www.lifehack.org: We all have the same 24 hours in a day to work with, but how do you squeeze the most out of that time to get real time-saving results?
It’s not about working harder as that will only get so far, it’s how you plan and structure your time and then how you maximize the time you have planned.
The key for these time management tips is not to do them once, but repeat them over and over until they become habits. This is when those around will think you do have more than 24 hours in a day.
12 comments:
Okay, this article is definitely being saved in my bookmarks. A lot of times, I think these articles are pretty generic, but this one had some great tips- ones that I've already implemented on my own that have seriously changed my life, and others that I will be implementing because they were genius. I've never been able to really keep up with an "agenda/planner" because I tend to spend so much time trying to make it look pretty that I don't do the work I was trying to keep track of in the first place! As much as I hate technology, I decided to keep a digital to-do list this year that has worked wonders! So, tip #1 is definitely the best place to start. I also really like tip #2. I can't go to sleep when I'm stressed about what the heck I have to do tomorrow! I always make a little plan for myself, and even do my own version of categorizing by what ABSOLUTELY needs to get done, what should get done but won't kill me if it doesn't, and what I can wait on.
I think the tip I still most struggle with and am trying to get better at is tip #8. What doesn't need to be done right now? What can I wait to do when there are more pressing issues? A lot of times, I'm tempted to do something because it's easy even though it can wait until next week and my time could be better spent doing something due TOMORROW. It's a big form of procrastination for me because I still feel like I'm being productive even when I'm being kind of destructive in my own way. All in all, I LOVE this article and will definitely be trying to do better about managing my time this semester!
Yes yes yes!! Okay, first I have to say that high school Emma could have written (most) of this article. Every weekend, I would go to my favorite coffee shop with my obnoxiously large planner and plan every. single. thing. And I felt like a total girl boss. This past semester of college, I was lucky if I scribbled down the name of an assignment on a sticky note that I found at the bottom of my backpack. This needs to change, and it will once I actually apply the tips on this list. I especially need to work on deep focus. I do this in studio by putting my phone in a random desk drawer. That has really worked for me! But when it comes to more mundane work like writing essays or doing research, I could definitely be better at minimizing my distractions and directing my attention to my work. I have been promising myself over break that this semester I will apply these tips to my daily life, and reading this article right before I return to school will make it happen. Speaking it into existence. Woohoo
Some of these tips are incredibly eye-opening. I would consider myself to be someone that manages their time well (there is always room to improve) but it is interesting to read other techniques that I haven’t thought of or tried myself. I think the biggest thing that I have started to remove from my life is social media. I find it time-consuming and honestly more toxic than beneficial. I think that social media is a great tool (especially for marketing and putting yourself out there, but I think that there is a lot of “fairness” (for my lack of a better term at the minute) out there. Instead of using my time to decode other people's lives or comparing myself to others I would much rather use my time for something more productive and fulfilling. Also as Bea said #8 was a pretty helpful tip to really think about. I find myself focusing on and spending a lot of my energy thinking about something that doesn’t really help me move forward and accomplish things that make me happy. Sometimes I do see the benefit of doing mindless things and giving our brains a break from constantly going, but if we do it constantly I think it is doing more harm. I like the conclusion that sometimes the biggest results come from the little things we do every day. Great, small habits build up over time to allow us to accomplish great things. if you are looking for a good book try reading Atomic Habits, I personally enjoyed the book and found it helpful while learning about how to accomplish big things by starting small. Time management one of the most crucial skill any human being can have (and I don’t know anyone that has fully mastered it)
In all of the time management classes and lectures I have had in high school and college, most of these strategies never come up, even though they seem like things that would really help the most. The strategy I like the best (that I have tried out of this list) is the one about turning off notifications for things that aren’t important so you only check them when you have time to. For the past couple years, I have always had my phone on do not disturb mode so I don’t know if I get notifications unless I check my phone. I have found this to be so helpful in my life because I think I spend a lot less time on my phone. Some people have told me that I might miss a very important text or phone call, and I might but that could happen if I’m in a different room as my phone which is also possible. I have found that I haven’t missed any very important phone call or text because I still check my notifications enough throughout the day. I am definitely going to try some of the other tips on this list because I think they will be very helpful.
I like many of the previous commenters, have seen and utilized some of these points before. I love using deep focus through the “Pomodoro Method” that requires 25 minutes of distraction-free focus before a timed 5-minute break. I have found this method works for me when I have a large daunting project because I can take it one ½ hour at a time. The best part of this method is it forces you to ignore the typical distractions of phones and computers because those 25 minutes are for one task only. I have found “control your day so it doesn’t control you” particularly interesting. Often my number one complaint with planning everything is the lack of spontaneity and freedom that results from the lack of random free space in your schedule. I have trouble when the “if you have free time slots don’t leave them empty”. For me planning to a T only lasts so long because I have yet to figure out how much wiggle room I need. If I have too little I feel like I have no room for enjoying my day. Having free time to grab coffee with friends in the moment is the kind of thing I want to get out of improved time management. I am confident a nice balance can be found. I personally have not found that balance yet.
I am glad to find that I am actually already practicing some of the tips in this article, sometimes by combining two or more! I am even happier to say that these tips really work for me. For example, when I can't focus or feel too disorganized to focus, I start out by checking my email. Clearing out the little red notifications bubble helps me feel like I'm getting something done. Once I've gotten that little boost, I can focus on bigger things. On that note, I also set timers to help manage or break up my workflow. Sometimes tasks like drafting or doing an art project take hours upon hours to complete, so I really can't be sitting at my desk for half the day. So I'll set a stopping point for myself. For example, I'll say, "I'll finish drafting the ground plan, and leave the dimensioning and labeling for another time." Or I'll play a podcast and take a break every couple of episodes. It really does help.
I found this article very helpful because as "self understood" as the strategies in the article would seem, they almost are not something people think about, because we often tend to not focus on these little tactics which are very useful at the end of the day.
Everything that the article says from planning the day before to silencing phones and laptops almost instantly convey the effectiveness of the tactics but I think that because these are such small acts, people tend to believe that they might not be of help, which is clearly not the case.
For me, the most effective tactic involves keeping my phone out of my sight because it is such a big source of distraction from me. I dont think I can go without looking at my phone for more than 15 minutes while working if it is near me. But with this tactic, I am able to better concentrate on my work.
Recently I’ve been trying to structure my weeks and my scheduling patterns to give myself enough time to sleep, eat, and work (outside of the School of Drama) so that I do not burn myself out more than I already have. It is honestly pretty validating to see that a number of the strategies I have started to use are on this list. I think one of the things that helps me the most is planning my week when I’m at my most organized. Since I’ve started keeping a digital calendar, I have been much better at keeping myself organized. I haven’t graduated to a point where I can plan every second of my day (and I kind of hope I don’t either), but I keep track of all my daily commitments and it helps me a lot. I take a few hours out of my week when I am feeling organized and not too busy to update my calendar. I try to come home from crew and go straight to my nighttime routine so I can sleep as soon as possible. I keep a few select hours of my day marked “busy” so that I have enough time to eat and attend to normal life things. It has helped me increasingly as school starts up again, and I hope it stays that way throughout the duration of the semester.
I like the fact that these tips can be implemented in different ways depending on how each reader works and operates. So many of these “X-number of productivity hacks” listicles seem to either be oddly specific in their implementation in someone’s life, or too vague and nebulous to be actionable at all. I’ve managed to implement a version of many of these tips in my life just by adapting to my productivity and workflow throughout high school. I’ve become borderline neurotic about planning out my schedule- every event goes into my google calendar and ends up in about four places in my bullet journal. I'm most proud of how I’ve adapted my bullet journal to work for me, including the 30 minute time chunk scheduling system for the day. One aspect that puts me in a different mindset than this article is the fact that work and school and my life are so tightly intertwined that they all bleed into one another. In high school, my “real school” work was always a higher priority to me than my theatre work, but now my theatre work is my real school and I’m still learning how to balance my commitments and priorities.
I often struggle with ‘time management strategies’ in lists like these due to their specificity - if I have a system that works well for me, I don’t want to completely overhaul it just because someone on the internet said that a different way would be better. What I liked about this article was that the tips were general enough to be implemented into existing strategies, rather than requiring completely new ones, while still managing to be useful. In college I started using daily to-do lists on small digital sticky notes on my computer, and I’ve found that this system has been so helpful to my productivity simply because everything I need to do is always so accessible to me. By planning out both my week and the next day, as the article recommends, I am able to stay on top of my priorities in an efficient way. And by keeping a digital calendar that marks out time for work as well as class, I am able to work in a more stress-free manner and stop myself from procrastinating.
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