Realize that time management is a myth

No matter how organized we are, there are always only 24 hours in a day... Time doesn't change... All we can actually manage is ourselves and what we do with the time that we have. Appreciate this…

Audit your time and find out where you're wasting time

When it comes to time management, the first step you need to take is finding out where your time actually goes. You may believe that you only send 30 minutes on emails, but in reality that task is eating-up three hours of your day.

Many of us are prey to timewasters that steal time we could be using much more productively. So... What are your own time bandits? Do you spend too much time Internet surfing, reading emails, participating in meetings you are not directly involved in? Tracking your daily activities will help to form an accurate picture of how much time you spend on various activities, which is the first step to effective time management. The focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not changing time. A good place to start is by eliminating your timewasters...

Set time limits for tasks

Not easy but worthwhile... Setting a time limit to each task prevents from getting distracted or procrastinating. For instance, reading and answering emails can consume your whole day if you let it. Instead, set a limit of one hour a day for this task and stick to it (the easiest way to do this is to assign a solid block of time to this task in your Outlook calendar rather than answering emails on demand). Another example: if you want to write a news article for NEO, give yourself two (?) hours. So if you started at 8am, you try to get it written by 10am. In a way, it becomes a game... Since you put buffers between tasks and activities, if you don’t complete the task on time, you can still work on it without eating into the time reserved for something else.

Be sure your systems are organized: get organized and single-task

Are you wasting a lot of time looking for files on your computer? Take the time to organize a file management system. Is your filing system slowing you down? Redo it, so it's organized to the point that you can quickly lay your hands on what you need. 

And, start single-tasking!  Most people cite multitasking as the main culprit for misplacing items.

Do less

Doing less doesn’t mean “less is more.” It means “less is better.” This is achieved by slowing down, being aware of what needs to be done, and concentrating only on those things. Once you do, make every action count. As a result you’ll be creating more value instead of just fodder.

Establish routines and stick to them as much as possible

While crises will arise, you'll be much more productive if you can follow routines most of the time. For most people, creating and following a routine lets them get right down to the tasks of the day rather than frittering away time getting started.

Use time management tools

Whether it's a planner, a software program, or a phone app, the first step to physically managing your time is to know where it’s going now and planning how you're going to spend your time in the future. 

Stop being perfect...

When you’re a perfectionist, nothing will ever be good enough. That means you’ll keep going back to same task over and over again. How productive do you think your day will be as a result? So, stop being perfect. It doesn’t exist. Do the best you can and move on.

Spend your mornings on MITs (Most Important Tasks)

‘’If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first! (Twain)" Gross? Sure! The point is that you should take care your biggest and most-challenging tasks in the morning (aka your most important tasks of the day). There are a couple of reasons why this is such an effective time management trick. For starters, you usually have the most amount of energy in the AM. So it’s better to tackle these tasks when you’re not drained. Also, you can use that feeling of accomplishment to get through the rest of the day.

Implement a time management plan

The objective is to change your behaviors over time to achieve whatever general goal you've set for yourself, such as increasing your productivity or decreasing your stress. So you need to not only set your specific goals but track them over time to see whether or not you're accomplishing them.

Plan ahead

One of the worst things that you can do is wake-up without a plan for the day. Instead of focusing on what needs to be done, you wander aimlessly and take care of more trivial matters. That’s why you should always plan ahead using one of these options:

◾ The night before - Before you leave work for the day, spend the last 15' organizing your work and composing a list of your most important items for tomorrow.

◾ First thing in the morning - During your morning routine write down the 3 or 4 most urgent and important matters that need to be addressed today and work on those when you’re most productive.

Batch similar task together

When you have related work, batch them together. For example, don’t answer your emails throughout the day. Schedule a specific time to handle these tasks. The reason? Different tasks demand different types of thinking. By batching related tasks together, your brain isn’t switching gears - which means you cut out that time reorienting.

Learn to delegate

Delegation can get a bit tricky. For some it’s hard to let someone else do work that they used to do. For others, they don’t have the time to train someone else to complete certain tasks.

The thing is, delegating is a real time-saver since it lessens your workload - which means you have more time to spend on more important tasks or doing less work. Either hand over responsibilities to team members who are qualified or hire an experienced freelancer. And, if you do decide to do in-house training, the initial investment will be worth-it in the end.

Change your schedule?

If you’re reading this article then it’s obviously because you want to discover some useful time management. But, if you’re struggling with time management, the solution may be as simple as changing your schedule around. For example, instead of sleeping-in until 7:30am, wake-up an hour earlier. Your most productive time of the day may be 6h30am since it give you time to exercise, plan-out your day, go through your emails, and even work on side projects without being disturbed.

Don't waste time waiting

I’ll be honest with you: I can’t stand waiting. It’s not that I’m impatient. It’s just that I know that this is time that could be better spent elsewhere.

It's impossible to avoid waiting for someone or something. But you don't need to just sit and twiddle your thumbs. You can be reading a report, checking a spreadsheet, or planning your next staff briefing.

Leave a buffer-time between tasks and meetings

Jumping immediately from one task or meeting to the next may seem like a good use of your time, but it actually has the opposite effect. We need time to clear our minds and recharge. After all, the human brain can only focus for about 90 minutes at a time. Without that break it’s more difficult to stay focused. Scheduling short buffer-time also can prevent running late to your next meeting...

Prioritize ruthlessly

You should start each day with a session prioritizing the tasks for that day and setting your performance benchmark. If you have 20 tasks for a given day, how many of them do you truly need to accomplish?

Use a to-do-list, but don’t abandon tasks

All goals and projects are made up of smaller parts that need to be accomplished in order to achieve the goal, or complete the project. Create to-do lists for each goal and project, listing all the measurable steps that need to be accomplished. Aside from keeping you focused, this also motivates you as you are able to see what you have already achieved, and what remains.

At the same time, there will interruptions that may prevent you from completing a task. In that case, just make a point of always returning to and completing these tasks once you are able to. This may require you to set a limit on the number of tasks you are working on at any given time.

Personally I use MS To Do; very easy to use and extremely helpful to manage tasks.

Eliminate half-work

Very important! In our age of constant distraction, it's stupidly easy to split our attention between what we should be doing and what society bombards us with. Usually we're balancing the needs of messages, emails, and to–do lists at the same time that we are trying to get something accomplished. It's rare that we are fully engaged in the task at hand. Here are a couple of half–work examples:

◾ You’re writing a report, but stop randomly to check your phone for no specific reason….

◾ While attending a call via Teams, your mind wanders to your email inbox…

Regardless of where and how you fall into the trap of half–work, the result is always the same: you're never fully engaged in the task at hand, you rarely commit to a task for extended periods of time, and it takes you twice as long to accomplish half as much.

​​​​​​​The best way to overcome half-work is by blocking out significant time to focus on one project and eliminate everything else. For example, you pick one task and only focus on that task while working out (you forget about Teams, emails and disactivate notifications). This complete elimination of distractions is the only way I know to get into deep, focused work and avoid fragmented sessions where you're merely doing half–work.

It is not easy to implement but I can tell you it works!!!

Follow the 80-20 rule

‘’The Pareto Principle also known as the 80-20 rule suggests that 80% of results come from 20% of the effort put in. This is commonly used in sales as 80% of sales typically come from 20% of the customers” writes Renzo Costarella. When it comes to how you should manage your time this principle can also be applied. 80% of your results comes from 20% of your actions.

Renzo suggests that you start by looking “at your schedule or to-do-list every day. For the sake of simplicity try to get down five tasks you need to accomplish. Using the principle you can probably eliminate the majority of the items on your list. It may feel unnatural at first but overtime this will condition you to scale up effort on the most important tasks.