10 Tips For Better Time Management

Time can be a tricky thing to manage. Both full-time workers and others with flexible working hours (business owners and freelancers) are obliged to be the master of their time, should they wish to work effectively and be more productive. Although there have been lots of time management classes on offer these days, the tricks to address time management issues can be as simple as presented below.

Some may argue that time is divided into two definitions based on how your perspectives of time: clock time and reality time. To be more specific, clock time means that you see time-based on these calculations: 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, etc. On the contrary, reality time is not measured in that way. Instead,  it refers to time periods created inside your head, which sometimes makes you feel that 1 hour is way less than 60 minutes (usually when you are having fun) or 15 minutes’ period feels like two hours when you are feeling bored.

Anyway, no matter which perspective is used, knowing that there are only 24 hours a day, a lot of modern people today should be smart enough to complete their tasks. Some of the basic, most important steps to mastering the trick are as follows:

1. Decide what tasks must be prioritized and do them first

To spend your time effectively, you should be able to select which tasks are the most important and allocate your precious time to deal with them once you get to work. Each day, identify the two or three tasks that are the most important to complete and do those first. As long as you can finish the most significant ones, you can say that you have worked quite productively for the day.

2. Focus on one task at a time

Should there be more than important tasks to handle at once, the idea of juggling between the tasks may seem appealing, especially if you find the tasks not as interesting as expected. Despite the temptation, it is suggested that the focus on one single task that you know you have time for and that you truly care about.

3. Get rid of all possible distractions

It has been easier than ever to draw people’s attention from what they are supposed to focus on, what with the thriving entertainment and social media platforms. The need to be constantly updated looks almost inevitable. For that reason, it will be best that the internet connection is strictly used for the task at hand and any coming e-mails, messages and even phone calls are neglected for a while until the priorities are all done.

4. Manage tasks in collective groups

When you deal with either top notch projects or regular tasks, quite significant amount of time can be saved by grouping similar tasks into one category and doing them collectively. In that way, no time is needed to re-orient.

5. Know your deadlines

When do you need to finish your tasks? Mark the deadlines out clearly in your calendar and organizer so you know when you need to finish them.

6. Do not linger on details too much

In almost every production process, there is time to create and there is time to edit and revise. At the creation stage, the main task is to produce something. Later, there will be an editing stage, in which details are checked and made better.

7. Delegate

If there are things that can be better done by others or things that are not so important, consider delegating. This takes a load off and you can focus on the important tasks.

8. Give yourself some break time after finished task

Leave a 5-10 minute buffer time in between each tasks. The idea is to give time to acknowledge the accomplished tasks and to relax both your muscles and mind for a while. The sense of accomplishment and relaxing time have been proven to boost optimal brain work.

9. Sleep around 7 to 8 hours a day

The same idea goes as the above. Having enough sleep means that you give your brain enough time organize thoughts and help it work better. Some people think sacrificing sleep is a good way to hack productivity but this is not the case.

10. The last and most important is to be committed

Reading all these may seem easy and take only a few minutes. However, for the charm to work, the realization should be done with commitment. If committed realization is hard at first, you have got to do the actions repeatedly to be able to adopt the new habits.

Best of luck implementing these tips, and feel free to share in the comments area if you have any tips to be a better time manager.

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”