Time Management is the key to success because it limits procrastination and increases productivity. By setting time aside for tasks and events each week you can set goals and hold yourself accountable. It can be as detailed or broad as you’d like it to be. Elon Musk says he breaks his day into 5 minute increments, while Ben Franklin divided his day into 3 hour increments. It is whatever works best for you!
Block Scheduling
My favorite way to maximize my time is through block scheduling. By block scheduling, I mean literally drawing blocks into your daily schedule to set aside time for tasks, hobbies, errands, routines, loved ones, and yourself before you even begin your week. Essentially, you are putting your to do list and your priorities into your
schedule. You can also block out your work time for reading/replying to emails, special projects, daily tasks, etc.
Achieving Goals One Day At A Time
It is important to break down your long term goals and schedule them into your week as well!
Do you have an important project coming up at the end of the month? How’re you chipping away at that this week? Do you have a long term goal to be more healthy in 3 months? How can you set aside time this week to work towards that? I had a goal to run more but I always felt like my schedule was too hectic to add in a routine run. When I block scheduled my week out, I found a time that worked perfectly to run five times a week and now I’ve completed my three month goal of exercising regularly!
How to Prioritize
- Importance vs. Urgency
Determining your top priorities helps you ensure that you are
blocking out your time wisely in order to reach your goals
and deadlines and, hopefully, be less stressed. To do that,
I recommend the Eisenhower Matrix, Importance versus
Urgency. Whatever is most important and most urgent should
be dealt with immediately. Next, you want to focus on the
important tasks especially if they have a deadline coming
up. For instance, you have a project due in three weeks. You
can break it down into smaller parts that you complete each
week. By doing so you never even give the chance for a task
in the “Important” quadrant to jump into the “Important and
Urgent” quadrant. Other wise it becomes a stressor and can
compromise your work, when (most of the time) you could
have prevented the situation. Lastly, whatever is not urgent
nor important is just a distraction. If it is for leisure than it
can be worth the time. But these distractions can easily lead
to procrastination and should be avoided.
Once you’ve determined your priorities, make sure you are
still adaptable to shifting priorities and schedules based on
2. Impact vs. Effort
A second useful matrix is Impact versus Effort. This
practice of sorting priorities maximizes efficiency by
optimizing limited time and resources. It also helps
you know when to say no to a task that isn’t worth
your time. Your first priority here should be projects
that provide the best impact based on effort. Those
that are “High Impact, High Effort” are worth the long
term returns but are more complex to execute. Choose
“High Impact, High Effort” projects wisely to ensure
you have enough time to reach the impactful reward.
“Low Impact, Low Effort” are typically unimportant
activities, such as everyday tasks, and can be completed
if time allows. “Low Impact and High Effort” are time
consuming and require resources that are better spent
on other things. These are generally not even worth
completing.
Productivity is not Productive if you are burnt out. Make sure you are using these time management and priority skills to find a plan that works for you, and that you’re blocking in some YOU time. Share your Time Management strategies and helpful hints by commenting below and on social media, using #PPTimeManagement.
Sources:
https://www.success.com/13-daily-habits-of-highly-successful-people/
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/eisenhower-decision-matrix/
https://www.groupmap.com/map-templates/impact-effort-matrix/