We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves - Alice Bloch
We often hear elderly people say that, “beeta hua kal kabhi wapas nahi aata” (you can’t turn back time). We understand the importance of time very late in life, when most of our time has already been wasted. Time management skills are crucial to have, especially in students because if you know how to manage your time, you know how to manage your life.
You must have wondered that despite having the same hours to everyone, some people complete all their tasks effortlessly, whereas some keep wondering how time is being flown so quickly. If you are someone from the latter category, this article is going to help you with managing your time, using time management strategies.
We all get time for free, but it is much more valuable than money. Your time can get you money, but your money can’t buy you time. Therefore; we must practice time management activities to get in the habit of utilizing our time rather than wasting it.
So, how can you manage your time?
1. Track Your Time
When you track your time, you get to know where actually your time is going. This also helps you find out what the most important and the least important tasks are. If you get distracted easily or run out of motivation quite often, you should try out the 5 seconds rule by Mel Robbins. Whenever you find yourself wasting time on Instagram or hitting the snooze button, start back counting from 5 to 1 and quickly start doing what you should be doing. It is proven that if you have an urge to act on something and you do it within 5 seconds, you are most likely to finish doing the task. If you take longer than 5 seconds to think, you may end up procrastinating.
2. Wake up Early
If you have a habit of waking up late, then you must start waking up early as till the time you wake up, someone must have completed 1/4th of their tasks. When you have more time , you can accomplish your goals with ease. Planning everything in advance also helps effectively as it gives you a clear picture of how your day looks like. When you are precise about your tasks, you complete them without being stressed about un-finished tasks.
3. Set a Time Limit for Each Goal
When you list down the tasks that you are supposed to complete, divide them in three parts: the most important ones, the least important ones and tasks that seem important but aren’t actually. Once you are done with the list, set a time limit for each task. For example: if you have to write an article and you know you can write it in 30 minutes, set a time limit of 20 minutes. When you challenge yourself, completing a task seems more fun.
4. Make the Most of Technology
One of the major reasons for wasting time is weakened self-control. If you have a hard time focusing on something, you can try out different time management apps such as Grow. All you have to do is set a timer and till the time you are being focused, your little plant keeps growing. This is one of the most thoughtful apps for concentration. This helps in effective time management and boosts your productivity.
5. Practice Pareto Principle - the 80/20 rule The 80/20 rule is a proven rule for time management for students, employees and everyone. So, what this rule basically is? Let’s understand it this way. Imagine you have 10 tasks to complete. Completing some would level up your productivity more than the rest ones. These few important tasks are called “vital few” which have higher value and other many are called “trivial many” which may be more in number but do not provide as much value as completing 2 most important tasks does. Therefore; you should always divide your task list in 80/20 ratio. Complete the important tasks first and then try completing the rest. This boosts your productivity seamlessly.
6. Procrastinate on Purpose
Procrastination? Who doesn’t do it? The only difference between high-performing and low-performing people is what they choose to procrastinate on? Most people get trapped in Unconscious procrastination. They don’t even realise when just 5 minutes turns into an hour on social media. When you are aware of what the high value tasks are, you should try finishing them on priority and later you can procrastinate on other tasks.
Summing it up….
Time management skills are no rocket science. It is all about practice. You practice distraction most hours of your day, and that's why you have become good at it. Try practicing concentration, you will start to realize how effortlessly you have started to manage your time.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article and learned something new from it. Let us know in the comment section below what hack are you going to try soon?