These days, it’s easy to feel there’s not enough time to do everything you want to do in a day. Here are nine things time management experts say will help give you the time you need.
Get up early. Most highly productive people start their days early, and in fact many studies have connected waking up early with business success. When you start early, in addition to literally getting a head start on everyone else, you’re working during a quieter time of the day with fewer distractions.
Establish a daily routine. Set up a routine (including a sleep routine) to follow each day, then do it! Without this structure, it’s easy to miss deadlines and overlook important tasks.
Schedule the day. Put in all appointments and deadlines, then track the actual time spent on each activity, compared to what you thought it would be. Discover where you’re wasting time, and strategize how you’ll work more efficiently in the future.
Prioritize relentlessly. Always decide the things that are most important, and accomplish those first. Before you begin a task, ask if you truly need to do it now. If you don’t, don’t start it.
Stay focused. Today, there are more readily accessible distractions available than ever before—emails, texts, social media notifications, and phone calls. Find as quiet a place to work as you can, close the email program, put the phone on Silent Mode or Mute, and concentrate on what needs to get done.
Get organized. If you’re organized and stay that way, you won’t waste time looking for things or wondering if you have them. It’s astonishing how much time that can save.
Stop multitasking. You can only do one thing at a time, so multitasking is actually just switching between multiple uncompleted tasks. Research revealed that multitaskers get less done and waste more time switching between tasks than if they’d stayed with one task until they finished it.
Don’t be fast, be smooth. If you work fast, it’s easy to make mistakes, so you waste time fixing them or, worse, wind up putting out substandard work. Focus instead on working smoothly with yourself and others through the task, and you’ll get more high-quality work done in a lot less time.
Maintain a positive attitude. People who keep saying they don’t have time to do things end up being correct. On the other hand, those who keep a positive attitude, prioritize, and stay focused and organized, usually accomplish what needs to get done.
Here’s more about finding more time.
