All at sea when it comes to time management? Here are my top 3 tips.
Follow these 3 simple tips to make your day run smoothly, and to get to do the things you love to do. It’s all about focus, scheduling, and garden time. Actually time management isn’t ‘time’ management at all, it’s ‘you’ management. Here’s how to do it.
1. Focus
- Spend a day noting down all the interruptions that occur and find a way to accommodate them or avoid them. Find somewhere quiet to work. Consider your environment.
- Instead of staying online all day, check your emails, and social media, for half an hour (or however long you need) at the start of the day, at lunchtime, and in the evening. Consider site blocking software – Antisocial is one example.
- Work on a task for 25 minutes with no distractions and then take a break for five. This is The Pomodoro Technique in a nutshell.
- Try tracking your time. Kate Northrup gives you a easy way to time track in this blog post.
- If you’re serious about focus, check out Cal Newport’s book Deep Work.
2. Schedule
- Break down anything you want to achieve into small steps – that you could achieve today – and keep a list of them. Check out the small steps method here.
- Timetable your week by breaking it down into morning, afternoon and evening sessions. Schedule tasks in each session but include stuff that’s important to you personally early in the day.
- Look at the peaks and troughs across your whole year. Any big events coming up? If you’re working on a big goal (whatever it is) take these peaks and troughs into consideration or you’ll get frustrated by them.
- Plan breaks and time to relax.
3. Use garden time
- It takes a long time to grow a garden. A gardener plants, looks after and tends to his or her garden all year on a cycle that takes in the seasons and the growth patterns of the plants. We’ve got to do the same thing with projects that are precious to us. Take the time you need. Allow them to develop over time.
- Forget about instant results and don’t wait until you feel like it or until the time is right – go out and dig the garden anyway.
- Build in time to sit and stare and to be with the people you love.
- Read more about garden time in A Small Steps Guide to Goal Setting and Time Management. Edit: You can read a sample from the new edition here: https://janefriedman.com/it-might-be-time-for-a-reality-check-on-your-writing-goals/
More time management tips
Look after the basics first
Psychologists suggest that we need to look after our basic needs before anything else. If you’re having trouble getting motivated, make sure that you’re:
- eating healthily and keeping hydrated
- getting enough sleep
- taking breaks
- exercising regularly
If you feel like you haven’t got time for these things you’re creating a vicious circle. It might seem counterintuitive, but if you create time for your basic needs, you’ll end up with more time for everything else because you’ll have more energy. See an expert if you need help.
Find out more about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs on Wikipedia.
Keep a grateful list
Take a notebook with you everywhere during the next day. Note down everything and anyone you appreciate.
Why does this help with time management? Because it allows us to let go of the need to cram as much as possible into our days. Deliberately keeping a grateful list allows us to stop and listen to the music. It’s also a useful antidote to the niggles diary!
Keep a niggles diary
Again, take a notebook with you everywhere during the next day. Note down every small annoyance you come across. Do it in your house, at work, on the bus, at the shops. Remember we’re talking about small things here. At the end of the day, go through your list and do something about every niggle that you can sort out.
Why does this help with time management? Some of the things you’ve identified will be time-wasters, that only become apparent when you write them down. Some of the solutions to your niggles will be time-savers. Some of the niggles relate to your basic needs – and remember you need to consider these first. Here are some of mine:
- Get new light bulbs for the living room.
- Fix computer so it runs faster.
- Buy a new liquidizer so I can make smoothies.
Keep a time diary
Now you’re used to using your notebook, tot up how you use your time for a day. (Keep going if you like but don’t do it for longer than a week.)
- What did you spend most of your time doing?
- Were you surprised by anything?
- How do you relax?
- How did your mood, the food you ate and the amount of sleep you got affect your time management?
More soon. Until then, happy writing,
Lou xx