We all have the same 24 hours a day. But why does it seem like that influencer has a magical 48-hour schedule- juggling school, work, events, fitness, and STILL have a social life?  Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but she/he is living on the same 24 hours as you do too and the hard truth is – having good time management. 

Time and tide wait for no man; if you want to accomplish more, you need to learn to manage your time well. This is an extremely important skill set in today’s context as we live in a fast-paced world, filled with strict deadlines and submissions. The process of organising and distributing our time effectively between activities helps us to maximise productivity and achieve our daily goals. Good time management leads to higher levels of life satisfaction and lower stress levels. But we know, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and stuck in a rut so here are some practical tips on managing your time properly. 

01 Avoid Distractions

With so many technological gadgets around you, it can be hard sometimes to stay focus on your task. Instead of taking the usual 30 minutes to read the newspapers, you could possibly end up taking up an hour, because you were probably distracted by the latest music playing on the Spotify list, or the constant notifications from your group chats. 

I don’t blame you, because that happens to me at times. But what you could do is to control the external environment around you to make it favourable for you to finish your work. Let others know that you are trying to stay focus – simply switch to airplane mode on your devices or even keep them far away from you. Learn to resist the temptation to check out a notification and answer a message right away. If it is a life and death situation, the caller will find all ways to get hold of you (could be calling your friends around you, home phone, office number, etc); but as of now, focus on what’s on your task list. 

02 Busy VS Productivity

They are NOT the same. You can be busy but still not accomplish anything meaningful. Busy time does not bring you any closer to finishing your to-do list or closer to your goals. It makes you feel stagnated; but productivity, on the other hand, is fuelled by purpose. You know what you want to achieve the entire day; you know what your goals are and you know how to work towards it! 

You can start by learning how to prioritise what is important, learn how to say “NO” to things that don’t matter, create a schedule and stick to it. Try doing the dreaded work first to avoid procrastination. Lastly, multitasking is a myth, instead you should focus on one project at a time. 

03 Estimating Your Time

Most of us tend to underestimate how long we take to finish a task. This is probably because we keep thinking that all tasks will proceed smoothly, without any last-minute changes, or simply underestimating the complexity of a project. We end up wasting a much longer time than we planned on the specific task, which results in a substantial backlog of work. This is known as the planning fallacy and we should, by all means, avoid it.

Always have a contingency plan with you for whatever task you are working on, and include them in your time estimation. This helps you better plan your activities for the day, so that you do not over delicate tasks in one day. 

We all share the same 24 hours, the same 1440 minutes, the same 86,400 seconds in a day.

Make every single second count. No amount of time management self-help books or training can make you perform any better unless YOU are determined and set your mind to it.                                   

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