Productivity Tips: More Time Management Tips

We all have a lot to do and limited time. We previously offered 5 helpful time management tips. Here are 5 additional tips for using your time more efficiently:

Centralize Planning

Keep an overview of all ongoing projects in one place. Whether you use a physical day planner or software on your computer or phone, do it all in one place. If you spread your notes and to-do lists to multiple locations, you can easily forget to check one and miss important details. Have a single personal organizer.

Prioritize for Your Energy

Prioritize your tasks for each day. Then make sure you get the most important things done. Learn to say "no" to unimportant tasks.

Have a specific time slot each day for top priorities only. Organize your daily schedule to take advantage of your best energy times. Dedicate your highest-energy time only for priority tasks.

Analyze Your Time

Analyze where your time goes and eliminate activities that don't contribute to your life.

Track your time for a week or two. Keep a log of how much time you spend on each task. Then ask yourself if each task deserves the amount of time you put into it. Are you spending too much time browsing social media? Answering email? On the phone? Be honest with yourself. Can you justify the time spent with the benefit (including enjoyment) that you get out of it? Cut back where you can't justify it.

Choose a Deadline

If your project doesn't have an actual deadline, select an arbitrary one. Knowing that you have all the time in the world to complete something makes it too easy to let it slide indefinitely. Most of us focus better without an open-ended schedule.

Bite the Bullet

Do the most unpleasant things on your list first.

I sometimes find myself putting off my entire daily to-do list because I have one thing that I really don't want to do. If I can get that item taken care of early, then I can concentrate on other tasks for the rest of the day.

Just bite the bullet and get that task done.