Our ability to manage our time effectively plays a crucial role in our success. Here are ten of my favorite time management tips, tricks, and strategies. As well as sharing some of these tips, I also offer ways to tailor your schedule around your priorities.
1. Our ability to manage our time effectively plays a crucial
role in our success.
Here are ten of my favorite time management tips, tricks,
and strategies. As well as sharing some of these tips, I
also offer ways to tailor your schedule around your
priorities.
Time Management
2. 80% of our results come from 20% of our activities, clients,
or products, according to the Pareto Principle.
We can use this rule to identify the 20 percent that will make
the greatest difference in our lives, but it isn't a hard-and-
fast rule. We can increase our chances of success by
focusing our attention and energy on those 20 percent.
It's okay if you feel you'll never make it out of your to-do list
alive. Which of your tasks will make the biggest difference?
Your 20 percent is here. Put more effort and time into
completing those tasks.
3. This technique, known as the Eisenhower Matrix or the Urgent-
Important Principle, helps you prioritize important (but not urgent)
tasks rather than letting urgent (but not important) concerns take
priority.
Using this matrix, categorize your tasks into four quadrants:
Quadrant 1: Urgent / Important: must be completed
completed immediately
Quadrant 2: Non-urgent / Important: schedule them
them
Quadrant 3: Delegate or minimize urgent/unimportant tasks
urgent/unimportant tasks
Quadrant 4: Non-urgent / Non-important: avoid them during
them during working hours
Your success is most likely to be driven by activities in
activities in Quadrant 2.
So, build Quadrant 2 activities into your calendar, and do not
compromise these. They will have the biggest impact on your
business, your health, your personal relationships, and the quality
of your life.
Time Management Matrix
4. By task batching, we group related tasks together, and then block
time to do these.
Task batching helps you get organized. It also minimizes brain
fatigue, which normally happens when you keep switching from one
unrelated activity to another.
Your task batching list can be weekly, biweekly, monthly, or daily. Try
mixing different tasks and lists together, until you find what works
best for you.
Task Batching
5. When deciding how much time you need for a task,
remember Parkinson’s Law:
“Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.”
Parkinson’s Law
This applies to both small and complex projects. To keep
projects from eating up too much time, set deadlines for
each task. If a client gives you a week or a month to work
on an output, try cutting the allocated time in half.
Keep experimenting until you find the best time frame for
each task. You can use the time management log to track
your total hours, and the Pomodoro technique to allocate
25-minute intervals of focused work.
Parkinson’s Law
