Time Management

Time Management

If you’re someone who struggles to manage tasks and your time effectively, then this blog is for you. Under stress from work, or life in general, it can be difficult to balance tasks effectively, and use your time wisely. It’s easy to get distracted by your phone, or even other tasks, but hopefully after reading these tips you’ll be able to balance your time effectively. These will be in no particular order, but hopefully they help.

Prioritize what needs to be done first. 

Say you have more than one task, however one needs to be done on, for example, a Tuesday, and one needs to be done for a Thursday, then do the one which needs to be done on the Tuesday first. This may not always work, for example if you have two tasks due on the same day, but if you have tasks due on different days, it will help you manage your time effectively. This also may not work for everyday chores, but that leads me onto the next tip/ piece of advice.

Write down how long a task could take

If you’re not entirely sure how long a task will take, then try writing down an estimate on how long the task may take. For example, if you have an essay due for school, then that could take between 20-30 minutes, whereas if you have any chores/ housework to do, for example, washing up plates, then that could take 5 minutes or less. This allows you to know how much time you’re spending on a task, and how long you have to do the other tasks, as well as how long you have to take a small break if you need to.

Prioritize what takes the longest.

Linking back to the previous point, this applies if you have a task/ something that needs done on the same day, or for two dates that are close together. If you have two tasks/ things that need to be done on the same day, and for example, you estimated one takes an hour and the other takes twenty minutes, then try to get the one that takes an hour done first, since that is most likely what would take the most effort and attention.

Prioritize what is most important.

This kind of links back to the previous two tips, but if you have a task that would be beneficial to you, and one that wouldn’t be as beneficial, try to focus on the one that first, then go onto the one that wouldn’t be as beneficial.

Categorize what may be urgent and important, important but not urgent etc.

Similar to the previous point, but try to categorize tasks/ things that need to be done into important but not urgent, urgent but not important, not urgent and not important, and urgent and important. If a task is important and urgent, then this should be the task you prioritize first. This could help you know what needs to be done first, and what could be left until either later on in the day or for another day.

Wake up earlier on weekends/ have a consistent sleep schedule.

This is more for people that maybe get up at 12PM onwards on weekends, as a result of staying up late the previous night. If this doesn’t apply to you, feel free to read onto the next tip. 

I understand that getting up earlier on the weekends may be a little hard for some people, and that is understandable, but it is beneficial for managing your time better. By getting up earlier, it allows you more time to get things done, and more time to rest afterwards. Having a consistent sleep schedule also helps with this, as the less tired you are the more likely you are to be able to get tasks done effectively, to understand how long tasks take, and to manage your time more effectively to fit around your routine/ life.

Write down dates if you struggle to remember them.

Much like the previous tip, this is more for people who may struggle to remember dates. If you do, then I highly suggest writing them down somewhere accessible, such as a diary, calendar, or even notes on your phone. Just writing something down can help you remember it, and if you need to, see if you can get a friend or co-worker to remind you either every day, or every couple days before the date you need to remember for an event, or something that needs to be done, depending on how close it is. If even that doesn’t help, then I highly recommend setting reminders on your phone as well.

Lastly, don’t leave things until last minute!

Finally, to tie everything up, don’t leave things until last minute! This comes under more wellbeing than time management, but leaving things until last minute will leave you less time to do things, and end up being more stressed, meaning you’ll be less likely to want to do tasks effectively.

I hope these tips have helped, and thank you for reading!