Every one of us only have 24 hours in a day to work with. Hence, time management strategies allow you to accomplish more within a few hours, instead of having to extend your work on a single task for days. Here are a few strategies that you can apply to achieve that:
1.) List Down Your Activities
It need not be overemphasized that you have to learn how to prioritize your work. Meaning, you must set aside the less important tasks so you can focus on the more urgent ones. When you learn how to do this effectively, you can easily accomplish whatever it is you need to do within a shorter time. Make it a habit to write down a list of things to do. If you want to be really specific, break down all that you have to do within a day and in the order that you want them to get done.
As you list down your set of tasks to do, you have to identify which ones are long or short-term projects. Hence, you will be able to determine how much time you can allot for them within a day. A short-term task might be accomplished within, say a couple of hours. Meanwhile, for long-term tasks, you can try allotting 1 or 2 hours each day until when you intend to finish them. Hence, breaking down tasks would make it more efficient for you as you won’t find it too strenuous.
2.) Allocating Time
Once you have your list, you now have to decide on how much time to allocate for each task or project you have set out to do for the day. Some tasks eat up a lot of time, so you have to be aware which are those. So as not to end up wasting so much time on one task, you have to provide time limits on each task so you can easily move on to the next.
When you do tasks in smaller chunks, it becomes a lot easier for you. Hence, you have eased yourself of the pressure. Instead, you can just focus on what you need to finish.
3.) Know What You Want To Accomplish
Your “to-do” list will serve as source of information for what your daily goals are. Hence, you can consult it to know what you have to do once you’re through with one task.
There are a few questions that you can ask yourself: How much time are you willing to render for doing leisure activities? Are you willing to cut on the leisure time and appropriate more of them into your work so it can be more productive? Once you know what your goals are, you can use that as a motivation in order to finish the list that you have made.
4.) Don’t Make Your List Of Actions Too Long
When making your list, productivity is always on top of your mind. However, you should not try to make your list too long. Most people have this tendency but that is a common misconception. Doing more work at one time is not always equal to being productive.
Start off with a short list of the most important things you have to accomplish. That way, you can easily prioritize them. When you have already completed those on top of the list, you can always add a new set of activities.
When you try to put too many activities on your list, it may become too overwhelming for you. You could easily end up having to do several unfinished tasks at once. But that is not advisable. If you can or if it is within the time limits you have indicated for a certain task, try to complete it first before moving on to work on another one.