Time management: 7 effective tips for more time

Everyone knows that before the day begins, it's over again. A lack of time can not only lead to stress - it also reduces your productivity. Optimized time management helps you plan the right time and supports you in achieving your goals.

Incorrect time management is part of everyday life for many people. Due to their wrong timing and the lack of set goals, we rush from one appointment to the next, want to do as much as possible at once and lose our priorities before we fall into bed completely exhausted in the evening.

Incorrect time management does not only affect numerous employees - the self-employed also literally work their way to death. Time management is a foreign word for many. Instead of ensuring better day-to-day planning, prioritizing and dividing tasks and making a list of important and unimportant things, life just rushes past them.

Often times, time managers as well as high performers get out of the So, accused of leaving no room for fun and beautiful things in their lives as constant optimizers. But good time management means exactly the opposite!

A good time manager uses methods to consciously and actively create time and space for the beautiful things in life. Some of these methods are prioritizing and scheduling tasks, or keeping checklists and delegating some tasks in his lifestyle. If you're one of those people who don't care about time management, these tips could help you plan better.

 

Tip 1 for optimal time management: set priorities

Certainly very few of us lack everyday tasks. Our mailbox keeps ringing or our smartphone lights up. If you can't get an overview then, you will quickly be overwhelmed by your tasks. You are often busy, but not really productive - important tasks cannot be processed and you keep putting them off. The hamster wheel does not stop turning. The ceiling falls on your head. Important tasks can then not be processed and must be postponed.

Constant postponement of urgent matters can also be the result of procrastination his. This so-called chronic "procrastination" is then characterized by excuses and poor prioritization. If you have your increase productivity you have to set the right priorities for yourself.

 

How do I set priorities?

1. Write a to-do list by writing down all tasks for the next two weeks. Learn to write down or write down your plans. Because we often quickly forget some of our tasks. A list of all your tasks, on the other hand, gives you a perfect overview.

2. Then delete all tasks from the task list that you can give to others, are not important enough, can be automated or are of no use to your goals. For a better classification, you can use the Eisenhower principle:

 

3. Then combine similar or identical tasks into clusters, which you can work on in one go.

4. Ask yourself which tasks make up the majority of your success. If the priorities are set correctly, according to the Pareto principle, around 20 percent of all tasks you do can actually often be 80 percent ticked off. Even if it doesn't always have to be the 80-20 rule, you can already make a large part of the success by focusing on the most important tasks.

5. After prioritizing individual tasks on your to-do list, you should schedule fixed appointments. During this time you can take care of the most important tasks and clusters as undisturbed as possible. In addition, fixed deadlines for individual tasks give you a slight pressure to act and protect you from procrastinating.

If you heed these tips, you will cross off a lot of points on your to-do list and have your head free to work through the really important activities with full energy and maximum concentration. Then simply monotask the tasks according to priority and urgency. Try it out at work and see how your workload and well-being change with this method in the coming days and weeks.

 

Tip 2 for optimal time management: automate and delegate tasks

In step 2 from the previous tip, however, the goal is not to support your own laziness by handing all tasks off to other people. You want to work more effectively and efficiently. It is therefore important that you automate tasks and, for example, no longer type texts yourself. There is also software for dictation, such as DragonDictate. You can also use free programs and apps to automatically process more and more tasks or create ready-made text modules so that you don't have to type any emails.

If that doesn't work, you can delegate tasks to others. The reason is that other people can just do some tasks better and faster. When you learn to overcome your ego and ask other people for help, you can focus on your main tasks and take on other tasks that will bring more benefit to the people around you and yourself. Assigning tasks instead of doing them yourself can do a lot for you with the help of your time management Stress save and achieve much more effective results in a community. However, you should also be fair and help when others need your talents: Be a team player!

 

Tip 3 for optimal time management: Divide tasks into small steps!

Every student knows the feeling: You are supposed to write a bachelor's or master's thesis and don't know exactly where to start. Before you started, you actually felt defeated.

Big tasks often seem impossible or unsolvable and this creates pressure, stress, fear or inhibits our motivation. But since such tasks are often very important and can mean real milestones on our life path, such tasks should not be postponed until they have become inevitable in the calendar.

In order to be able to solve the task, the SMART method from project management helps us further, with which you can correctly define your goals. In a modified form, however, it can help us to divide a large task into small subtasks or process steps.

This division into small bites makes the task appear less threatening and gives us a timetable for the solution to the task. In addition, entering small milestones in the calendar can bring you many small moments of happiness when you have achieved them.

 

Tip 4 for optimal time management: day planning instead of distraction

Be honest: How many hours do you spend in front of any screens every day? Or: When was the last time you went to the cinema? When was the last time you met with friends or family?

The fact is: Many people too often distract themselves with the television, laptop or smartphone instead of planning their day differently and switching off unnecessary time wasters. Perhaps you are also one of those people who long for something. This can be a trip or a new job. Perhaps you have long dreamed of finally being your own boss and realizing your dream of your own business.

Then you should make good use of the time reserves that you spend in front of the television in the evening, instead of viewing them as scheduled. Don't give time thieves a chance by planning your day differently:

Type your daily routine into a timetable and try to find time thieves such as the television, your game console, your smartphone, etc. You don't have to give them up entirely, but try to keep them limited in time. Use a calendar or timetable to divide each day into certain sections and to create time windows in which you can consciously devote yourself to beautiful and pleasant things. Also, get yourself a routine to structure the day. With good ones Morning routines For example, you start the day better. With this method you actively create space for your self-realization.

Tip 5 for optimal time management: avoid social media

Social media are very special time thieves that can increase your daily time pressure. While we often keep certain broadcast times or kick-off times of our favorite club free for the television, social media often sneak in during the day. Regardless of whether we are sitting in the toilet or just have to wait briefly on the bus or in line for our turn - we almost instinctively take our smartphone out of our pockets and check our social media. This is quickly noticeable when we mess up our daily routine with unimportant things and thus lack the time to complete important tasks. You can certainly imagine what these time thieves mean for your performance curve and that they are a big problem.

You don't have to do without Facebook and Co right now, only it would be important for your time management to limit these time thieves a little more and to assign a not too large time window. Take your self-management seriously and prioritize urgent and important things instead of lingering on unimportant things. Facebook and Co are time wasters that not only keep you from work, but also from the beautiful things of everyday life. While you are out on social media, you will be so flooded with stimuli that you have to postpone important decision-making processes and tasks because you suddenly don't have the time. It can also be too much Social Media also affect your health in other ways, as you can read in this article.

It is better to meet up with friends than to be on the hunt for clicks and likes. If you don't want to do without these time thieves completely, you should still organize your work day without time pressure by using social media for up to 20 minutes a day. Limit yourself to the essentials here in order to save valuable time and not get hectic.

 

Tip 6 for optimal time management: read books

When was the last time you read a book? This does not mean the daily newsletters that block your digital mailbox, but a real book. Education is highly valued by most people, but only a few try to continue their education constantly.

The fact is, many people simply don't have the time to read a good book due to incorrect time management. If you have planned your time by incorrectly planning the day and week, you will not have time to read. Rather, you let your day be dictated by other time thieves who increase your lack of time.

After a hard day at work, the errands come up. Shopping needs to be done. Then you still have to pick up the children from kindergarten or school, although you don't even have an hour left. Oh yes: you also want to go to sports. Because of the lack of time, a book often hardly fits into your plan.

But even if you don't have enough time and you don't actually have time to read, we have the perfect alternative for optimal time management for you. How about, for example, an audio book to bridge the gap between work?

It's best to choose an audio book that really interests you. If you want to develop personally, it should be an audiobook that will get you ahead. Podcasts and audiobooks have a huge advantage. In the meantime, you can do other tasks, move around and continue to train yourself. The knowledge acquired in this way can prove useful in many situations and help you in your self-realization.

 

ahead Pro tip: If you want to be completely productive, you can gradually increase the speed of the audiobook. If you later hear a book at double the speed, it will only take you half the time to read it through.

 

Tip 7 for optimal time management: say NO more often

Many people know the feeling of falling victim to time thieves because they are doing unfamiliar tasks. Saying no can be difficult, but it can be learned. Rejecting others is simply part of everyday life. Often there are no personal reasons, but simply that you have a lot of tasks to do yourself.

Saying no politely is an art in itself and can even be very important for your self-management if you cannot put off urgent tasks and need more time for yourself. Therefore, you should often dare to say no. You don't have to do everything at once. And certainly not today!

Summary

If you take these time management tips to heart, you will gain more free time. Free time that you can use to relax, for activities, sports, a vacation or training. The tips and methods are not intended to narrow your lifestyle. A good time manager uses these methods in order not to lose sight of the essentials and to consciously integrate tasks and rest periods into his life. This not only improves your performance, but also your health.

If you find it difficult to keep the performance curve up despite time management, you should try an optimal combination of different nutrients. SHARP MIND¹ contains Citicoline Cognizin®, a precursor of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, in conjunction with phosphatidylserine and Brahmi extract. We come without stimulants such as caffeine .

 

 

¹Pantothenic acid contributes to normal mental performance. Vitamin B12 helps reduce tiredness and fatigue.