How to Manage Your Time and Increase Your Productivity

I have a friend who struggles to get his work completed by deadlines. He is planning on hiring a private investigator to find out what he does all day! But seriously, does time also get away from you? Do you start your day with a long-list of things to do, but somehow that list never gets any shorter? If you want to be productive, it is essential that you forward-plan every day. Many people never master the art of planning and their lives are in constant turmoil. They’re forever playing catch-up or just chasing their own tail.

Acknowledge You Can’t Do It All

The reality of modern life is that most days we have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. A key to forward planning is to acknowledge that you won’t get it all done! That means you need to make clever decisions and carefully choose what you will do and what you will ignore. I suggest you devote the first 20 minutes of your morning to planning your day. You may resent dedicating 20 minutes to planning, but please give it a go. You will find it is time well invested as thorough planning will ultimately save you time.

Write a To-do List and Ignore List

The first thing you need to do is a write a to-do list. You might have tried this before, but I have a few more suggestions. Also write an ignore list. Put down any jobs that might distract you and tasks that you don’t need to complete that day, but may be tempted to work on. Once you’ve completed both lists, return to the to-do list. Now, schedule every item in the list a time slot. What should you be doing at 10am, 11.30am, and 3pm? Deciding exactly when you will complete jobs is incredibly effective. A recent study asked two groups of women to do breast self-examination to check for cancer. The first group of women had to write down what day and time and where they would carry out their examination. The second group were just told to get it done sometime in the next month. The researchers found that 100% of women in the first group did the examination, but only half of the second group did. In another study, two groups of recovering drug addicts (people in a state of stress) agreed to write an essay. The first group members said when and where they would write the essay. 80% did it. The second group did not commit to a time or place to do the essay. Not one person in this group handed in their work. Make sure you write down what time and where you will be completing the tasks on your to-do list! It is no good just writing a long list and feeling overwhelmed.

Prioritize your Tasks

You need to place the hardest and most pressing jobs at the top of your time-itemised list. The writer, Mark Twain, once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day!” No, I don’t actually want you to eat a frog, but the concept is that you should complete the most challenging tasks first and in descending order of their difficulty, so that your day becomes progressively easier as your energy wanes. Always do the hardest job first, that way if distractions crop up later, you will have accomplished one important task and not wasted the day.

Get Tougher on Yourself

Try planning your days like this for a week and see if you get more done. In the second week, it’s time to get even tougher on yourself. Again begin the day by spending 20 minutes planning. Allocate every task a set time and duration. Begin with the hardest tasks. Now set the timer on your mobile phone to ring every hour. When the alarm goes off, look at where you are up to on the list. Have you worked hard enough? Are you on schedule? If not, it’s time to quicken your pace. If you manage your day hour-by-hour, you will know exactly where your time is going!

Review your Efforts

At the end of the working day, review your efforts. Did you get distracted? If yes, list your distractions. Are you spending too much time on social media and emails? If possible, get that first hard task done before checking your emails. Once it is knocked over, you might allow yourself a read of emails and a morning coffee, but limit this to a set time. There is no harm in rewarding yourself for working productively with a quick coffee. But do identify all your time-wasters (talking, social media, daydreaming). You may even want to list them in red and hang that list above your desk so you will be reminded not to be distracted.

Create a Daily Ritual

I know that successful people have another trick to managing their day – rituals or good habits. They stick to the same routine day after day. They often rise early, exercise before work and then reserve the morning for creative thinking or problem-solving. Effective rituals or routines also reduce the risk of being distracted. Basically, repetition grows good habits!

Remember your Goals

In managing time effectively, you must remain focussed. Plan your day like a military operation, avoid distractions and commit to your daily plan. Always keep your objectives or goals at the fore of your mind, if they are not already on display in your office! Goals will keep you motivated and motivation will help keep you on schedule.

Sustain your Efforts

To work productively and use time wisely you need to sustain your efforts. That is how footy teams win matches. A team can be ahead for most of the match, but if they slacken off in the dying minutes, that’s when the opposition picks up the ball and runs with it!

Hold Yourself to Account

Hold yourself to account. Focus on your own efforts, not other people. If you focus on other people, you will only end up blaming them, simply because you can’t control how hard or well they work, whereas you have total control over yourself and that’s where your focus should be!

If you want to get a head-start on managing your day, begin by planning the night before. Have your clothes ready, your lunch made and write a rough draft of your daily schedule, but I still recommend using the first 20 minutes of every day to thoroughly plan and lock in timeslots for tasks – that way your daily schedule is fresh in your mind. Remember, you need to control your time, before time controls you!