Manage your time to reduce stress, raise productivity, and increase well-being with these tips.
![[Featured image] A black woman and white man stand in front of several calendars discussing time management.](https://d3njjcbhbojbot.cloudfront.net/api/utilities/v1/imageproxy/https://images.ctfassets.net/wp1lcwdav1p1/7F3mkv42tw2RxhlMXlpmBh/4d2179b2b133e040f67114952716de80/GettyImages-680316205.png?w=1500&h=680&q=60&fit=fill&f=faces&fm=jpg&fl=progressive&auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=1&w=1000)
In school, work, and daily life, we may encounter people who seem to have it all together. They are productive, stress-free, high achievers. But chances are, they were not born that way. Managing, organizing, and distributing time are skills that we can learn. Doing so can help you control your time and promote overall satisfaction.
Explore some tips and methods that can help you harness your time for better well-being.
Time management is the process of consciously planning and controlling time spent on specific tasks to increase how efficient you are. You may be familiar with setting deadlines, writing to-do lists, and giving yourself small rewards for accomplishing certain activities.
Motivating ourselves is a core part of time management鈥攁nd it takes a bit of effort not only to motivate yourself but to cultivate good habits to work and live more efficiently.
To develop good routines and habits, you can start by knowing what strategies and best practices are out there. You can experiment with them in your own life to see what works for you.
Good time management can lead to a healthy, balanced lifestyle that may manifest as:
Reducing stress
Increasing energy
Achieving goals more efficiently
Prioritizing what's important
Accomplishing more in less time
Reducing procrastination
Boosting confidence
Getting further in your career or education
At the core of time management methods are the basic skills of awareness, arrangement, and adaptation. This means being mindful of your time, structuring it, and adjusting it as you go is the secret to effective time management. Executives now point to behavioral skills as the most important for the modern workforce, with 鈥渢ime management skills and the ability to prioritize鈥 ranking second in IBM鈥檚 skills gap survey [].
Sometimes, rewards and good intentions are not enough to keep us focused. An app or browser extension can help you minimize distractions by blocking you from using social media or touching your phone. Some apps and extensions you can try include:
is an app that helps you stay focused and off your phone. The company partners with an organization called Trees for the Future to plant trees when you spend virtual coins earned in Forest.
is a browser extension that prevents you from using time-wasting websites like Reddit, Twitter, Wikipedia, Instagram, and more. It鈥檚 highly configurable, so you can customize it to your specific distractions.
is a tool that can block websites and apps on all of your devices simultaneously. Take advantage of its free trial to see if it鈥檚 right for you.
Download on your desktop or the app for your phone.
Now that you know more about time management, it鈥檚 time to create a strategy. You might experiment with several techniques before establishing the most effective long-term habits and routines.听
Consider your lifestyle, whether you are a student or a working professional (or both), whether you have a family or aspire to become a digital nomad (or both!). Think of your long- and short-term goals for your career and personal development. Make sure the goals are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. What will it take to achieve them? How can you manage your time to maximize your productivity?
Once you have established your goals, prioritize them in order of importance. Visualizing them using Post-its or pen and paper may be helpful.
Using the list of tips above, decide upon a method or two to implement. Based on what has worked for you in the past, you can mix and match different time management skills. If you are unsure which ones will work for you, pick one randomly and try it.
Apply your chosen method over a period of time. A month is typically enough time to evaluate whether a strategy is working. Over 30 days, monitor your progress. Take notes on how you feel after one or two weeks. Was one method more effective than the other?聽
Use a physical planner, Google calendar, or a simple notebook to set your monthly and weekly goals. For daily tasks, write a to-do list every morning with achievable (Swiss Cheese) goals. Feel free to buffer your days for flexibility and sprinkle in plenty of little rewards.
After one month of your new time management methods, it鈥檚 time to reassess. What鈥檚 working? What鈥檚 not working? Adjust your strategy and plan to be more effective. Continue to practice these habits each month, adapting them as your priorities change. What works for you when you are a student may not be the same as when you start a new job.
Remember, practicing time management is an ongoing process, and life happens. It鈥檚 about progress, not perfection.
With 糖心vlog官网观看 Plus, you can learn and earn credentials at your own pace from over 170 leading companies and universities. You鈥檒l gain access to over 10,000 programs with a monthly or annual subscription. Check the course page to confirm your selection is included.听聽
Dillard, Annie. 鈥, https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Writing_Life.html?id=it8NwjEKwCMC." Accessed October 5, 2024.
IBM. 鈥, https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/epymnbja." Accessed October 5, 2024.
American Psychological Association. 鈥, https://www.apa.org/topics/research/multitasking." Accessed October 5, 2024.
Editorial Team
糖心vlog官网观看鈥檚 editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...
This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.