You have missed your deadline again. Or, you have double-booked your weekends. You have no time to make a call home even during your lunch breaks. Every day you plan your schedule first but you still end up with a mess!
If you find the examples familiar, you are fighting against this endless pattern. You know there are hundreds of apps, thousands of time-management tools to try. No matter how many to-do lists you create, how many scheduling apps you download, and how many planners you maintain, nothing seems to work. You know why? Because you never tried to accept the root of your time-management issues.
Well, all the popular time-management tools are not bad. These are quite effective if you know how to spot your time-killing habits and get rid of those. So, before you use a time management tool, try to address the real issue.
The Root Of Your Busy Schedule
For many people, time-management solutions don’t work until they change their mindset. Are you seeking a minimalist and simple lifestyle? Are you trying to cut down the clutters of your work schedule and life? You have to change the way you plan your work first.
You might think if you follow the latest planning and organizing trends, you might be able to manage every second of your day. But is it that simple? Buying the latest planner, downloading, and using Asana or Trello won’t do any magic if you don’t know the root cause of your messed-up schedule. All these tools might leave you feeling more overwhelmed and exhausted.
Learn To Say No
The thought of saying no scares many when it comes to working. You don’t want to sound rude. You don’t want to miss out. Perhaps, you have an obligation to your employer, your work clients, parents, spouse, and so on. But remember the day is twenty-four hours for you too. Every time you say yes to a new task, you are saying no to some other tasks that were already there on your list. Every commitment you make subtracts some bit of time from another commitment. You need to prioritize your task first to balance the “yeses” and “no’s”.
Don’t Waste Your Precious Time
Maybe it is the most common example of “easier said than done” things. When you are having too many tasks on your plate, you often tend to forget your purpose of working. As a result, you lose the motivation to work and end up killing time. It is the stress of so many works that makes you procrastinate and waste the most energetic hours of the day.
Limiting your tasks to four to five most important tasks a day is the key. If you want to feel like working hard and tick off your to-do list, stop packing in extra works that can wait for a day or two.
Narrow Your Focus
It’s always good to have a weekly and monthly plan for your work, but the daily plans are the most productive ones. Narrow your attention to the activities that matter for the day being. Keep the important but not so urgent works for the upcoming days. Know your deadlines and set your deliverable in a daily order. Set your mind to not waste your day and speed up your work from the moment you sit down at your desk.
Conclusion
Getting control of your busy schedule is not necessarily a battle if you can control your mind and actions. Just like others, you have twenty-four hours only. Prioritize your works and say no to the extra works.
