first (rocks), then your midsize tasks (sand) and in the end, anything extra. (e.g. Water in the jar).
This approach has three benefits:
- You won’t be anxious about a large task you’ll need to do later. It’s quite probable that if you dread a large task, you’re likely to accomplish smaller tasks first to avoid that large task altogether.
- Accomplishing that big task actually motivates you with the feeling of actually tackling something huge, and that keeps you going.
- The most tedious tasks require much more energy than other tasks. Mornings, for most people prove to be the most productive time of the day since they’re all fresh and ready for the day. By the evening, one’s work efficiency declines, and encountering any tedious task may take longer than it would have had they tackled it in the morning.
v) Parkinson’s law:
Parkinson’s law is the adage that,
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”
We need to understand that it isn’t realistic to complete a 12-hour task within 30 minutes, but it’s quite likely being unable to complete a 2-hour task in a week. That is to say, if we allot a week’s time to that task, it’s highly probable for us to be doing it at the end of the week. Psychologically speaking, the work increases its complexity when given a deadline far in time, resulting in extra stress which could’ve easily been avoided had we assigned the right amount of time to that particular task which would have ended in reducing the complexity of that task to its natural state.
vi) The Pareto Principle:
What it basically says is that,
“80% of all the results you get are only coming from 20% of the work that you do.”
We need to prioritize our work based on the results they produce and schedule our routines according to the ratio of efforts vs. results. By doing so, the lower effort task giving higher results are always done first.
- Try something new:
Everyone is different from others, that is to say, the above methods might have worked for some of the most well-known people in the world but not for others. Hence, we should try making new designs to manipulate our psyche for the better. For me, a small token of appreciation in the form of snacks after the completion of each task keeps me going.
Step 3: Enforce the plan, whichever works for you
This part is the simplest to explain yet hardest to achieve, i.e. to actually do it. It might be difficult to follow a plan in the beginning. It might feel like wasting time every morning making time blocks, but once it becomes a habit, it increases your productivity tenfold.
Conclusion
We all get 24 hours a day. An average person lives around 71 years. Then what is it that makes a few people stand out from the crowd of billions of people? It’s that they have mastered the skill of managing the limited time and knowing its true worth, which is beyond any dollar value.