Written by Amanda Ramaningrum, Content Writer Intern at Project Child Indonesia
Today, we live in a society where we are pushed to do things efficiently and precisely. Many times, most of us get overwhelmed with the tasks, cause we often tend to procrastinate and do things at the last minute. Then, why can’t we effectively manage our time?
When you find the assignment is too hard, especially when it has a long deadline, then the chance of you procrastinating is increased. Managing your time effectively is one of the most important life skills, and sometimes, we just don’t know how to find the best rhyme that effectively works for us. Here are 5 tips to effectively manage your time.
#1 Finding your best productive time
Each of us has our rhyme of work. Some people feel the best time to get their work done is in the morning, while others have their best at night. For example, my most productive time is in the morning from 8 a.m until late afternoon, while after that time, I need more energy to focus and it is quite hard to process heavy information. In other cases, my friends tend to work at late night and do their best within those times.
Finding your best productive time can help you to organize tasks. Doing the hardest one in your productive time, will feel much easier rather than do that out of your ‘best time’. How to find your time? Well, you can start tracking your working time. Let’s say you are the employee, now between the determined working hours (8 hours/day, 8 a.m – 4 p.m.) what time do you find yourself the most energized? If between those times you can’t find yours, maybe you are the night owl, who works best at night.
#2 Prioritizing your tasks using The 4Ds technique
Have you ever heard about this technique? The 4Ds technique is a popular method for determining whether or not work or project is worthwhile. According to Project Plan, This approach entails making a rapid decision on what to do immediately, either by doing it yourself or delegating to someone else, what to do later, or what to remove from your to-do list.
The 4ds of time management are; do, defer (delay), delegate, and delete (drop). With these strategies, you can choose carefully how we utilize resources to ensure that our activities are aligned with our bigger aims.
#3 Keep organized
After finding your best time and prioritizing your tasks, now learn how to keep yourself organized. It may be difficult for you who work based on mood, but organizing yourself truly can help you to get out from sabotaging your time. Try to keep track of your to-do list schedules.
Talking about keeping organized, I found a thing that may seem not important but helps. Have you ever felt ‘too much’ whenever you see your workspace? Re-organize your desk to look more clean and free, can help you to think more clearly. Remove things that are not related to your job or things that do not help you to be more efficient. Decorating is a good choice too. Add some dry flowers, or simply motivation quotes to remind you of your purpose.
#4 Use time management apps
This is not essential, but if you are a person who has a lot of workloads/projects, using time management apps can help you to organize your things and time. I use apps to make my to-do list, especially if the work or project goals don’t meet each other.
There are so many time management apps here, like Notion, Trello, Google Calendar, Google Keep, and so on. You can try each one of them to find which apps that suit you most.
#5 Set your break time
The last tips, and the most important. Set your break time. This will be a life-changer for you if you have not tried it before. For example, set 5 minutes to break every 30 minutes of working. Allowing your brain and body to relax for a few minutes will improve your productivity and be healthier for your mental health too. It will give you a chance to refill your energy, without losing your focus on your tasks.
“Time management is life management”
That was it! Good luck on your journey to find your best time rhyme. When you can take control of your time, you can get on top of your to-do list.
References
Project Plan. Retrieved from https://www.productplan.com/glossary/4-ds-of-time-management/
