Good time management can have a positive impact on your routine, helping you to become more agile and productive. In addition, it’s possible to reduce the feeling of pressure and keep tasks on schedule. With this in mind, we have prepared this material to explain everything you need to know about good time management.
Read until the end, because we will teach you 4 amazing techniques to help you optimize your routine.
How many times have you imagined how ideal it would be if the day had 48 hours? Thus, you would be able to handle all your daily tasks. But, have you ever stopped to think that the problem may be in how you manage time, and not how many hours you have in a day?
The truth is that we have enough time to complete our routine, what is missing is an appropriate way to manage this time.
According to Time Management, it is possible to organize and plan the routine and still consider unexpected events. But before we get down to business, let’s understand what time management is.
What is time management?
In short, time management is the process of organizing and planning how time should be divided between the various activities of a routine. That is, time management concerns the amount of time spent to perform your day’s task.
Good time management requires a change in the focus that is given both to activities and to the results achieved. Being busy is not synonymous with being productive.
After all, how much time and energy do you spend in a day to perform various tasks, and at the end of the day, you didn’t complete any? This is because you are probably dividing yourself between all your countless tasks, rather than focusing on one task at a time.
So, time management means:
- Time spent in the right places to perform the right tasks;
- Know the priorities, your obligations and work with a list of tasks;
- Manage time spent in the professional environment, and also in all other areas of your life.
In other words, time management doesn’t mean finding ways to work harder, but, making the right use of the time you have.
Below are the advantages of performing good time management.
Advantages of Time Management
Now that you know the concept of time management, understand why it’s important to invest in good time management in your life. We separated a list, check it out:
- Reduce stress;
- Prevent surprises and increase the ability to deal with unforeseen circumstances;
- Increase productivity, and consequently, the number of tasks performed;
- Reduces the risks of rework when investing in a more organized routine;
- More free time to dedicate to your family and your hobbies;
- Less time and energy wasted;
- More opportunities arise;
- More time for what is really important. After all, managing time also means dedicating more time to tasks that require more attention;
Managing your own time properly, directly impacts your entire life. Its main objective is to increase productivity. That is, improving your ability to produce more, better, and in less time.
Read more: Productivity for those who want more time
In addition, good time management helps you in making decisions, and connecting with course deadlines, giving you clarity about what needs to be done.
That way, we’ve separated incredible time management techniques so you can apply and start enjoying all these benefits today. Check it out in the next topic.
Time Management Techniques
Disorganization and procrastination are two of the great villains of time management. And to escape these obstacles, there are some techniques that can help you. We list the top 4, check it out:
1. Pomodoro technique
The Pomodoro time management technique was developed in the late 1980s by an Italian university student named Francesco Cirillo. He was looking for an effective way to increase his productivity in his studies.
For this, he used a kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato (or “Pomodoro”, in Italian), and rotated for 25 minutes, making a noise at the end of that period.
In these 25 minutes, Francesco keeps concentrated on his tasks, without any interruption, remaining 100% focused.
The technique is based on dividing the workflow into blocks of intense concentration, ensuring greater stimulation of our brain. To put the technique into practice you will need:
- a stopwatch, timer, or app;
- and a list of tasks.
The task list will help you to define what needs to be done in your workday or studies.
Then you will divide your time into 25-minute periods, and work with full focus, without interruptions or distractions in those periods.
When the 25-minute period ends and your alarm sounds, take a 5-minute break. During this break you can take the time to do things that are not related to the most important task, such as: taking a coffee, making a call, going to the bathroom, where it’s even worth browsing social networks (just be careful not to exceed 5 minutes)
Every 4 cycles of 30 minutes (that is, 25 minutes of activity and 5 minutes of break), take a longer break between 15 and 30 minutes to certify oxygenation in your brain, reduce stress and overload. These breaks are important to increase mental alertness.
2. GTD technique
GTD or Getting Things Done is a technique that assumes that having greater control and clarity over what you are doing allows you to achieve better results and in less time.
For this, you need to clear your mind, recording somewhere everything you need to do. It can be in an app, a physical calendar, or a whiteboard in your office. That way, your mind is free to fully focus on performing your tasks.
This technique is divided into 5 steps:
- Collect: write down on a paper everything that needs to be done.
- Process: analyze the degree of priority and the order in which they will be made.
- Organize: separate the tasks according to the similarities between them and create an action plan.
- Execute: it’s time to focus and get your hands dirty. It’s time to “Getting Things Done”.
- Review: resume your work to mark what has already been done, and check if nothing important is left behind.
The idea is to make a real list, not a huge list, with tasks that you know you won’t be able to handle, even if you work 20 hours a day.
Read more: Organize your documents using this curious technique
3. GUT technique or process prioritization matrix
This technique is an easy-to-use and simple to understand tool that helps in the process of prioritizing problems and internal situations.
In other words, the matrix is used to classify each problem that you consider pertinent to your routine from the point of view of gravity (of the problem), of the urgency (of solving it), and of the tendency (of it to worsen quickly or slowly).
The idea is to distribute grades from 1 to 5 for each of your demands and activities. And start with the highest grade tasks. To help you determine grades, use the following criteria:
- Gravity: 5 is extremely serious, and 1 is non-serious.
- Urgency: where 5 means immediate action is needed and 1 is the activity or demand for waiting.
- Tendency: 5 will get worse quickly if an action is not taken and 1 nothing will happen.
4. Kanban time management method
Finally, the Kanban method consists of grouping tasks in a table, separating and sorting them by lists. At first, this method was created as a project management technique and is used in most applications like Asana, Trello, Click Up, and Pipefy, for example.
Through this method, it’s possible to be clear about which stage each part of the project is at. But, there is a simpler version of this technique that can be used to facilitate time management.
What you need to do is write each task on a card or post-it (manually or in an app) and change its place in the general board, according to its progress.
This technique is ideal for you who work with long processes, or if your activities involve several tasks. Moreover, it’s an ideal time management and organization tool.
In this general framework you can create lists such as “to do”, “in progress” and “completed”. This is the best technique to get an overview of how your progress is doing throughout the week.
In conclusion, what did you think of these techniques? Leave your comments in the comments. Don’t forget to share this content on your social networks.
Finally, what about learning the essentials components to set a productivity routine?
Take the opportunity to follow Organize na Pratica on Instagram, and to follow more amazing videos on the YouTube channel.
Reference material
- YouTube – Personal and Business Productivity
- Zapier – How to Automate your Business and Gain Efficiency
- Set a productivity routine – Google Calendar + Evernote + Calendly
- Organize na Pratica – Courses
