Time is the thing that everyone wants more of but it’s never available. It’s always in finite supply, which means you can’t manufacture more of it, as desperately as you might want. The only thing you can really do is to become better organized to make use of the time you already have.
There are many reasons you’d want to do this. You may want to get more done at work, or you may want more time to be with your family. There are a few tips and tricks that can help you do this.
1. Create to-do list
Many times we end up wasting time because we are not really sure what we are supposed to be doing in the first place.
A to-do list is a summation of all the things you need to do for a particular period, whether it is that day, or for that hour or for that project. One of the benefits of the to-do list is that you can see at any time what you have accomplished and what you still need to have done.
It also allows you to set priorities for your tasks. This way, you don’t spend the majority of your time doing something that is relatively unimportant.
2.Use your calendar
“Mark the date” are powerful words. If you’ve ever gotten in trouble for not remembering a birthday, an anniversary or an important project deadline, you’ll know just how powerful. Because of the proliferation of electronic calendars, physical calendars have become scarce.
Nonetheless, there are still several people who perform the act of circling a date with a red inked pen. If this is you, you can print one from BlankCalendarPages.com, where you can get a variety of themes and styles. This way, you’ll find it harder to forget those important dates and not get on anyone’s wrong side because of it.
3. Use a time tracker
This one is particularly useful if you have multiple projects to work on. You can use a time tracker to help you split up your available time into segments and then portion it out to the projects on your list.
You use the tracker to keep on top of how much time has passed. Once the allotted period for a particular project has passed you move on to the next one. This does two things. Firstly, you see how long it takes to complete your individual projects. Secondly, because of this, you do not set unrealistic deadlines for them.
4. Decide which tasks you’re going to tackle first
Nothing can shut down motivation to get things done like something perceived as “hard”. Most tend to balk at tasks that require significant physical or mental effort and leave them undone for as long as possible.
What actually ends up happening is that we have a number of tasks piling up behind it because we’ve failed to get the “hard” one done. If you’re a person that procrastinates whenever you have a difficult task, try to get that one done first. You reduce the amount of mental energy spent worrying about it. You also do not create a pile up of tasks waiting to be completed.
Conversely, you can be the opposite and leave easy tasks because they are less difficult. Then you find that you have a whole load of them and not enough time to complete them. If you find yourself in this situation, you may want to tackle the easy tasks first, so you don’t have a backlog and you can then focus on more difficult ones.
5. Delegate
This one can work whether at home or the office, particularly if you like doing all your work yourself, because you believe no one can get it done better than you. It might even be true, but what often happens is that you are overwhelmed with tasks, many of which never get done because you only have so much time and energy.
Delegating means that you share the tasks that are least likely to need your attention and special skills with others, so that you free up your time and attention for your core duties. If you’re the manager of a department, you can delegate certain administrative tasks to subordinates, which will allow you to focus on running your department.
Similarly, if you are a busy mother, you can have members of your family wash dishes, which frees up your time to cook dinner, especially if you’re the person in the family that makes the best meals. You don’t want to entrust that responsibility to someone who will have the family eat burnt dinners.
Becoming more organised and having more time does not require waving a magic wand and creating time out thin air. All that you need to do is be mindful and take a few steps to make better use of the time you have.
Recent Comments