“I’m crazy busy”. “I’m completely slammed”. “I just don’t have time to do this right now”. Almost all of us feel an incredible amount of pressure during our daily lives to be productive but there never seems like there is enough time. Most need help with Time Management or schedules and likely made New Years Resolutions to focus on prioritization. We’re almost into March at this point, so how are things going?
It is common for productivity issues and improper time management to get the best of us after a month or two – especially during a pandemic where many of us are stuck at home. Instead of letting poor habits continue to wreck your schedule, here are six-time management tips to help you reset your focus as we move into March.
Step 1: Create a Closing Routine
Your morning and closing routine go hand in hand. It is crucial to close out your day with a routine and to-do list to prevent unexpected tasks from bleeding over into the morning. This also creates a separation between work and home life (especially as many more are working from home). An example would like this:
- Clear out your emails
- Delete the junk mail
- Mark the unimportant unread
- Quickly knock-out the 2 min tasks and respond
- Create tomorrow’s To-Do List
- Identify your Most Important Task (MIT) for tomorrow
- Adjust schedule as necessary for activities that must be completed tomorrow
For emails that require a more in-depth response, respond to the person letting them know when you will get to it, and follow up. Clear communication around expectations is critical to the balance between serving your clients and maintaining your sanity.
Generally, the 24-hour rule for responses is typically good, people get demanding even quicker than that. But the good part is that, when you tell them that you have a plan and you DO it and GET BACK TO THEM, they respect your time. They want to know you aren’t ignoring them and that they matter to what you are doing
Step 2 – Cleaning your Workspace
Depending on your personality, this can vary. While studies show that creatives like a messy workspace, most people benefit from keeping a clean space to stay focused. Cleaning up allows you to focus when you come back tomorrow morning, allowing you to start fresh and focused.
Step 3: Getting Quality Sleep
There are numerous studies that show both the short and long-term consequences of not getting adequate sleep. It has been found that reducing your daily sleep by only 1.5 hours could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32 percent. This lack of alertness has also been shown to hinder how we think and process information, meaning drops in productivity and procrastination
If getting quality sleep is tough for you, here are a few bedtime tips to help you get that 7-9 hours of sleep:
- Maintain a regular bedtime and wake time schedule.
- Establish a bedtime routine that helps with winding down.
- Create an environment that is conducive for sleeping
- Avoid caffeine in the late afternoon
- Stay off your phone for at least an hour before going to bed.
Step 4: Mindfulness
It’s essential to start each day by taking time for yourself to practice mindfulness. Rolling out of bed, pulling out your phone, and jumping straight into emails can set you off on the wrong foot, creating stress on your system even as you are still half-conscious and waking up. Instead, begin your morning with a brief meditation to set your mind in a calm focus and prepare you for the workday. Meditation can come in many forms, whether an actual meditation or something as simple as going for a walk without your phone.
Five minutes is all you need – we recommend using Calm and Headspace apps to guide this.
Step 5: Most Important Tasks First!
MIT. Eat the Frog. Hard Things First. This can be referred to as many things, but the concept never changes. Start your day by completing the most important task of the day. This comes first BEFORE anything else in the day. As Tim Ferris – productivity master – says, “If you win the morning, you win the day!”
Dedicate the first 2 hours of each day solely to getting the most important thing on your to-do list complete first. Focus on the hard things first. If you are a manager, this may require starting your day earlier so you can get your MIT done before your team starts their day and requests begin to flow.
Step 6: Tackle emails at scheduled times
We’ve all been there; nothing can be more overwhelming than an overflowing inbox. While it may seem life or death, the reality is that wasting too much time on emails is distracting. Instead, dedicate specific times out of your day to check your email. Instead of periodically opening your inbox or answering emails as they come in, try this method:
- Start with checking email 3x/day.
- First – After you completed your MIT
- Second – after your Lunch break.
- Third – Last thing of the day before you call it a day
Once you master this, you may be able to scale back even further. If you are in a sales role, depending on your tasks that day, you may be forced to be in your inbox more often. But it would help if you used automation to help your time management as much as possible.
It can be easy to get off track on goals and resolutions. The key is to reset and try your best to properly manage your time. Keep the routines simple so that they become a habit. And, don’t wait until tomorrow to get started on the improvements!