Everyone knows at least one person who always seems to have their life together. They get up early, eat right, power through their workload and leave work at the end of the day with a smile on their face as they head off to the gym. Those people just have it figured it out, and if they can do it, so can the rest of us.
Managing your time is one of the easiest and simultaneously hardest things to master, so to make your year a little smoother, we’ve put together ten easy hacks to help you manage your time like a boss.
#1 Use a day planner or a diary
Write it all down. Instead of fishing for the information from the deep corners of your brain that is already full, note down what you need to do each day in a diary. Especially important for meetings or urgent tasks.
#2 Get enough sleep
You can’t get enough done in the day if you’re constantly yawning and running off to get a hit of caffeine. Try going to bed earlier so you get between seven to eight hours each night.
#3 Give yourself extra time
This may seem counterproductive, but giving yourself an hour for a task that may only take thirty – forty minutes will give you a buffer if something pops up unexpected. If you smash out your task, it will be a little bit of extra time to have a mini break and make a cup of tea before moving on to the next thing.
#4 Learn to prioritise
Knowing what is important and what can be left until later in the week is one of the best ways to tick of your list each day.
#5 Arrive early
It’s pretty simple, if you want to get more done in a day and you’re already started to master your time, then you need to spend an extra hour in the office. Even getting to work fifteen – twenty minutes earlier will give you time to settle in so you can get cracking into your work day as soon as your start time hits.
#6 Focus on one job at a time
Sometimes it seems like you might be more productive if you work on two or three tasks at once, but what ends up happening is you finish your work day with three half completed tasks instead of two that could be ticked off your list.
#7 Headphones in
If you’re someone who is easily distracted, create a calming playlist and pop your headphones in to drown out background noise.
#8 Eat healthier snacks
Most of us eat more at work than we do at home, so make sure to stock your bag full of healthy snacks to keep your energy up during the day. If you’re only using sugar and coffee to get you through the day, you’ll find yourself starting to crash in the afternoon.
#9 Delegate
This is a tricky one as it depends on your role, but if you are able to delegate a task to someone who might do it better, faster or is just happy to help out, that will free you up to focus on something else.
#10 Don’t panic
Worrying about things that haven’t happened yet will stop you from focusing and add unnecessary stress to your day.
Tip: Keep a clock near by in case you’re having one of those slow or fast days – you don’t want to spend a whole day on one task.
Remember: You’re only one person, so make sure you leave enough time in the evenings and weekends to chill out and detach yourself from your worklife. It will do wonders for your mind and a well rested body will help you during those long work weeks.
What’s your top tip for managing your precious time?
Written by Steph Graham
The girl you want by your side during any major life event, Steph is a decorating boss and a baking Queen. You’ll usually find her getting tipsy at a bottomless brunch, playing basketball and Insta-stalking the Hemsworth brothers.
Favourite 90s rap song: No Diggity by Blackstreet
I certainly have to book in time to do nothing ou else I’ll work in the evenings and in weekend. Might get a planner and start loghing my day and tasks
All sound so simple but just reading each item feels like lifting the stressful part of managing time. Just hope it works more than in theory. I recently read an article somewhere where they suggested some apps to help motivate the procrastinator. Helps the people who are constantly tied to their phones. There’s even an app that locks certain apps to work unless a task is done (i.e. you can’t use Facebook until…) The next plan is to actually download this app. :p
All good tips. My boss lives by the saying ‘eat the frog’s. Which basically means do the hardest tasks or the ones you are putting off first. I try to do that too though sometimes the motivation isn’t there. I have tickets lists for tasks and I try to put tasks in my calendar where I know I’m more likely to do them. I have more energy for the difficult early morning.
I need to take more note of these things like keeping a day planner I think it would help me greatly. With the kids the getting enough sleep can be a hard thing especially when they are sick not getting much sleep with them and me I am a very light sleeper. I need to learn to try focus on one job at a time I find I start on one then think of something else to do. I love all these ideas and do need to pay more attention to them.
I think I’ve tried most of these – don’t always work but I do still try! The getting enough sleep thing would work wonders for me, but due to kids and having health issues I don’t sleep very well and that doesn’t help. Luckily I’ve just started a new job which is almost across the road from where we live so I can go home for lunch etc and eat healthier and not have to commute either yay!!
Omg these are amazing ideas… So simple in theory… Im going to have to try them out, i recently started writing things down and this has certainly helped in more ways than one… Time management deff but also helping me not to get brain memory overload… I’ve found since hitting my mid thirties my memory not as good as it was… Ahhhhhhhhh… But its a fact of life so writing things down is a must now but at least I can say its making me a time savvy boss now hehee… I really like the idea of giving myself more time, by doing this a few of those other ideas sort of a have flow in effect… Like don’t stress… Less likely to if allowed for more time, eat healthier snacks… If the job only takes 30mins but I’ve allowed an hour then no excuses not to make a healthy snack instead as I have the time to.