Want to maximize your time and energy on what is most important to you and minimize the time you spend on activities you don’t value? Feel like there are not enough hours in a day? Managing time wisely is the key to achieving more while spending less time.
By learning how to manage your time, you’ll be able to have a balanced life, meet deadlines and reduce stress. It’s true that with mastering the basics of time management, you can enjoy your career or studying and the same time have an active social life, interests and hobbies.
Here are the best exercises on being super productive in your life.
1. Start With the End in Mind
This effective time management exercise will help you define your intentions and set priorities to ensure that you spend time on what is essential to you. The clearer your intentions, the faster you can achieve the result. When you see the goal, you’ll try to do your best to complete the work faster and finally get what matters to you. Therefore, every task will become more meaningful.
2. Use Positive Affirmations
Try to program your subconscious mind with positive affirmations, statements that you say to yourself with enthusiasm and emotions. “I use my time well” or “I work efficiently.” Repeat these phrases to yourself over and over again. Your subconscious mind will accept these affirmations and program you to accomplish everything faster. Positivity will help you feel confident, calm, happy and in complete control.
3. Classify Your Activities
For anything you have to do, you need to create a plan. A plan which details your activities, deadlines and resources. Once you have listed all things, you need to group the similar activities together. When you clearly see this information, you will be able to define how much time you need for completing your tasks.
4. Exclude Time Wasters
Take a piece of paper and write down everything that usually interrupts you from completing your tasks: watching TV, coffee breaks, phone calls, social networks, napping, etc. Think how much time you spend on each time-wasting activity every day. You would be surprised to find out that you dedicate a large part of your day to these time wasters.
5. Evaluate the Use of Time
To analyze how you use your time, you should keep records of all the activities and the amount of time you spend on them. Then look into what takes most your time. Check whether this task is a critical one or could have been avoided. Also consider if your goals were achieved. This evaluation will help you understand whether you follow your plan and performed due to your expectations.
6. Calendar Blocking
Calendar blocking is reserving blocks of time on your calendar for some tasks. This exercise will help you become more productive and organized. To get started, you need to list the activities you have in the coming week. You may include the following commitments: study, work, exercise, doctor appointments, cleaning, holidays and birthdays, meetings, dates. Once you’ve brainstormed your list, choose the calendar tool, such as a daily planner or Microsoft Outlook, and build your own calendar. You can use highlighters or different colors to mark the activities according to their priorities. To make your calendar blocking effective, you have to hold yourself to the specified time limits.
7. Create a Reward Program
This is an amazing and motivational time management exercise. For each goal, determine a reward system when you’ll get something once you accomplish the task. You will spend time more wisely if you know that you’ll receive some benefit or prize. It can be a piece of your favorite cake, buying yourself what you want or doing something you enjoy for an hour.
8. Ask Yourself If the Daily Activities Are Helping You
This exercise will help you determine the value of your daily tasks. On one piece of paper write down the list of things that you did while you were at work or college. On another sheet of paper write down the things you expect to achieve or get in future. Compare the lists and consider if any of the things on the first one are related to any on the second list. Ask yourself if you are doing the most you can every day to achieve your goals.
9. Live Healthy
Heath is wealth. It’s never fair to yourself to work hard and don’t care of your general well-being. The best time management exercises should include the idea on health as well. Apart from having a good diet, you need to find time for relaxation, exercises and meditation. Reserving time for these activities will help you become more successful and do more in less time.