Life

How to Properly Manage Your Time So You Can Fit More Into Your Day

Published

9 months ago

Feb 19, 2019

Image Credit: Unsplash

Time is the only actual resource that matters. Yet, as with the majority of things that people should take care of, most of us run short on time. No matter if you’re a busy entrepreneur trying to get your business tasks organized, programmist who’s working 9-to-5 and tries to get the most out of after-work time or even a university student who strives to harness his schedule.

We all need to organize our work to get things done on time. Without planning, we get lost, which leads to further panicking over our helplessness.

Below, you’ll learn how to properly manage your schedule so you can fit more into your day and be efficient with your time:

Materialize it

First, you have to make it all visible regardless of if it’s creating to-do lists or writing down a simple tasks list. Studies show that you’re much more likely to finish the task when you write it down.

Begin with whatever comes to your mind such as: laundry, grocery shopping, a programming class, or reading a new book. Then, group tasks into appropriate categories. I prefer to use three time-wise categories and five sub-categories for each of the tasks.

The three time-wise categories are: Before work, during work and after work.

Of course, this approach assumes that you’re working 9-to-5 but let’s be honest, most of the people who struggle to organize their time are the people who work standard eight hours a day.

After you’re done with the above, proceed to the next five subcategories: Low-result, manager, creative and learning, fun and health and exercise.

Low-result tasks – Everything that needs to be done but would gladly be outsourced. Things like commuting, shopping, cleaning, etc. Strive to limit the number of low-result tasks to the bare minimum.

Manager tasks – Everything related to planning, organizing, sending, or responding to people. You’ll want to fill it with meetings, replying to emails, and browsing through the inbox.

Creative and learning tasks – All creative, so-called “new tasks” like writing an article or coding. It can be anything from trying to learn a new language as well as doing courses, attending webinars, and reading books.

Fun tasks – What I also tend to call social tasks. It can be anything from a date to going out with friends and watching movies. Treat this time as a moment to relax and – yes – actually have fun.

Health and exercise – Everything from running, gym, eating. Group here everything that directly corresponds to your physical state of being.

At this point, you might be asking “Is it necessary to do all of that listing and grouping?” It might seem like overkill or a futile task, but believe me, there is no reason to plan things out if you’re planning to lose. Always plan to win and put necessary work upfront.

“Make use of time, let not advantage slip.” – William Shakespeare

Materializing and grouping what you want to do is the first step to harness your schedule and get things done on time. The next step, shown below, is to put them in the right place and order:

Map it out

After you’re done with listing your tasks and grouping them into appropriate categories and subcategories, go ahead and proceed to map them out. Here, it’ll be handy to use a task-planning tool like Google Calendar. The main purpose of using such a solution is to get all of the tasks in one place, sorted, and well-arranged.

Also, you’ll get push and email notifications that will help you stay on track with everything you’ve planned. Let’s proceed to the doing part. Start from the top to the bottom, whereas the top is the beginning of the day and bottom is its end.

Grab your “before work” tasks and put them into certain timeframes. At first, it will be a guessing game as you may not know how long your morning bathroom fun takes. The first week or even a month will be all about tweaking and adjusting your schedule until it will reach its final form.

Now, to visually get a hint of which tasks relate to which subcategory you have to color code them. If you’re using Google Calendar you can right click on a certain event and choose the color.

Of course, you can use any color pattern you want. Just remember which color relates to which category. To save time you can use my framework which goes as follows:

Low-result – Tomato
Manager – Tangerine
Creative and learning – Basil
Fun tasks – Lavender
Health and exercise – Grape

No, I’m not making it up. All of the colors in Google Calendar are described as veggies, fruits, and herbs. Thanks to color coding you’ll see how much time you spend on particular tasks. Your goal will be to lower the amount of tomato-red and tangerine-orange. Strive to have a grape-violet time each day as well as the basil-green as the most frequent events.

When you’re done with before work tasks, go ahead and fill the calendar with during work and after work activities. Some of you won’t be able to map out the entire work time due to the character of your job. In such a case, don’t try to come up with imaginary tasks, just plan what you can. Put placeholders if you’re not sure and fill in the gaps when you know what you’re about to do.

Next, focus on what you’d like to do during your after-work time. Be realistic, but fill it with tasks that you’d really want to do. Use this time to read a new book you’ve wanted to read or to start the course that would accelerate your career.

“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!” – Tony Robbins

Adjust and upgrade

Equipped with a calendar full of color-coded events is just the beginning of the road to getting things done on time. Now that the hard part is done, you can focus on adjusting the calendar to your actual needs.

As time goes by, you’ll see how much time certain things take you, what can be optimized, and what can be outsourced. Use that feedback to optimize the way you spend your time and upgrade your calendar every week and every month.

Remember that the hardest thing is always to start. Most people avoid doing these two things: Planning their time and goals and taking care of their money.

People simply fear to look into how they actually spend their time and money while these are one of the most important aspects of their lives! Don’t be that guy who doesn’t know where his last three hours had vanished. Take care of your time and use it to achieve your dreams.

How do you make sure you’re managing your time correctly? Do you have any tips for not wasting time? Let us know in the comments below!

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Jakub Kliszczak

Jakub Kliszczak is a Marketing Specialist at CrazyCall; cloud-based calling app which provides sales teams with essential tools reach their customers worldwide. He’s passionate about digital marketing, developing new businesses, and turning new ideas into real ventures. In his “free time”, he prefers to read non-fiction and hit the gym.

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Life

Don’t Want To Feel Like A Failure Anymore? Stop Doing These 6 Things

Published

1 week ago

Nov 14, 2019

Linda Coussement

Image Credit: Unsplash

It’s pretty annoying isn’t it? All those great and accomplished people telling you that FAILURE is a necessity on your way to success. Yeah, that’s easy for them to say; they’re already ‘on the other side’! You on the other hand, are still struggling all day everyday to get your business lifted off the ground and are really not that sure if you’re indeed going to make it.

There’s that little voice in your head that keeps telling you that you don’t have the stuff to make it all happen. Not now and not ever. You feel like a failure…it’s holding you back and you don’t know how to deal with it. Well you could do yourself a favor and start dealing with it by doing the following things:

1. Stop Denying You Feel Like A Failure

Telling yourself things are going great when they’re not is one of the biggest, though most useless, coping mechanisms human beings deploy in rough times. Common denial signals among entrepreneurs: trying to regain more control by working even more hours and on the other side compensating this by letting go of all this control by partying and drinking way too hard.

What you’re doing is denying yourself the opportunity to actually feel what’s going on and acknowledge the problem; that both you and your business are in a bad place. Without acknowledging it, it’ll be pretty difficult to actually STOP feeling it. And remember, just because you feel like a failure, this does not mean that you indeed ARE a failure!

2. Stop Making It Bigger Than it Really Is

This is one of those other ‘fun’ things human beings do; we blow things way out of proportion in our heads! In business, when you lose that big client you’ve been working on for weeks, it feels like it’s the end of the world. You start doubting yourself, your strategy, your entire business model right up to the point where you barely sleep because you’re working on pivoting the whole thing.

But what if that customer simply didn’t have the money to go for your service anyway? Or what if they just decided to go for someone who is cheaper but who offers less quality? Does that mean there’s something wrong with YOU? Or that this was the ONLY customer out there and that you’re now doomed forever?

Of course not, it simply means that THIS CUSTOMER wasn’t a match. It’s a bit like dating actually…So if you take this into consideration, could it be that you just feel like a failure instead of really not succeeding in that what you want to at this point in time?

3. Stop Thinking You’re The Only One Who Feels Like This

You’re not! With the possible exception of the true sociopaths, that feeling you’re feeling is very normal to EVERYONE. It might not seem like it on the outside – because people don’t like to acknowledge this remember – but I can guarantee you that it’s true. But unlike 99% of the world’s population, YOU’RE not going to let this feeling stop you in your tracks. Are you?

4. Stop Thinking You’re Supposed To Be Superhuman

In fact, it’s very likely that you’re already doing, learning and succeeding at WAY more than most other people are. But for entrepreneurs, somehow, that never seems to be enough. You don’t just want to be successful after a few years of hard work (which is normal). You want to be successful after only a few months. Because you’re special…or at least you think you are…

Well, here’s the truth: you ARE special! But…it’s just not very likely that you’re one of those – very very rare – entrepreneurial superstars that – seemingly – just added some hot water and got instant business success as a result.

5. Stop Being So Incredibly Stubborn

Entrepreneurs are stubborn…almost by default. It’s what makes them push forward in the hardest of times. But…if you’re not doing the right things right you might just be hammering a square peg through a round hole. Which will only add to that frustrated feeling you’re already having. So why not stop being so stubborn for a moment, stop hammering away on that what obviously is not working and ask for help?

No matter who you ask – a business mentor or coach, a befriended entrepreneur – someone with a neutral perspective on you and our business will be very likely to see what’s going on with a lot more clarity than you can and can guide you to a place that will feel a whole lot more comfortable.

6. Stop Being Afraid Of Failure

I know, I know, you’ve heard this a million times before and you wouldn’t be in this pickle if you could do this. Right? I’m right there with ya!

But, if you get really rational about it, what’s the worst that could happen?

You might have to get a ‘real’ job for a while and start over on the side;
You might not be able to afford your rent anymore…but with Airbnb on the 1 hand and couchsurfing on the other, you should be able to work it out somehow;
You’ll have all the more experience to start over a whole lot faster;
You’ll be no less respected by anyone because it’s clear you gave it your all;
In a few years, when you’re an established and supersuccessful entrepreneur you’ll also have a cool failure story to tell;
None of your limbs will fall off;

Now that’s not too bad for a plan B is it? Failure is such a negative word. And the associated feeling is terrible and numbing. But really…how is giving it your all and not succeeding really the same as failing? Shouldn’t the definition of failure not be along the lines of ‘not even trying’ or ‘giving up when it gets hard’?

In other words: stop beating yourself up over this!

There’s really no need to feel like a failure at all because you’re sticking your neck out, you’re trying to make a difference and you’re still moving upward on that treacherous entrepreneurial mountain.

And that…is what success REALLY is.

Those Who Failed Their Way To Success

Quotes To Live By:

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

“If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want” – Richard Yates

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

“We are all failures – at least the best of us are.” – J.M. Barrie

“Success is stumbling form failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm” – Winston Churchill

“Don’t let success go to your head and failure to your heart” – Will Smith

Life

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3 weeks ago

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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