Do you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get things done? That you have little time if any to do the things you truly enjoy? That you are struggling to juggle work and family? You’re not alone.
As a time management coach, I help my clients regain control of their time and mental clarity. Here are the 3 tools I help them adopt.
Supercharge your time management with these 3 tools
#1 Time map
A time map is a table in which you assign a time and day in your week for all the activities that are important to you whether it is driven by a professional target or by a personal goal.
You may argue that it is impossible to put predictability into your schedule, that there is no way that you can operate within so much structure, that it will alienate your freedom etc. But trust me, a time map helps improve efficiency.
Why? Because with routine into your schedule, you actually separate the decision from the action. Instead of spending a fair amount of time deciding what you are going to be doing next or procrastinating on things you don’t enjoy doing, you just do them. As a result, your focus switches to improving your efficiency.
Related: How to create a weekly schedule
#2 Planner
A planner (or diary or calendar) is indispensable to managing your meetings, appointments, and ideally to-do’s. Even if you have an excellent memory, why would you clutter your brain with information that you can jolt down somewhere, forget about, and then refer to when needed? A planner allows you to focus on what you have to do and hence improve your efficiency.
Having one planner for home and one planner for work just can’t work, because these two worlds don’t co-exist but are interrelated. It has to be one planner only.
Don’t feel obligated to use a digital planner. There’s no shame in sticking to a paper planner if you find technology to be cumbersome or even a little bit scary or if you feel that writing is more natural and much faster for you than typing.
Related: Paper Planner Or Digital Planner – Which One Is Right For You?
#3 To-do list
Your to-do’s have to be captured in one single and consistent location. Ideally, it should be your planner so that you can associate a day and time to each of your to-do’s and increase your chances of getting it done.
A to-do has to be specific. It isn’t a project that happens in multiple steps over a period of time e.g. organise summer holidays.
A to-do needs to start with an action verb such as call, write, review, plan, ask, read, etc. so that you don’t have to figure out what it is that you have to do when you come back to your list.
It has to come with a time estimate so that you can evaluate whether your workload is realistic every single day.
Related: How to write a to-do list that gets done
Benefits of mastering those time management tools
The clients whom I have helped implement these 3 tools have reported the following benefits:
- An increased efficiency at home and work
- A greater sense of accomplishment
- Being more present and connected to what they do
- Reduced stress levels which make them happier and more productive
- Feeling more control of their schedule with a greater ability to make well-thought-out decisions on how they spend their time
- Higher energy levels to complete their high-priority tasks
- The certainty that they’re living a more balanced life.
Do you too want to invest in your most valuable asset, time? Contact me to learn how my life management coaching program can help you achieve more.
[…] blog was first published on Get Organised & Beyond blog and is re-published here with the authorisation of its […]