More often than not, the cause of procrastination is time. When I reflect on previous situations, I know that I’m a culprit of laziness. Ironically, this post is a product of mismanagement in itself because it was supposed to be up earlier in the week. But that’s okay…after all, the first step to solving any problem is to accept and admit it. That’s why I’m here to tell you about how I, as a business woman/undergraduate student, have come to master time management.
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As most of my followers are young adults, I feel as if this is a crucial stage of development. We’re all busy, but are we all productive? A simple yet, difficult question to answer. First of all, what is productivity and how does one define it?
I can only speak from experience, but I would consider productivity to be the determining factor of whether an output is a result of quality input vs. quantity satisfaction. So in other words, it is the measurement of productive efforts. This is where the line is drawn and people go wrong. When we are busy, we equate it with efficiency.
It took me a long time to realize this. And I am sure that many of you can relate to this. As the old saying goes, “Less is more”. And often times, your to-do list should reflect this saying. I can’t say that I’ve mastered the technique of time management, but I feel like I’m progressively following the right track.
MITIGATING YOUR TIME MANAGEMENT
Although there are several ways to combat the issue, a major key to note is that every individual operates differently. I can’t claim expert level yet, but here are some of the tricks I’ve picked up along the way to increase my productivity:
Time not task
The incentive is simple. Make sure your to-do list includes time constraints that will force you to finish tasks within a given period. Maybe this means you need to adhere to using a planner. Some of the tools I use are: Google Keep, Evernote, iPhone reminders, notebooks, calendars, and more. All of these options are either free or relatively low-priced! So utilize! Utilize! Utilize!
Create false deadlines
Much like setting an alarm to wake yourself up in the morning, set fake deadlines to help you cross tasks off your list earlier. Having this in place will also allow you to manage your personal time. All work and no play will have you exhausted quickly. Schedule personal time for yourself so that your small breaks don’t become heinous 3-hour distractions.
Avoid multi-tasking
Usually it can be seen as a positive attribute if carried-out correctly. But in this case, it will only spread the quality of your work into pieces. How many times can you say that while you were juggling tasks, it actually took longer than you expected?
Prioritize
Probably the most crucial of all the tips and toughest to master. Mainly for the reason that if you cannot identify what is important, you will never reach your full potential. With various methods at hand, I’ve come down to using the Eisenhower Matrix to help me to rank what is the most to the least important task.
Don’t know who or what the Eisenhower Matrix is? Here’s a photo by Apricot Studies that explains it all:
Overall, productivity is a matter of growth and making sure that you stay clear of those bad habits. Once that’s achieved, you’ll be ripping through successes in no time.
“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”
—Dwight Eisenhower
