The multitude of events taking place at the same time in the country and in the world, as well as the media providing us with up-to-the-minute news, causes us to lose focus at work or from the activities we have to do. We understand how important it is to stay on task so that you can ultimately enjoy the results you want. To help you, we have prepared below some proven techniques for Effective Time Management.
The most precious resource is time. Don’t let weeks turn into months and months into years.
David Allen, author of the bestseller “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”, says it’s possible to get all your tasks done and still enjoy your free time or time with loved ones. How? GTD (Getting Things Done), a concept that involves developing a system for managing both your job and your personal life.
The Getting Things Done method:
In the age of multitasking, it’s a “must” to get all the tasks in your mind down on paper, and it’s one of the most effective ways to become more productive. Freeing your brain from energy-consuming thoughts will increase your efficiency and creativity. Such a task list should be processed in 5 steps:
1. Collect – write down all the tasks you have to accomplish, without prioritizing or ranking them. Write down everything that comes to your mind.
2. Handling tasks– once you have listed all the tasks, categorize them according to the criteria, “Do I have an action to do on this task?” and “Is it a priority”? If the answer is no, then archive this task for now, if the answer is yes, then there are 2 scenarios:
- If accomplishing the task will take less than 2 minutes – accomplish this task immediately;
- If it will take more than 2 minutes – go to the next step: organize!
3. Organize – now is the right time to systematize tasks and set up an action plan. Leave for the moment the tasks that are in “stand-by” (they depend on a third person, you are waiting for a document, etc.). If the task can be switched to “done ” status in less than 2 minutes execute that task immediately. If not, plan its execution, keeping the final objectives or deliverables in mind:
- Procrastination – sometimes it is useful to procrastinate. Set a deadline within your workload.
- Delegation – select a suitable person to carry out the task and brief them on the ins and outs so that the task is done correctly and efficiently;
- Planning – review projects, fill in additional tasks and monitor them regularly.
3. Review – it is not enough just to be well organized, you need to monitor what is the progress of your tasks, as well as take stock of the projects that are completed and those that are ongoing.
4. Action – the basic idea is to optimize your efficiency at work. By relying on a proven method without profoundly changing your daily functioning, you avoid failure. Act on the options you chose during the previous steps.
Other important recommendations:
The tasks you have to accomplish write them in the past. This way, your brain will perceive them as completed actions. For example: at 08:00 I went jogging, at 10:00 I went to class. This idea is supported by Grant Cardone.
Another trick is to plan your difficult activities in the first half of the day. You’ll be more rested and focused to get them done, and you’re also less likely to put them off until they become an emergency.
It’s a good idea to jot everything down in your diary in the evening for the next day, as you’ll be able to predict what obstacles you’ll face the following day.
Pomodoro technique:
We all get distracted for various reasons, whether we work from home or in the office. From smartphone notifications to office coworkers, plus procrastination, one of the common human traits – we end up almost always doing things harder than normal.
When you have difficulty staying focused on a task or multitasking, the Pomodoro technique comes to the rescue. It starts by dividing your time into several intervals, where your focus falls on a single task. In other words, instead of working on your report, glancing through your email, making a few quick calls to clients and possibly checking social media, you focus on doing one thing in a defined time frame.
Through successive experiments, it has been established that the optimal length of a Pomodoro is 25 minutes, i.e. you work for 25 minutes uninterrupted on a single task and then take a 5-minute break. After 4 intervals of 25 minutes, you take a longer break of 15-30 minutes. You could use a stopwatch for accurate time monitoring. It is very important to control the environment in which you work. For this reason it is recommended to put your phone on silent and keep it as far away from you as possible.
Eisenhower matrix:
Are you in a constant time crunch and failing to meet deadlines? Well, in this case it is necessary to put your activities in order, more precisely, to prioritize them with the time management tool created by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
This method involves a simple task prioritization matrix based on 4 categories:
1. Urgent and important tasks – this will list the tasks you are doing now and on which your future depends;
2. Tasks that are important but not urgent – in this category you can put professional development activities, physical and social activities that increase your quality of life. Here it is necessary to implement goal planning in order not to become urgent;
3. Tasks that are urgent but not important – here you have the possibility to delegate your activities to people you trust, as they are not important and you can check them later;
4. Tasks that are neither important nor urgent – in this category you will include activities that take up your time unnecessarily and have no impact on your personal and professional life (when you scroll aimlessly on social networks).
Time cannot be borrowed or bought. Without clear goals, time and effort will be wasted. So, every day prioritize and a few times a day check where you are at. But beyond using your time wisely, don’t forget to take regular breaks to help clear your mind and give you a fresh dose of energy. ?
