Habits and tools to adopt to better manage your time

How do you manage your time well?

Time management is one of the highly appreciated training modules, both for everyday life and in the professional context. But how do you achieve this and maintain a certain consistency in your habits?

Why manage your time well?

” Time flies and takes with it everything we let slip away. ” - An old proverb

So is it possible to be able to control the passage of time? Probably not. On the other hand, we can better manage your time to finish what you planned at the beginning, for example for the next day. By neglecting the “time factor”, we are quickly caught up by the sound of the clock reminding us that certain tasks were not completed on time. However, we often forget that in time management, we must also Give yourself moments of respite. Reminders to order must therefore Take into account the breaks between two activities. These same reminders should challenge us how essential it is to take a vacation from time to time.Better time management, especially that allocated to work, also has multiple advantages:

• A gain in productivity and efficiency: taking a break or taking a vacation allows us to have a clearer and more relaxed vision of the missions that await us.
• Time for yourself: better managing your time should also benefit yourself, before doing it for others.
• A stop to stress: time management helps not to drown in the stress of racing against time. Less stress frees the mind from the weight of uncertainty.

What can you do to better manage your time?

Time management is individual. Indeed, there is no specific formula that allows you to really Organize your schedule like music paper. The simplest method is to to organize and to be self-disciplined. Which brings us to 4 points:

• Get organized.
• Set personal goals.
• Chase procrastination.
• Know how to say no.

What is good organization?

Organization is the basis for good time management. Running after two hares (if not more) does not rhyme with efficiency. A busy schedule doesn't mean productivity either. Ideally, you should develop your agenda in such a way as to ensure that there is enough time to carry out all the planned activities. Likewise, travel should be organized in such a way as to group the appointments that will take place in the same neighborhood. For example, if you plan to go to the hairdresser who is not far from a supermarket, you can take the opportunity to do your shopping after the beauty ritual.

How do you set personal goals?

Know how to better manage your time does not at all mean doing what others want. It is a challenge that you set for yourself. By defining clear objectives in advance, you can already see yourself as a winner. To do this, we set goals SMART : simple, measurable, achievable, realistic and defined in time. In short, you should not “have your eyes bigger than your stomach.”

In addition, it is possible to Set achievable goals per day, per week, or per month. The key is to ensure that each determined objective is in line with the time available. Example:

• Go to bed no later than 9 p.m.
• Jogging twice a week for 45 minutes per session.
• Clean the garage next Sunday.
• Etc.

What is procrastinating?

According to the dictionary Larousse, To procrastinate is to have “a tendency to postpone, to put off systematically until tomorrow” the tasks to be done. Result: the next day, we end up with an activity that is added to the list of what we have to do. And procrastination is becoming a real Action brake.

Moreover, in terms of productivity, we can no longer meet deadlines, which contributes to increasing the workload and therefore the mental load. Procrastination must therefore be one of the bad habits to abandon in order to better manage your time.

Saying “no” yes, but how?

Saying no does not mean being incompetent. On the contrary, refusal reflects the realism of a person who inspires respect. Of course, everything depends on the context. But if you feel that you have enough tasks to manage, you have the right to refuse additional activity. The best solution is to delegate or postpone the execution of this requested task.

Useful methods for time management

Demonstrating consistency in the approach is the main time management challenge. Just like on a diet, a simple deviation is a trap. To achieve your goals and manage your time well, there are various time management methods and tools. The most complicated thing will be choosing the one that best fits the situation.

Getting Things Done or GTD

In French, make sure you have finished everything on time. The GTD method consists of acting in 5 steps:

• Determine what needs to be done.
• Analyze the need to act.
• Organize tasks according to their degree of urgency or importance.
• Check that everything is going according to plan.
• Act according to the results of the audit.

The first stage of the GTD is the most difficult since it is identify all the tasks to be completed. As soon as possible, we can only congratulate ourselves on having a more informed vision of the 4 steps that follow.

Make a to-do-list

Developing a to-do-list almost summarizes the first step of the GTD method mentioned above. In other words, it's a question of making a list of tasks that need to be done. The complexity of this method lies in the tendency to want overload your schedule. To remedy this, it is better to take some time by:

• Listing all the activities to do.
• Giving a degree of priority to each task.
• Categorizing tasks according to their urgency.

The Pomodoro Technique

Having become essential in the last decade, the technique Pomodoro was developed in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo. This method of time management requires Focus on one activity at a time for 25 minutes. Then, you take a short break before starting a new concentration session for another 25 minutes. The Pomodoro technique is excellent for effectively fighting procrastination. It turns out that the brain reaches its maximum level of attention after 25 minutes on an activity.