Are you really making the most of your time? Time is, without a doubt, the most precious thing out there. We spend it however we like and once it's gone, it's gone. There is no way to get it back. Sometimes we don't mind and are grateful that we made the most of it, sometimes it is a problem which can lead to a sense of guilt and frustration*. However, all this can easily be avoided using something very simple and easy: planning. When planning your day, you can get as much time back as possible because you are making the most of what you have, and it's benefits don't end there!
Positives of Planning
Planning your day has so many positive benefits that I really don't understand how I managed to live without doing this or how others continue to do so up until today. For example...
1) You can save time.
Plenty of time for that matter. Planning your day allows you to manage your time so that you can take control over it. This way, you can prioritise certain activities, making sure you make time for what's important and minimising the time you waste. As a result of all this, your efficiency will increase as you are being more productive and you'll be able to get into the zone quicker when working because your focus will be improved now that you've gotten what needs to be done straight.
2) You can overcome procrastination.
When managing your time, you reduce the stress of not knowing what needs to be done next, making it easier to get started, especially after you've chosen what is more important and needs to be done first and foremost. Doing this would reduce your stress levels as excessive stress usually leads to procrastination. The structure of planning ahead saves you time because it provides you with mini deadlines you need to work towards which give you time to go over what you have been working on before the actual deadline. Now that you are in charge of your time, you are less likely to waste it and will take accountability for how you spend it.
3) You can set and clarify your goals and priorities.
You may not have expected this with planning your day, but planning ahead makes you set a clear goal and priority for each day. In doing so, you can tackle more important tasks sooner or improve upon yourself in whatever way you like, whether that is emotionally, physically, academically, financially, or with regards to your relationships - bear in mind, you'll have to set goals and work towards them regularly and consistently for there to be any changes. Now that you've identified what's more important, you can allocate your time accordingly so that you can maximise the fruits you receive.
Scheduling Structures For You
Before we discuss possible strategies you can use to manage your time, here are some things you need to take into account:
Track your progress!
Like a lot of things when it comes to maximising your productivity, the optimum structure to use would depend on you as an individual and on your preferences, so make sure you try some methods until you find the one that suits you best. Track every method you use so that you can keep an eye out for how well it works for you and how much it has helped you by dedicating some time to evaluate it.
A small reminder: if there's one you like, but doesn't exactly suit you, change it up a little. These methods are not concrete, nor are they sacred. Innovation and manipulation are more than welcome here because there's always space for improvement, especially when it is you and your time we're talking about.
When evaluating your progress, you can gain a better awareness of yourself, which helps with working out how and when you work at your optimum. Our surroundings also change often, sometimes it is inevitable, so change in the way we plan our days would be necessary. This continuous improvement and requirement to maintain focus whilst realigning our goals also help us make better decisions in our life and allow us to learn from the past and personally grow.
Be Flexible and Adaptable
Whatever plan you make is not concrete. It can change last minute. This is because life is unpredictable, so we should always be open to other things occurring in our lives. Since these 'other things' will cause disruptions and changes to our lifestyle, whether it is temporarily, by setting us behind schedule by 5 minutes, or permanently, for reasons outside of our control, our plans must be able to flex and change accordingly. Planning ahead allows us to then change and adapt our schedule as needed in order to suit this change in our priorities.
Time-Management Methods
To-Do Lists
To Do Lists are a great way to blurt everything you need to get done for the day. All you have to do is spend at least 5 minutes at the start of the day or at the end of the day before and jot down everything you need to get done. Once you've done that, you can make your way through the list, gaining satisfaction every time you tick a task you've completed off the list.
Time Blocking in your Calendar
To do this, at the start of your day, you'll have to plan your day by inserting everything you need to do into your calendar in the order you'll do them and according to how long each task will take you. This is a great way to visualise how you'll use you time. Some people insert large blocks of time for certain types of tasks, whilst others prefer to add every
little specific task onto the calendar separately.
Prioritisation Matrix
This table allows you to pick and choose what tasks are more important to you and need to be done immediately and what doesn't, helping you sort everything out into what needs to be prioritised more than others so that you can get cracking with the more important things first.
Task Batching
When grouping similar tasks together, it becomes easier to get through them quicker because you don't have to change between the gears in your brain. Similar tasks would require the same/similar information and the same/similar level of focus, improving efficiency because context switching is minimised.
Time Capsules
To prevent yourself from spending too long on a task, give it a maximum amount of time allocated to it, and once that time is up, move on. You could use a simple timer to do this or you could use a fancy one from a productivity app.
Pomodoro Technique
You may have heard of this technique: a 25 minute period for you to work through and a 5 minute break straight after. This technique has been found helpful for many people as the time period is not too long for them to get bored or distracted, allowing them to get work done.
Energy Management
Some tasks require more energy than others. Because of this, allocate their time to when you work best. For example, if you are a morning person, you'll probably work better in the morning, getting all those things that you need done quicker and more efficiently then; if you work better in the evenings, then you should move your work time to later on in the day so that you can optimise how well you work. Tasks that require less effort and energy can be moved to other moments in the day when you aren't focusing on what's more important.
Task Automation/Outsourcing and Delegation
It may be helpful for you to get others to help you with getting tasks done, whether they are AI of peers of yours. Planning your day ahead allows you to pick and choose which tasks you can delegate to others so that you can save more of your time by not having to do it yourself.
Breaking Tasks Down
Another way to save time that needs to be remembered when planning your day is to break large tasks down to smaller chunks. For example, if you have a major project you need to work on, you can break into down into smaller, more manageable chunks by choosing what part of that project will you do today, what can you leave for tomorrow and so on.
Do I really act by what I'm telling you?
Planning my day has been an absolute life changer. The method I've used the longest and works the best for me is making a To Do List. It's helped me plan my day ahead and realise what is it that I must get done that day.
I also do add all my tasks into my calendar from time to time, but not always, because I find it difficult to stick to that and would often change everything around. Sometimes, I just work through my To Do List then add the task I've done and how long it's taken me after I've completed it so that I still get the insight to how I spent my day.
Breaking Tasks Down is something I do whenever I get stressed about something because it makes the thing seem more manageable and is easier to get through it. I tend to take a break from it to calm myself down, then come back to the task later and break it up so that it almost becomes a game where I must complete different levels to reach the end.
Whilst, the Pomodoro technique doesn't work for me, I do use Time Capsules, despite the allocated time being most of the time too much or too little. These Time Capsules help me plan my day on my Calendar, but are not necessarily needed when working with a To Do List, which is an extra point for the To Do List in my case.
With regards to delegation, I don't use much of that as the tasks I must do tend to be things I cannot delegate. However, when it comes to research and planning my blogs, I (more recently) would work with and delegate the majority of the planning and finding more finer details to AI.
Using these methods have really helped me plan my day out and decide what needs to be done first and foremost and what can be left for later, making getting through the day much easier as I already know what the plan is and therefore, my productivity would be optimised very much, whilst also leaving time for me to relax in the evening.
Experiencing the Power
To sum it all up, planning your day is a really powerful tool, allowing you to take control of your time and optimise it because whatever's passed shan't come back. When you do this, you can optimise your productivity as much as possible, minimising the amount of time you waste and getting more things done so that you can achieve your goals and improve upon your self in the future. Planning ahead costs nothing because you can use whatever you like, a pen and paper, a free app, whilst receiving much more in return.
If there are any methods you use, feel free to share them in the comments below!
That's all from me today. I'll see you in my next post. So, you might want to plan that in your agenda! ;)
* If you are someone who tends to beat themselves up after not being 'productive' enough, you might want to check out my post 'I didn't finish. What now?' which will be found at the end of this post, or by clicking here.
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