Time Management Tips That You Don’t Know You Need In Your Life

Time management tips that you don’t know you need in your life

Written by-Gulshan Parveen

They say, “Time management is life management” and you cannot deny this fact at all! In a recent survey, it’s revealed that people are struggling with their time management skills. But it’s also a fact that our productivity can be improved and we can achieve more than what we are doing now. Usually, we feel very overwhelmed whenever we recall the tasks that had to cut from our to-do list.

That weird realization that you have plenty of things to do but you just don’t know where to start on and whom to give utmost importance, is the worst thing ever. And if you can relate even a little bit with this, then it is suggested to continue your read. Because the team of Business Connect has brought you a set of interesting and highly-useful tips in the context of the same.

Get ready to sort out your daily planner in a better way, and for this, the best technique we need in life is learning time management skills. We all are equipped with 24 hours a day but what makes us different from one another is the way we utilize these hours. After doing immense research and analysis about time management techniques, and observing numerous productivity gurus such as Ali Abdaal, Thomas Frank, and Matt D’ Avella-we are presenting various tried and tested tips on time management.

Although, not every technique works for everyone, but you can implement these whether you are an entrepreneur, student, or any general person curious to learn the same. We are confident enough that these will add some extra value to your routine life if will not bring a drastic change into it.

1. Structure your day

Here we’re not talking about simply filling your brain with a bunch of things that you haven’t done yet or have to do in a particular month. We’re going to discuss structuring your day in such a manner that will boost your productivity. So firstly, make sure you spare 10 minutes from your night routine and devote them to planning for the next day. If somehow, you missed doing it at night, make it the foremost thing to do in the morning, yes, even before checking your social media.

Now, you would probably be wondering, “Ah! I don’t need to write things down to make myself remember them. Of course, I know what I have to do.” But buddy! You are wrong here. Irrespective of the amount of ‘soaked almonds’ your mom has made you consume for boosting your memory, you have to list them down anyway. Because writing things down makes your brain more focused on those things particularly and reduces the risk of distractions as well. Also, there is nothing more satisfying than crossing the completed tasks from your planner, not even chilling on your bed with Netflix on Sunday. Trust me!

2.Pomodoro technique:

It is difficult to admit a person a time management enthusiast, if he or she hasn’t ever tried this method out. Introduced by Francesco Cirillo, the Pomodoro method is probably the most used technique of students when they have to revise for exams. It simply tells you to devote your 25 minutes to complete a task and take a break of 5 minutes. Although, it’s not bounded by 25-5 time laps. You can increase or decrease the number of minutes as per your accordance. For instance, you can devote 45-50 minutes to a task and take a nap of 10-15 minutes after it.

Now let’s talk about the reality of this method. As per the perception of time management gurus, this doesn’t provide a great amount of productivity in your routine. But, it protects you from getting distracted by unwanted tasks. Confusingly thinking how? Well, when we engage our self in a particular task, be it study or assignment, our brain started acting like a mischievous child.

It starts uttering things like, I want to watch that movie, I’m hungry, who texted me on insta? So, when you implement the Pomodoro technique while performing the task, you spend that 5 minutes from your 30 minutes study span on your distractive task. Of course, you cannot watch a whole movie in that break, but you can eat your favorite snack or check your socials. This will decrease your FOMO and will help you in concentrating more efficiently and effectively.

3. Delegation

This particular tip is immensely made for entrepreneurs and we cannot stress enough on it. Delegation is outsourcing the least prioritized tasks to someone else who is probably an expert. Now, why this is primarily useful for entrepreneurs? All the entrepreneurs reading this, let’s just admit that you cannot manage everything that comes in your way. The number of tasks and responsibilities is unlimited but you have limited hours in your day to complete them. To tackle this scenario, you can use the delegation method that can make you an efficiency master.

In this context, Ali Abdaal has explained that you have to determine your, ‘per-hour worth’ first. Suppose, you derived that your one-hour worth is $1. So, it is suggested that all the tasks worth less than $1, should be outsourced to someone else at a lower rate, rather than doing it your own. In this way, you as an entrepreneur will be capable of utilizing your time in more important and worthy things. This will not only boost your confidence and productivity but will also act as an employment source for someone sharpening his or her skill as well.

4. The two-minute rule:

David Allen in his book-‘Getting things done’, has mentioned that the human brain is the most curious in the universe. We tend to procrastinate in the blink of an eye. But, this attitude of one ends up being the biggest enemy in the journey of productivity. So, he has explained that whenever a particular task hits you, find out the duration to complete it. If takes less than 2 minutes to do it, just do that right there, rather than postponing it for later.

Avoiding tasks for later overburdens your day and creates unnecessary frustration in the mind and blocks it. The use of a two-minute rule note only helps you in increasing productivity but also keeps you focused on other more attention-seeker tasks.

5.The five-minute rule:

As mentioned earlier, the human brain is like a child. Whenever we opt for a task that is not of our interest or too boring to perform, we become eager to stop it right there or postpone it for the future. Here, if you want to be a master of time management then be prepared to lie. Whenever your brain starts sending you signals that it cannot go further with a particular task, induce it by saying you will do it only for five more minutes. Keep repeating the statement until you can. Using this method, you will not only be able to complete your task but will also utilize your maximum potential.

6.Systems:

Now, this is a genuine and to-the-point tip introduced by James Clear in his book-‘Atomic Habits’. He has talked about the differences between goals and the process to attain them. At present, be it an entrepreneur working to expand his business or a student aspiring for a particular college-we all keep our prime focus on the ultimate goal. What we should be rather doing is shifting our priority towards the process. For instance, if you want to clear a particular examination, rather than focusing on the exam and being stressed, thrive to improve your efforts to perform the best in the same. This method subconsciously makes you closer to your goal and reduces the anxiety of the uncertainty in it.

7.Daily Highlight:

Ali Abdaal in his productivity videos has mentioned several times that there always are some days when we just don’t want to work at all. We find our calendar of the day blocked with numerous tasks and we end up overwhelming. He explained that rather than avoiding all and procrastinating, choose that one particular task that is highly important or whose deadline is near.

Keeping one particular task to be performed on the day act as a highlight of the day. And your mind gets the signal of being productive all day and also helps you cut down a task from your to-do list. This particular method is highly useful when you have too many things in your planner, and specifically one of them is high time consumable. So, rather than juggling between where to start and where to end, complete that one-time consumable task only.

8. Consuming content at 2X speed:

Now, this may sound weird to some people, but for me, it has been the best advice I have received ever. We as a person always be keen to learn new things and strive to improve our skills. In this process, we watch tons of YouTube videos and listen to a bunch of audiobooks. The pro-tip here is to play them at a speed of 2X or maybe, if possible, at 3X to consume the content at a brisk pace.

This not only saves your time and energy but helps you consume more content than usual. But again, if for any reason, you are not able to understand it at a faster speed then keep it at normal. As mentioned earlier, not everything works for everyone. But of course, we would suggest you try it at least once.

9. Eisenhower Matrix:

This technique can be a supplement for the first tip mentioned above. It guides you to prioritize your tasks on the to-do list in descending order. Categorize your tasks into four specific parts.

Do it: In this section, but the most urgent tasks of your list that you just cannot postpone at all. It can be any specific project that has to meet its deadline.
Decide: This section contains all the tasks that are not ‘that’ urgent. You can schedule your time as per your convenience and complete them later.
Delegation: You can put here all the tasks that are not urgent or important to you at that particular moment. And also can delegate the same to someone else for attaining a better productivity state.
Delete: This contains all the unnecessary things that your mind tends to do at that time. Be it exploring socials or watching a series, just delete them for the sake of achieving your desired goals.

10. Enjoying the journey:

Always keep in mind that perfection is just a myth. There is always a scope of improvement in everything. Keep your focal point on consistently improving your methods and skills. Time management is not a course to complete and move on. It is an ever-learning skill that you can implement in your routine life and make it immensely better.

FAQs

What are the top-5 time management tips?

The top 5 time-management tips are:

Structure your day
Pomodoro technique
Systems
Daily highlight
The two-minute rule

Which is the most useful time management tip for entrepreneurs?
Delegation is the best tip for time management for entrepreneurs.

What is the time management matrix?
The Eisenhower matrix.

How to consume content fast?
The best way to consume content at a fast pace is to play it at 2X speed.

What do you do when not feeling productive?
Use Daily Highlight tip to be ultra-productive on the day.

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Time management tips that you don’t know you need in your life