In the modern world, the ability to manage your time is vital for every person. This skill makes it possible to do more, combine work and rest every day, and increase the length of your day, so to say. You probably heard about the catastrophic lack of time for work from all around, which is accordingly reflected in free time. So, what is time management that our grandparents have not heard about, why is it crucial for a modern person, and what rules should you follow on an everyday basis to make time work for you?
General Rules on How to Make It Right
Let’s go straight to the rules of effective time management. First, always plan your day. Drawing up such a plan will take you only a few minutes, and you will have time to do everything you have planned. Of course, only practice makes perfect, so at first, you may not have time to do everything that you have planned for yourself physically. But you’ll learn to feel and distribute your energies better over time, and you’ll see how well this advice works. Analyze your productivity during the day in the evening and see if you managed to do everything that you planned. The next day, try to avoid the reasons that prevented you from having a more fruitful day.
Regardless of your daily routine, the morning is always the most productive time to tackle the most difficult things. You can smoothly proceed with the challenging tasks if you start with a few easy ones to warm up. Try to control your daily routine from day to day, find time to rest, and get enough sleep because fatigue always entails subsequent laziness. Under these conditions, it will take you more time to complete simple tasks.
But do you know what causes your schedule to be most disrupted? That’s right, you being distracted. This does not mean that you shouldn’t have been distracted by this article, and you need to close it right now (just kidding), but nevertheless, nothing should distract you if you start working. According to the plan you have drawn up, you should have breaks, and then you can go to social networks, talk on the phone, or just lie down with your eyes closed.
By the way, a few words about breaks. Remember that breaks are a must. Every hour or two of intensive work, take a pause and do something else for at least 10-15 minutes. Such a short time will significantly reduce fatigue and is more beneficial for your productivity than an uninterrupted work process. Try to figure out the most productive time of the day for yourself, so it won’t be difficult for you to complete tasks and stick to a schedule.
Life Hacks for Allocating Time on a Project
If you have to work on a long-term task, you need to plan your time effectively. Regardless of the project’s duration, you need to prioritize work correctly while not forgetting about the days off for a good rest.
To calculate the total amount of time required for the implementation of the project, you need to break down tasks for each day and roughly estimate how much time you will need for them. The allotted time should in no way be diminished; on the contrary, it is better to leave a small margin of time in case of force majeure. As with tackling difficult tasks in the morning, you are also better off prioritizing tasks and starting more time-consuming tasks first. Then, based on the difficulty of each one, give them a certain amount of time. A detailed distribution of tasks for each day helps to do more (it is impossible to do everything the first time) and not to forget about anything in the process. Evaluation of tasks and time for them comes with experience; for starters, it is better to allocate more time than less.
When making a plan for the day, do not forget about household chores, rest, and other activities. Of course, it’s impossible to keep all this information in your head, so I advise you to use special programs that keep track of the time you spend on tasks and can even block sites that distract you so that you avoid temptation.
Final Words
Some people will say that such strict planning of days, weeks, and even months looks too cramped and depressing – especially creative people who often claim that their muse can come at any time of the day or night and even on weekends. But the idea that planning diminishes creativity and makes things more boring is a big misconception.
The most prominent life hack I can share with you is planning to avoid wasting time. After all, if a person is creative enough and knows what needs to be done next, then competent time management will only help structure the work process properly. The right attitude and the absence of distractions will surely help put inspiration in the right direction and get a good result.
