Majority of the population complains that they are not given enough time. You may frequently experience a feeling that the day closes before you get over what you have to complete. One often gets the feeling that you have been too busy all day and yet you did not accomplish much. This can make this frustrating. It could leave you somewhere you want to give up, as though you are going nowhere.
The thing is that you do not need to have additional hours in a day. All you have to do is to smarter use the hours you already have. In that comes time management and productivity. When you have time management, you work with focus and direction. When you are in productive mode, you do right things in increasing proportions.
10 Productivity Hacks for Effective Time Management
1. Instead of Letting the Day Identify You, Get to Know It Before It Starts
Take some time before you start up your day and plan out what you intend to do. This is something you can do at night or early morning. Write what is most necessary that you would like to complete. This also provides you with a good understanding of what your day will entail. Lack of planning will make your day to seem to rule over you. A plan helps you make your own day.
Planning enables the brain to be focused. It enables you to avoid time-wasting thinking of what would be your next step to take. And it minimizes the possibility to forget an essential object. Once you have planned your day, you are already one step ahead.
Read also: 8 Helpful Tips for Planning a Productive Day
2. Concentrate Only One Job
It is a commonly held belief that multitasking increases the amount of work done by individuals. The fact is however, that your brain cannot possibly concentrate equally on two things simultaneously. Being able to switch between the tasks repeatedly will turn you dull and exhausted. It also intensifies errors.
You are able to get more tasks done with better results faster when you perform one given task at a time and attend to it diligently. This is termed as deep work. It keeps you in the zone and in trying to go somewhere in the zone you can accomplish a lot. Put your best attention to each task. So then to the next.
Read also: 7 Key Areas of Your Life to Set Goals
3. Divide Your Work Into Small Portions
There are times when a task becomes too daunting or too difficult, and this has left you to feel like procrastinating it. However, when you chop that major task into smaller pieces, you find that you can start more easily. Every little action rewards you with excruciation and excruciation rewards you with energy.
As you complete one small part, you feel good. You have a feeling that you are progressing. Then before you know it, the big job is finished. This is a simple way to turn hard work into less heavy one. One can take on something small as opposed to a big mountain at a time.
Read also: 9 Eye-Opening Toxic Habits That Are Killing Your Productivity
4. Work with a Timer to Keep Yourself Focused
The problem is that it is way too easy to lose focus, and there should be no distractions. Using a time limit is another way of remaining focused. Choose the amount of time you are going to work, perhaps 25 or 30 minutes, and continue to go until the timer dings. Then it is possible to have a small rest.
Such an approach is referred to as the Pomodoro Technique. It makes your mind fresh and active. You drill your mind to pay intense short bursts of attention. And when you realise you are going to have a break there is a stronger chance of sticking it out then.
Learn more: Todoist on the Pomodoro Technique
5. Find Out and Eliminate Time Wasters
We all are guilty of time-gobbling habits. It could be checking your phone, reading messages too frequently, or engaging in minor undertaking which are of little importance. Such minor habits make the difference. Sooner than you realize hours slip by.
The trick is to tell the truth to yourself. What are the things costing you time and nothing back? When you understand what they are, work out a way to avoid them. It is not essential to be perfect. You can just attempt to trim them off a little at a time.
Eventually, you will find yourself having more time during the day not because of the day change but a time change in the way you spend your time.
6. How to Say No Without Feeling Bad
There is a constraint of time. It is impossible to do everything. You can therefore not say yes to everything, which means that every time you are saying yes to what you are saying no. This is why one should be able to say no to things which are not aligned to his or her goals.
It is not mean to say no. It makes you intelligent. It tells you that you value your time and your energy. The more you can say no to things that can distract you, the more time you will find to do the things that please. It is a single habit that can hugely improve your productivity.
7. Apply the 80/20 Rule to Discover What Is Important
The 80/20 rule states that 20 percent of your working starts the 80 percent of your results. What this means is that all you do is not equally valuable. You will always get the best returns on small portion of your work.
Then, what are the things that just a few things push me forward? What are the things which make a difference the greatest? Spend more time and efforts on them, and less on the other things.
This is known in the world as the Pareto Principle, and many successful individuals apply this concept to keep themselves on track and they never spend time unwisely.
Learn more: MindTools on the Pareto Principle
8. Workspace Organization: Keep It Simple and Clean
Your mind is influenced by your surroundings. In case your room or desk is cluttered, your mind will also be cluttered. When everything is scattered it is not easy to think.
Attempt to keep the space you can work in pristine, limited to what is necessary. With clean space, your mind works on a clearer focus. You are less stressed. You are clear-headed and relaxed and get down to business.
It should not be a perfect one. Simply additional order can take you far: ordering yourself further on will keep you more focused and productive.
9. Make Your Own Deadlines
The deadlines are there to get you to complete something. Failure to put in place a deadline means that your task may never be completed. You can continue to say, I will do it later and nothing will happen later. Your brain begins to treat the task seriously when you impose a really strict deadline upon yourself.
When it is a big assignment, give each section a deadline. You should also restrict yourself by that time limit even when no one is around to watch. You will be shocked at how quicker and more efficiently you can work when you are aware that your clock is calculating the time.
10. Check the Progress on a Weekly Basis
After a week, take some time and reflect. Ask yourself what have you completed and what do you have missed and also what is going to be improved next week. This brief chat assists you in understanding your mistakes and be in line on the objectives you are pursuing.
Reflecting on your week makes you improve. It reminds you about the way you are spending your time. It also provides you with a short time to think, recharge, and restart towards days ahead.
This is an effective habit of reviewing. It is like being in a mirror—without you cannot see what has to change. Through it you have insight and control.
Final Thoughts
You do not have to work smarter to become more productive. You have to be more smart. When you spend wisely your time, you will be experiencing less stress and experiencing freedom. You cease to become overwhelmed and begin to feel in control.
The challenge is not to do more. It is being the right things and doing the things well. Time is most valuable resource. As it turns out, it is a useless thing that you cannot take back when it is gone. Time is of essence, therefore, every minute counts.
These 10 hacks are not just gadgets. They are the customs that form your living and working style. And, as with any habit, they take times and practice to develop. Yet the payoff is great, more peaceful life, more meaningful life and more progressive life.
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