Do you, from time to time, find yourself unable to keep up and to maintain the pace at which you work? Have you ever felt that the tasks to do are far more in number than the hours on a clock? Well, this happens to all of us, at some points in life. In this fast-paced world where we have too many things to do, managing our time can be a struggle. Research says that people who manage their time well are more productive and remain highly motivated towards completing their tasks. Being able to manage one’s time is probably one of the greatest skills a person can have and the sooner you learn it, the better. Being able to do this from right when you are 20 something can have pretty fruitful effects on your success later in life.
Following are some of the time management hacks that every 20 something (busy and caught up in the daily tasks and chores) must know and do:
- Prioritize.
Ok, so you have a big assignment, an exam, a presentation and an important meeting coming up. All need to be done within a certain time period. It’s taxing and stressful to pay equal attention to all these tasks so to avoid the mental and physical strain prioritize your work. Put the important and the highly urgent ones on the top of your ‘to-do’ list and work upon it. Not only will you be able to do things in a proper and organized manner but also will be able to do justice to each task. - Make a timetable (a realistic one).
I know a few people who during the exam time make time tables hoping that they would manage their time and cover every subject properly. Now this is a good thing, to make a time table and to limit oneself to a particular task, however, being realistic while making a time table is very crucial. You can’t expect yourself to study/work for 10 hours straight and get fruitful outcomes. Even 3-4 hours of ‘quality’ work is more than enough and remember to give breaks to your mind and your body. It’ll help you in concentrating better.
IMA Cadets - Review your performance on a weekly basis.
Make a list of whatever work you were supposed to do and then see how much of it you’ve actually done. This way you will know and realise how many tasks you’ve completed and much work you’ve done to meet your goals. It’ll give you a reality check and make sure that you stick to the schedule and follow the plan/ time table that you’ve prepared for yourself. Once a week passes by, make another plan for the following week. It acts as a great motivator. - Set deadlines to each task.
Time yourself when you are doing a task. For example, if you are working on a presentation and you feel it’ll take you 4 hours to make it then limit yourself to 2 hours. You’ll be amazed that you usually would be able to complete the task within the deadline you’ve set for yourself. - Separate time for tasks which require different mental alertness.
In a day there’s only so much that you can do. After working for hours your mind and brain will just give up and it’s not very advisable to do things that require mental alertness and strategic way of working, for that that period of the day. So, while you are mentally charged up do the tasks that require that much mental activity and save the easy/ not difficult tasks for when you are mentally exhausted. - Do that ‘one important thing’ of the day.
You’ll always find yourself burdened with a dozens of tasks in a day, however, there be that one thing that is highly important and must be done. So do it. Every day limit yourself to do 1-2 most important tasks and then do the tasks according to your priority list. Don’t keep the important tasks in the backlog. - Write it all down.
Take the post its sticky notes and on each post it write down the tasks that are in your backlog, the tasks that you’ve just started, tasks that are half completed, tasks that are almost done and lastly tasks that you’ve completed. This will give you a holistic view of much work you have done and still have to do. You can use this list to set your time table and deadlines. - Don’t compromise on your sleep.
Compromising on one’s sleep seems to be the favourite and most common alternative when one is running out of time but needs to get work done. When you are 20 something you might be able to pull this off however this often leads to major disorders and problems at later stages in life. Moreover, the attention level and the effectiveness of the work output is also compromised. So give your mind and body the sleep it requires.
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