Best Time Tips for PRODUCTIVITY

There are a LOT of time management tips, tricks and hacks out there to help you be productive. Some things will work for other people but not for you, which is why it’s important to try new techniques.

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Time Tracking

Before you start time batching, blocking or anything else – time tracking might be beneficial to you. I see time tracking as more of a technique to use if you want to figure out where exactly your time is going to. It serves the same purpose as keeping track of all your expenses to see where all of your money is going.

I would recommend setting a timer to go off – every half hour, or every hour depending on how specific you want to get – then record how you spent the past hour.

Lovely example of time tracking by plantosucceed.

If you think that doing that sounds like too much work, you could just as easily track your time in an app or in the notes on your phone.

Try this exercise and you might be surprised! We don’t tend to be very good estimators of how long something will take. We’re dreading cleaning up and we think it’ll take ages – but in reality it can be done in 15 minutes. We’re looking forward to scrolling our social media and we think we’ll just scroll for a few minutes – but then an entire hour has flown by somehow.

The first key to managing your time well is understanding where your time is going.

 

 

The Pomodoro Technique

This is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo. The technique is so called because Cirillo used a tomato shaped kitchen timer at the time he started to implement it and “pomodoro” is the Italian word for tomato!

It’s really a super simple (but powerful!) technique once you get the hang of it.

The 6 Steps

1. Choose your task
2. Set your timer for 25 minutes
3. Work on your task until the timer goes off
4. Keep a tally of every time the timer goes off
5. When it goes off, take a short break (5 ish minutes)
6. Every 4 tallys – take a long break (15-30 ish minutes)

That’s pretty much it.

If you think of something else that you need to do while you’re in your pomodoro, just make a note of it on a piece of paper. You should try to stay focused on your chosen task for the entire time.

Why is this so helpful? Using the pomodoro technique can help you stop procrastinating and stop multi-tasking. You’ll be training yourself (and your brain) to focus and concentrate on one task, even if it’s only for short bursts of time. You’ll also be avoiding overwhelming yourself because a break is only ever 25 minutes away!

Don’t use your breaks to scroll social media, or watch a clip on Youtube. Use your breaks to get up and stretch, to make a cup of tea or coffee, have a healthy snack, drink some water, or maybe just to rest your eyes.

I think it’s also important to note that if the timer goes off and you’re still in the flow of what you’re doing then you should keep doing it. Many times the hardest part of a task is just getting started. Once you get started and are actually working for 25 minutes you may find that you don’t want to stop.

 
 

Task Batching

Batching is where you group similar tasks together. This productivity technique is designed to help you focus on one particular type of thing instead of multi-tasking. You generally pick a duration of time and you do specific tasks within that allotted time. You can group tasks a number of ways..

 

By Location

Instead of going into the kitchen several times during the day to wash dishes, plan a time to do it later in the day when you can knock them all out at once.

Pick a day and get all of your laundry done at once instead of doing it sporadically throughout the week (or whenever you run out of clothes).

Maybe pick a day and time to tackle your backlog of mail – be it email or physical mail. Sit down at your desk and get it all done while you’re there.

Plan to run all the errands you need to run on one day of the week. Even if you don’t need to dedicate an entire day to it, you should pick a time and get it all done at once instead of having to go out multiple times a week.

Meal prepping is also actually a form of task batching as well. You do all of your cooking tasks at the same time in the same room. When you take one night to cook all of your meals, you don’t have to cook every night.

 

By Category

It can be helpful to batch into categories instead of specifics tasks, or areas. That way it allows for flexibility in what you’re doing during that time.

Here are a few example categories:

• housework (cleaning up, organizing, laundry, vacuuming..)
• creative (writing, drawing, reading, photography..)
• admin (paying bills, paper work..)
• correspondence (making phone calls, sending emails, mailing letters..)
• errands (grocery shopping, car maintenance..)
• romance (undivided together time..)
• social media (replying to comments, making posts..)
• food (meal planning, cooking, eating…)

 

 

 

By Duration

Many of us lead busy lives so sometimes it can be helpful to group your your tasks by how long they will take instead. While cleaning your entire house is a daunting burden that you might have a lot of difficulty finding the time for – there are smaller things that you can do to help you move towards that goal.

If you set a timer, you might actually be surprised at how many things you can get done in even a short period of time.
 

15 minutes task ideas and examples

• wash a few dishes or load/empty your dishwasher
• sweep the floors
• vacuum one room
• change your sheets
• wipe the counter tops
• clean out your purse, wallet or bag
• clean our your car
• empty your email inbox

It doesn’t just have to be cleaning tasks either, you could…

• use a facial mask
• do stretches or yoga poses
• get in some quick cardio
• water your plants
• read a chapter or two of book
• make a smoothie or quick meal
• plan your day
• write a grocery list
• walk your dog (if you have one)
• meditate

 

By Time

Work with your own daily rhythms. No one knows you better than you. Are you more productive in the morning? Maybe you feel most creative when the moon is out. Schedule things for yourself appropriately.

It can be wise to take a couple of days to track how you’re feeling throughout the day – no one is up and at 100% all day every day. Try doing a personal energy audit and check in with yourself throughout the day to see how you’re feeling. Keep track of both your physical and mental energy.

I’m sure you’ve heard of “that 2:30 feeling“ in a commercial, or somewhere else. A lot of people (myself included) experience a big dip in energy around this time of day. Maybe it’s the same for you, maybe it’s not.

I do find 2:30 to be an excellent time to take a cat nap

Or maybe you have lots of obligations during the day so there are only a few windows in which you can fit in your tasks. I don’t have any children, but I understand that if you do, they take up a lot of your time. Try to think of little spaces that you can sneak in an extra few minutes, even if it’s only for a moment of “you time“.
 

 
 

Time is nonrefundable. Spend it wisely.

 

Eat the Frog

Thankfully not literally.

It means do the thing that’s most difficult, or that you’re dreading doing FIRST. Get it out of the way and even if you don’t get anything else done – you will have gotten the troublesome but important task out of the way. Putting it off with only make you drag your feet in an effort (subconscious or not) to avoid getting to that task at all.

Often the most difficult task is the most important task. Identify which of your tasks is the frog. The one thing that if you get it done today and that’s all you get done, you’ll still feel accomplished. Then eat it / do it!
 
 

Two Minute Rule

The two minute rule is a super simple time management “hack” to overcome procrastination. The idea is that if a task takes two minutes or less to complete – to just do it!

However, it is so simple that it can be easy to use it incorrectly. The two minute task you do should be in someway related to the thing that you’re already doing.

Basically, if you are writing a paper and suddenly remember that you wanted to put a load of clothes into the washer – don’t do that. That’s just productive procrastination, which is still procrastination!

If while you’re writing a paper you suddenly remember that you wanted to add a reference – do that. Don’t rely on remembering to do it later, just get it done now.

You might be thinking that there are very few tasks that can take you under two minutes, but you might be surprised..

 
 

Time Blocking

Also known as calendar blocking, you literally schedule your day in blocks of time. Each of these blocks represents a task or group or tasks. It’s one way to reduce to amount of multitasking that you do.
 

 
You dedicate one time block to work that you have to do on the computer and stay at the computer. It’s better than switching between working on the computer and working around the house. Knock out all of the computer tasks at once, then move on to the cleaning stuff. Your brain will thank you.

If you’re just getting started, be sure to not time block away all of your day – or if you do, make sure you schedule in both down time and flex time. We as humans aren’t very good estimators of how long things will take. If you’re going to be blocking your time, always OVER estimate how long you think something will take. Usually we give ourselves what we think will be the perfect amount of time to do something, but that doesn’t leave any room for the unexpected! Also don’t forget to consider time for prep or travel as needed.

Over-scheduling yourself is going to do the opposite of what time blocking is supposed to do – Stress you out! I have to admit, my own life hasn’t gotten quite hectic enough to need this system. But if you are juggling a lot of responsibilities it might be just what you need.

 
 

Theme your days

This technique works much better if you aren’t someone who is tied to a desk at a 9 to 5 job most days of the week. Which explains why it’s particularly popular with millionaire CEO of both Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey. But you don’t need to be a big-shot to theme your days.
 

 
Maybe one day your theme will be errands. You’ll run all the errands that you need to run for the week or month in that one day. Another day your theme might be relaxing and you just take that day off.

Or you could dedicate a day to something bigger like working on your side hustle, writing your book or doing whatever project that you really want to get done.

 
 

No Multitasking

As I mentioned in Treat Yo Self Well, multitasking is not a real thing. Your brain is just quickly switching between tasks and losing a bit of efficacy every time that it does. You might do a decent job on all of the things you’re trying to do at once – but you won’t do the best job on any of them. Multitasking is a myth.

Just a myth, like mermaids (sadly)

When you’re multitasking you may feel productive. But you’re not. Studies of media multitasking show you actually get worse at multitasking the more you do it. Likely due to the fact that the more multitasking you do, the more vulnerable to you are to being distracted.

You’re more likely to make mistakes when you’re multitasking too. That’s because each time you switch between tasks you slow down your brain just a tiny bit. So stop. Concentrate on doing the thing you’re doing. Do it well. Then move on to the next thing.
 

 

Rest

It may seem counter-intuitive to take breaks during your work, but taking regular breaks are actually very important for your productivity.

“Micro-breaks, lunchtime breaks and longer breaks, have all been shown to have a positive relationship with wellbeing and productivity. By taking regular breaks you can boost your performance.”

via The Wellbeing Thesis.
 

 
If you are well rested you will get more things done. You will get better quality things done. Sometimes the best thing to do is to step back from the issue you’re trying to solve and let your subconscious work on it.
 

“When you get tired learn to rest not to quit” – Banksy

 
So take a rest. Do something to recharge yourself. You might have a million things to do during the day and people to take care of but make sure that you at least schedule in one something just for you during the day as well. Go for a walk outside, do some jumping jacks, take a power nap, drink a bottle of water, drink some coffee, meditate.. do whatever is going to recharge your batteries. You know yourself best.
 
 

 
Those are the last of the best tips for managing your time for productivity! No one time tip is better than the others, just different – like all of us ✨ I hope you found something that really helped you out. If you have any of your own time tricks that I didn’t happen to mention please leave them in a comment below!

I also think that it’s worth noting that anytime I try to make my plans too strict, too structured and rigid.. the universe does love to step in and remind me that even the most meticulous plans are not immune to life, luck, or the natural chaos of the world. All we can do when unexpected things come up is accept then and adapt to them. When things disrupt your plans try to release your illusion of control. None of us can control time or other people, only ourselves.

 
 

 

 
Those are some of the best tips for managing your time for productivity! It all starts with observing how you use your time and then working with yourself. No one time tip is better than the others, just different – like all of us ✨ I hope you found something that really helped you out, but you can continue reading if you didn’t.

I also think that it’s worth noting that anytime I try to make my plans too strict, too structured and rigid.. the universe does love to step in and remind me that even the most meticulous plans are not immune to life, luck, or the natural chaos of the world. All we can do when unexpected things come up is accept then and adapt to them. When things disrupt your plans try to release your illusion of control. None of us can control time or other people, only ourselves.

 

 
 
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