If you master the techniques of time management, it does not mean that you will manage to do more and more tasks in a shorter time frame. It means that you will learn how to plan your work (and beyond) time wisely, prioritize, use all available resources, and then not deviate from your plan.
Here are seven simple time management tips that will help you get things done more efficiently and be much less stressed.
1. Organize Your Day
Scheduling your day is an important and paramount task that you need to do daily. You should plan either in the evening (for the next day) or in the morning (for today).
Of course, it is impossible to foresee and plan everything, there will always be urgent matters, unforeseen circumstances, and force majeure, but it is still worth creating a certain backbone of the plan.
Plan not only your work activities, but also your meals (plan so that you have time to eat properly, not just snacks), exercise and other physical activities, let you have time to meet with friends and family, and, of course, leave yourself time to rest. Sometimes sticking completely to your day-plan won’t work because of the unforeseen circumstances already mentioned. And so we move on to the second point.
2. Prioritize.
If you are an incorrigible perfectionist, then finally realize that you can not do everything. Decide what is most important right now, and focus all your efforts on those tasks. It’s best to set yourself short-term small goals that are achievable, and you won’t feel like you haven’t done enough when in fact you’ve done enough.
3. Delegate more tasks.
Delegate things and delegate as much as possible. You can’t do everything alone. Educate others, don’t be afraid to depend on others sometimes, don’t hesitate to ask for help when you need it.
4. Do the most difficult things first.
Make it a habit to start each day with difficult tasks, so that you have time to do them while you are energetic and do not have time to get tired. Leave all the easy tasks for the second half of the day.
Often we are afraid to start difficult tasks, so we are constantly putting them off until the last moment. But at the same time, we are constantly thinking about these tasks and are nervous all day long. Why get so wound up? It’s better to deal with it all at once and feel calm for the rest of the day and work more productively.
5. If possible, save time at meetings.
Often we need 10-15 minutes to discuss all the important issues. But since discussions of business matters are often accompanied by irrelevant conversations, they can drag on considerably.
There are cases when we don’t need to meet with someone in person at all – just talk to them on the phone or send them an email. For example, you do not need to have a personal meeting with the team of essay writers, if you need to set them the task of writing a text – a detailed TOR sent by email will be more than enough. That way you will save not only your time but also the time of your interlocutor.
6. Don’t leave everything to the last minute.
Doing a task under the pressure of deadlines is the worst thing for your psyche, your productivity, and your body in general.
If you perform work in a hurry, it almost always means that you perform it poorly and doom yourself to the inevitable redo. And, of course, you get much more nervous than if you had decided to do the work on time.
Plan in advance. If the task is complicated and requires a lot of time, divide it up into several days, but so that you can complete the task in a quality and on-time manner.
7. Don’t be a perfectionist.
Do what you can within a reasonable time frame, and then move on to other important tasks. If you have extra time left over, you can always go back to previous tasks later and make adjustments.
Statistically speaking, completing 95% of the tasks is a great result, which not everyone achieves.
Of course, you will need self-discipline and some practice to learn how to allocate your time and efforts. Once you learn how to do this, you’ll notice how orderly your life has become and how much less nervous you are.
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