Time Management Productivity Tips & Tricks
Let’s talk about time management for a minute (see what I did there?). As many of us have learned over the last year or so, it can be a challenge to keep working when you work from home with tons of distractions (and no one around to keep you honest). It can also be hard to take a break when there’s so much to get done and so little time. You can end up burning out before you actual finish any of the things you set out to do. So, I’ve outlined a few tried and true time management tricks to help you keep on track and on time.
6 Tricks to Improve How You Manage Your Time
Set alarms, timers, and alerts. Use them to keep you on schedule or alert you in advance of any meetings, conference calls, or deadlines. The more often you use these, the more aware you will become of your time.
Work hard for an hour and then reward yourself with a short break. (Reread: short break). Nothing significant, but just a few minutes can go a long way in resetting yourself. Respond to a text, give your body a quick stretch, or grab a fresh glass of water.
After a few hours of work, it’s important to give yourself a bigger reset. Take a 20-30 minute break to let your mind rest from work for a bit. Do a quick meditation, read a chapter of a book, or watch an episode of a sitcom. Let your mind relax.
Set a time limit on your breaks and follow it. Don’t get lost scrolling or in a good story. Or in the danger zone that is Netflix automatically playing the next episode of whatever you’re watching (it’s such a blessing but also such a curse). Stick to your break times like you stick to your work times.
Work on similar tasks together. It takes the brain about 20-30 minutes to adjust to new tasks, so group similar tasks together and you won’t waste as much time transitioning between projects.
Learn the times of day you are most productive and do your most challenging work then. Make sure you don’t have any possible distractions during those times so that your work can get done even more efficiently.
Another easy way to manage your time is to learn your habits about how you spend your time. Take one average day and track your time. Write down every task or activity you were doing and for how long you were doing it. At the end of the day tally it up and see where you are spending your time. Are you scrolling for longer than you thought? Is the majority of your time being spent on a project that isn’t necessarily a priority? Is your time spent doing relaxing activities too large? Or maybe too small? Figure it out! See where you are spending your time and see if it aligns with your goals and priorities. Where do you want to spend more time? What do you want to spend less time doing? Find out and adjust if necessary!
These are just a few ways you can manage your time to be more productive. Breaks are not a waste of time. They are a useful way to rest up so you can get back to work refreshed and ready to take on another task, project, or block of time. Getting rid of distractions (hello, social media!) so you can work as efficiently as possible is a challenge but can save you so much time. And learning where you are spending too much or too little time can help you adapt and figure out where there might be room for improvement.
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