Top 5 Tips To Improve Time Management And Productivity
Too often people have the misconception that to improve time management takes extreme amount of work and requires having a boot camp like life style. Well, to be totally honest with you to improve your time management doesn’t even take a fraction of what I just mentioned to you. In fact, it’s actually quite easy and can be achieved in matter of weeks, even days.
The pain and frustration that you are experiencing from being in this rut can be solved, but will take some effort.
Many of these techniques exist on the internet, but with the growth of the internet and the flood of new users, the web has overflowed with wrong information.
As a way to help fight this issue and provide real advice to others, I’ve listed 5 super simple, yet highly powerful methods on the quickest and most effective ways to improve time management and productivity:
1.) Select Your TWO Most Valueable Tasks to Put Down On Paper
Doing this is so crucial because the simple act of writing and seeing your 2 -most valueable- tasks on paper will instantly force you to cut through the lesser important tasks and focus on brining those two tasks to completion. For instance, your 2 -most valueable- tasks are the ones that generate you the most money, make you the happiest, or anything that enhances your current situation.
So by you writing or typing down your 2 most important tasks you’re mind will understand its level of value, which will then pull you into action.
2.) Focus on just ONE Thing
The reason you should consider focusing on just one thing when working or doing anything is because research has shown that the human mind is at it’s most powerful state when fully focused on ONE thing at a time.
I wholeheartedly believe this statement and the main reason is because I’ve experienced it and actually felt the difference and my time management dramatically improve. Also, I’m sure you can easily relate to this too, because if you look at times when you were constantly off focus and changing from one task to the next with your mind racing a million miles per hour, you experienced a horrible feeling of being overwhelmed, realizing you were not being productive at all.
In the beginning, you probably thought that by multitasking you were able to get a lot of important things done and become more productive, but your results told a completely different story.
This idea is one that His Holiness the Dalai Lama passionately which can be understood through his statement, -A scattered mind does not have much power. When channelized, no matter what the object of observation is, the mind is very powerful.-
3.) Don’t Rush .
Many people have the belief that if they get as many things done as possible in a short amount of time it will mean that they are effectively being productive. But in fact, the opposite is true. So, you should never try to rush through your tasks to completion throughout the day. This kind of strategy can backfire and leave you having to back-peddle and fix things you may have neglected by cutting corners.
4.) Reward Yourself
Whenever you finish a tough project treat yourself.
Treat yourself to some ice cream, a glass of wine, or anything that meets your craving.
Constantly doing this and making it into a habit will motivate you and make you WANT to get more things done, which will dramatically improve time management.
5.) Avoid the Temptation to Overwork
By putting in extra time in the office or staying up all night til’ 3 A.M. working on your business you may feel that you’re being productive but the fact of the matter is that when you work for a long period of time and slave away at something all you’re doing is actually become more -unproductive.-
Taking a little break to relax and compose yourself or a day off once in a while will lead to much better results in the long term.
It is vital for you to refresh your mind and body so that you can perform at your optimal level. To achieve this just takes for you to realize that just taking a break for a period of time is the solution to it all. If it’s a tough project or issue that you just can’t seem to find the answer to, just stop completely and leave all your work on your desk and take a break to go do something fun or relaxing. Trust me, there’s literally no better feeling than coming back to a difficult situation with your mind and body reenergized ready to solve the task that caused you to have so much anger and frustration.
Okay, so there’s 5 effective, yet simple ways to improve time management and productivity. Apply it as soon as you get into the office tomorrow or into your home office. The sooner you start the faster it will become a habit and allow you to see amazing results. Take action and enjoy your new found extra time
Thanks for this.
I’m also a big believer in writing down tasks. It seems to help put things into perspective, and takes the emotion out of the situation.
In terms of time management and productivity, writing tasks down reduces the ‘stimulus-reaction’ approach that leads to doing whatever makes the most noise at the expense of what’s really important.