Is there ever enough time in a day? Even before Covid hit, many of us found balancing work, school, family, kids, and maintaining a normal social life difficult, especially if we weren’t super organized. Yes, we have the same number of hours in a day as Beyonce, but we don’t have the same team, so any help that we can get with being more productive is a gift. Luckily, with a few tweaks with how we manage our daily schedules, we can maximize our time and really get ish done. We always ask the universe for more time, but if we aren’t cognizant of how we’re spending it, it’s gonna be pretty hard to make any real strides toward our goals, no matter how much more time we are given.
Balancing it all isn’t easy, but it’s definitely not impossible. If you’ve been having a hard time, here are 4 ways to help improve your time management and be more productive every day.
Plan ahead as much as you can
And by plan, I mean get it out of your head and onto a notebook or plugged into your Google calendar with actionable steps to complete your tasks. Prioritizing your to-do list by the hour/day/week/month will help you hold yourself accountable so that you can realistically scratch items off of your list. You may not be able to get everything done daily, but at least you will have a working guide that you can actually see (vs. trying to remember it all and failing).
Batch out daily/weekly tasks
The Pomodoro Technique is pretty popular for people working on their time-management, but I’ve found that personally, I prefer using an alarm on my phone when I’m tasking. I will block out 2-3 hours max to knock out a few projects/tasks at a time. I don’t really like to multi-task in the typical sense-I prefer to just work on things in batches. Turn on music or a podcast (TV can be too distracting), turn off your ringer, and place your phone in another room so that you can completely focus on your project(s) at hand. If you end up completing everything early, take a break for the remaining time before you move on to your next time block activity.
Unplug frequently
Checking social media can be such a time suck. You don’t realize how much time you spend scrolling Instagram and Facebook until you look up and 45 minutes have passed by . Every single app is open on your phone, but NOTHING ELSE DONE. Limiting how many times you check your fave social platforms will ensure you don’t miss out on valuable time you could be using to do some none tech related activities (reading, cleaning, spending time with fam).
Schedule in time for the simple things
When you find yourself struggling to do all of those small things that you never seem to have time for, it’s probably time for you to schedule them on your calendar. I know that it might seem silly to block out time to wash your hair, read or journal, but treating these tasks like appointments and adding them to your calendar can actually be a game changer. Sometimes, there really isn’t enough time in the day, but most times, we’re losing minutes and hours doing trivial things. Be very specific with how you schedule it (don’t just put “Me time”, lol), and soon it’ll become a lot easier to take care of those tasks that matter the most to you.
12 Month Large Planner, Vera Bradley $26.95
Don’t force yourself to have a rigid schedule (life happens when we’re busy making plans), but being more cognizant of how you’re spending your time daily will allow you to have a much better work/life balance and get more done in a day.
