If you feel that you’re always doing something in a hurry yet aren’t ever satisfied with the results, then you probably aren’t managing your time well. For that, it is recommended to improve your time management skills.
To get results in anything, you’ll need to master a few very important abilities. These are productivity, time management, and personal organization. Understanding their main principles and making a conscious effort to change your current habits is the only way to go.
In this article, we will focus on 3 awesome time management strategies to help you get positive results faster.
1. Understand The Essentials of Good Time Management
Let’s begin with understanding how to manage your time more effectively.
Most people wake up in the morning and start the day in a rush. They do things quickly, forget several things, then rush out the door and get to work. When they have a stressful beginning of the day, things don’t usually get better later on.
Most people don’t know how to eliminate distractions and focus for long periods of time. They work on many different things they find important… all at the same time. Then, they find that there’s too much to be done and not enough time in a day.
As the evening gets closer, there’s no energy left. Instead of taking a good rest and using the time before sleeping to organize things and prepare for the next day, most people will spend their time in an unproductive way and end up not sleeping well.
Then, alas, the next day begins in the same way.
On the other hand, there are successful individuals. Those who wake up with the sun, feel energized, and can’t wait to tackle their to-do lists. These are activities and tasks they’ve carefully decided to do, each of which is part of a bigger plan.
The main difference between these two groups of people lies within their time management skills. The former lacks them, the latter gets it right.
So, in order to learn how to manage your time better and turn wasted time into either productive sessions of focused work, or moments of relaxation and/or enjoyment, you’ll need to know the fundamentals. Then, to accept them (although some are provocatively against what we’ve always believed to be true).
The basics of good time management are the following principles:
- Evaluate how you’re currently spending your time. See what is taking too long, what is unnecessary (doesn’t lead to progress and can be eliminated), and know what time of the day you’re most productive.
- Use lists for everything. This way, you won’t need to remember and can be sure you won’t miss something important.
- Plan in advance — but be prepared for the unexpected.
- Define the distractions in your surroundings. Be aware of them always when trying to focus on something important.
- Structure your day in a better way.
Dig deeper into each of these and set some personal goals related to your time management skills. Decide, right now, that this can be the year you learn more about managing your time and finally take back control of it.
2. Be Selective
Time and attention really are your most precious resources. What you focus your mind on in any moment of the day defines whether you’ll get results, and how far you can go in the future.
That’s the big picture.
When experiencing each day, this attitude towards how we spend our time will lead to more mindfulness and increased productivity.
Take your time management skills seriously. Know that if you improve them, new worlds will be opened up to you. Decision-making will be easier, you’ll be organized, perform better at work, make time for the important things in life, and so much more.
It all starts with being selective. Know exactly what you’re doing in each moment; ask yourself whether it’s the best thing to pay attention to/invest time in, and take action based on the answer.
However, it’s also time to start saying no. Saying no means setting your priorities straight and not letting yourself do too many things that don’t make you happy, don’t bring you closer to success, or don’t help you improve your life.
You might commit to less, but you’ll ultimately accomplish more. By doing this, you acknowledge the fact that our time is limited; we simply can’t do it all.
This takes some discipline because it’s too easy to get distracted and set many objectives, work on more projects, and commit to more than you can handle.
Rethink what’s most important. Make lists for that too. The items on top are worth your time daily.
3. Kickstart Your Day
Your time management skills also depend on what you do first thing in the morning. In fact, this is so important, that it’s what makes your day either lazy or productive.
Morning routines are quite popular, but not everyone takes the time to find the right combination of morning habits for them to really see the benefits.
However, it all begins by building discipline and waking up earlier than you have to.
Then, investing the first hour of your day to only healthy, productive, and positive activities. You’ll feel in a great mood and energized, and your focus for the whole day is almost guaranteed.
Also, a morning ritual can include activities such as meditating, decluttering, drinking your coffee in silence, creating your list of tasks for the day, and so on. This creates a peace of mind and helps you better tackle issues at work. Plus, you also boost your creativity.
Doing these in the first part of the day is a set of time management strategies itself. Give it a try, starting tomorrow, and see how it improves your focus and helps you work faster and save time.
Here’s some really good advice from Vishen Lakhiani about the perfect morning routine:
Lastly, Your Time Management Skills are Always Growing
There’s no end destination in time management. You can always get more done, work less, focus harder, try new techniques, use more tools to help you out, set new goals, etc.
Accept this as a process and enjoy it. No need to be in a hurry, as that itself is proven to lead to bad results.
Start by doing this now:
- Document what you’ve done the last 1-3 days, from morning to evening
- Set some time aside to analyze the results
- Look for tendencies, such as laziness or sleeping in
- Change what is needed
Knowing all of this makes you powerful. You can now take action and do what needs to be done to improve your time management skills.
