12 Ways to Manage Time Better and Boost Productivity.

Hey sassy females.

Are you ready to dive into some investigating today? Ok, let’s go.

Firstly I want to present to you evidence, in the form of statistics, with regards to managing time. (I mean which detective doesn’t love good old-fashioned stats! Ya’ feel me?)

• The full-time employee works an average of 8.5 hours per weekday and 5.4 hours per day on the weekend. (BLS 2019)
• The average employee only works for 3 minutes before switching to another task.  (Atlassian 2019)
• The average worker checks emails and IM every 6 minutes. (Rescue Time 2019)
• Watching tv is the most enjoyed form of leisure, accounting for 2.8 hours per day. That works out to 42.6 days per year! (BLS 2019)

                  F**************ck!!

So my question to you is how many hours in a day do YOU need? 10? 30? 52?

Well, let me tell you what the correct answer is. It’s 24.

Uhmm…why?

*Because that’s how the earth works in relation to the sun. Distance from the sun and the speed at which earth rotates are why earth days are 24hrs long. If the Earths distance from the sun was changed, our days would be longer or shorter because the speed at which Earth rotates would be different. *

Therefore, don’t argue with science.  

And also, what’s wrong with 24 hours?!

If we Homo Sapiens slept for say 6 to 8 hours a day, then on average we have 16 – 18 hours to accomplish what needs to be done on a daily basis.

However some people (including my former self), go about this in the wrong way and we end up overwhelmed and swearing our cats and dogs by the time 16 shitty hours have gone by because we are dead tired from working “too hard” (but not getting much done or getting TOO MUCH done) and feeling mentally drained.

 So how do we go about this in the RIGHT WAY? 

How do we manage our time to boost productivity?

A clock depicting time.

Well, here are 12 ways you can do it. (And I know you can!)

1. CUT DOWN ON TASKS THAT ARE NOT USEFUL.

You really don’t need to spend 2 -3 hours a day working on your car or learning new recipes or 'networking on social media.' While those are enjoyable tasks they can quickly eat into your time. (Unless those are your professions then go ahead.) 

Split your time into tasks that you NEED TO FOCUS on, the ones that will help you achieve your daily AND long term goals. For example, do you want to be an author? Assign 2-3 hours, maybe more, a day writing and another hour for reading. You want to be a bossbabe? Spend more time reading and learning about success and business and then start growing your business. 
Break these tasks up and give the most time to things that will lead you to be successful.

2. DO THE IMPORTANT AND CHALLENGING TASKS FIRST.

This is because we have the most energy at the earlier parts of the day. So when you plan out your duties, and if you’re able to, make sure to get the most “intense” ones out first. Also, once those are done, you can relax a bit more knowing the other tasks won’t be too much of an added strain as the day progresses. (And you also cuss less.)

3. FOCUS ON THE TASK AT HAND.

Ok this is important so come nearer and listen!
When you are doing a task, especially one that will aid you in your business or goal, you have to focus!!! Got it?

Say you’re writing a report for a client. You’ve assigned yourself 3 hours to work on this project. That means during those 3 hours, you need to put your phone away, turn laptop off, lock hubby in the cupboard (ok that last one is a joke, please don’t take it seriously!) and anything else that will cause distraction. Because, and this is proven fact, if we leave our phone nearby, we might end up looking at it every 10 minutes and if there’s a message on there we will end up taking another 5 minutes to reply or think about what to reply etc. So that means during those 3 hours we end up working for only 2 hours, leaving us an hour behind in our goals. This also means we are NOT being as productive as we can be.

Another point to note is that, if your tasks require more than hour, you should take a small 5/10 minute break every 1.5 hours. Just so that you don’t mentally fatigue yourself. (The mind can only focus at 1.5 hours at a time.) But once you are back at your task, always remember to FULLY FOCUS.

Via Giphy. Source: gifs.tastefullyoffensive.com

4. GIVE EACH TASK A TIME LIMIT.

Don’t work past your SET time trying to finish tasks as you will end up frustrated and stressed and very little will get done. Be wise in how you set a time limit to each task. If something requires 6 hours to finish in three days then assign 2 hours a day to it. Once those 2 hours are done, move onto your next task. You’ve got another day to come back to it if you don’t finish. Doing this ensures you fulfil everything you set out to do for the day. (And therefore that glass of wine or hot tea at 8pm becomes deserved.)

5. FIND INSPIRATIONS.

Life is mostly about routine. We all get up at certain time, do a certain thing, attend to people in our lives and go to sleep around the same time. That’s the pattern we humans need to survive and thrive. But sometimes we get bored with redundancy. There’s nothing wrong with getting bored and there’s nothing wrong with routine. 

But we do need to “renew” our passions for what we do every now and then. And to do that we need to find inspirations to ignite us. This can be done through reading, observing, meeting people, learning from people, spending time with loved ones, nature, taking time off to relax and revive, bungee jumping etc. Basically anything that inspires you to sustain that flame you have for your goals, so that your task for each day doesn’t feel like a ‘chore’ but more of an efficient and blissful way to spend your time.

6. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.

Firstly let’s talk sleep. An adequate amount of sleep people need is between 6 -8 hours. You know yourself and what hours of sleep you need in order to perform at your best the next day. If 6 hours is always making you tired go for 7 hours etc. (You’re a life detective, I’m sure you realised that one! Duh!) Sleep is ESSENTIAL. You’ve read it before I’m sure, and now I’m re-iterating it again:- Without sleep you may end up with health issues as well as fatigue. And fatigue can prevent you from being able to complete all your duties in a timely manner. Ever fell asleep while vacuuming? 

You also should eat healthy, drink plenty of water, (if you don’t like the taste of water add a slice of lemon or chuck berries into it to give it more of a ‘flavour’ but make sure you’re hydrating), exercise and meditate. All of these wonderful activities will give you the physical and mental boost and revitalisation you need to stay on track and on time for all of your plans.

7. USE A DAILY PLANNER

You know those notebooks where you jot down your tasks for each day? Yeah, you’re going to need one of those! Daily planners help guide your memory on what task to fulfill next and at what time etc. It’s extremely useful and I do recommend having one so that you can keep track of all your duties. Psst..(Detectives love to make notes! How else would they find the killer?!). And because a daily planner doesn’t have to be boring, you can also read my blog here on fun ways to use a daily planner to be more efficient! https://jade-brey.blogspot.com/2020/02/how-to-use-daily-planner-in-fun-and.html?m=1

8. ASK FOR HELP

If you see that your daily list is quite long and you regularly feel overwhelmed and exhausted by bedtime, then it’s time to ask for help. And there is nothing wrong with that! Even if you feel that the person won’t do the job as scrupulously as you, that’s OK, ask for help because you will need it! You can(demand), politely ask for aid from your spouse, kids, roommate, work colleagues, family or friends. That way you can focus on the tasks at hand that you really need to.

9. UTILISE YOUR WAITING TIME.

You’re waiting to fetch your kids from school, you’re waiting for your lift to pick you up, waiting for the doctor to see you to check on that overgrown armpit boil etc. These waits can sometimes stretch to 15 minutes or more. During those times, I like to read. Usually blogs, news or anything that’s useful to me. I also love to solve online mysteries! :) In this way, I know I’m using my time effectively to inform myself, train my brain or learn something that can aid me in my goals. This is also something YOU can do to manage time better.

10. SCHEDULE TIME FOR “PLAY”

Yes, that’s right! Playing is as important as working. So take that lunch break that’s been allocated to you! Refresh and enjoy and spend it laughing, socialising, reading or doing whatever you want that makes you relax. You should also delegate some time to unwinding in the evening. For example what I like to do is cut off all work after 8pm on a weekday, after 6pm on a Friday and Saturday night (whooohoooo) and then spend most of Sunday chilling out. (Gone are my hungover Sundays! Ha!)

This is because we all need to step away from work at intervals and spend time with ourselves (self-love), with family, friends, or our significant other. This is an important way of utilising time as it allows you to grow internally or connect with those around you and helps rejuvenate your mind so that when it’s time to work again, you’re ready!

11. LEAVE SOME TIME BETWEEN TASKS

What this means is, DON'T schedule your plan in this fashion: 
9PM -11PM, write.
11PM-12PM, exercise. 
12PM -1PM, lunch.
1PM-3PM, edit etc etc.

If you write down your tasks straight from one to the next you won’t be accounting for time travel and other little activities. This can set you back ten or fifteen minutes which means the hour you delegated for a specific task will have to be stuffed into 40 minutes. You might not finish on time and then the chaos begins. 

So rather set a few minutes between each task depending on how long it will take to get from one to the next. This ensures you have the full hours dedicated to what you need to do and hence manage time better. Yay!

12. BATCH SIMILAR TASKS TOGETHER

If you are running a few errands and picking people up then assign these tasks timeously after each other. That way all your driving around is done at one time, say in the morning. Or if you need to do some writing on a few different topics then assign your writing activities one after the other while your creative juices are flowing. This is a very effective way of making the most of your time!

So dear sleuths there you have it! If time management has always been a problem to you and judging from stats, I would say that it can be, heck it was even a fu*kn' problem for me once upon a time, then do some internal investigating and use the solutions above.

This is what has greatly helped me on my journey and I’m certain it will assist you too! I think for this I can safely say we have cracked the code!