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5 Time Management Strategies

shutterstock_98180642“No matter how much work I get done, there’s always more to do.”

Does this sound familiar? If you’re anything like most people, often you’ll find yourself overcome with responsibilities.

You keep playing catch up.

But if you just take things one step and a time, you can start to make a dint in your pile of things to do. Eventually, the list gets smaller and smaller, and it stops causing you so much anxiety. You can deal with procrastination. It’s possible.

Here are 5 simple strategies to help you.

Write Your Goals Down
It’s very important to write your goals down on paper. If you don’t keep track of what you’re trying to do each day, then everything else falls apart. So at the start of each day, take some time to write down the big three things you want to accomplish. Be as specific as you can because you need to be able to track when you do reach that goal. Make sure your goals are small enough to be manageable and possible to complete. If you think of big tasks to do, break them down into little ones, because if your tasks are too big then you probably won’t even attempt them to begin with.

Set Priorities
Take all those goals you’ve written down and put them in order. What MUST you complete today? Are there bills due? Do you have appointments? Then make sure which goals will get you closest to where you want to be in your life. Some may be more important than others right now, make sure to focus on those too. It can also help to start your day with the most difficult task when you have plenty of energy to tackle it.

Plan Out Your Day
Okay, now you’ve got your goals and ordered them, next thing to do is to make a plan. When are you actually going to do each of these things? This shouldn’t take any more than 5 minutes to work out. As I mentioned before, do your most important task first and then work from there. Try to set time limits for each task. If a task is going to take more than an hour, then try to split it into multiple tasks or at least have a break every hour. Breaks are important because they refresh your mind and allow you to concentrate better later.

Stop Multi-tasking!
Most people think that they’re good multitasksers. The truth is that nobody really is. When we switch between tasks we lose attention and it takes some time to get that focus back. Close down all distractions and only do one thing at a time,  and do it well. Finish it completely before moving onto your next task.

Make Sure You Reward Your Efforts
Take breaks every hour, and when you do, do something fun. Make your breaks last at least 15 minutes and, if you can, get some brief exercise. At least get out of your chair and walk around. When you walk around you release endorphins which actually wake you up and help you concentrate even more later. A bit of sunlight doesn’t go astray either!

So those are my tips. I hope that they help you out. If you’re interested in finding out more, click here to download my free productivity guide.

How To Not Procrastinate

Solid time management skills are very important in today’s busy world. Especially anyone who works from home or owns a small business needs to be able to take care of many different tasks during the day.

So how can you learn how to not procrastinate?

Firstly, recognize that we’re not in control of how time passes. No matter how organized we are, there are only ever 24 hours in the day. You can’t manage time, you can only manage your own actions.

Next, look at what useless activities you can cut out from your life (or at least cut down). What is wasting your time? Are you spending long hours browsing the web, refreshing email, watching TV, or chatting on the phone? These little distractions can really add up.

If you want to really know how much time you waste each week, then start keeping a diary. Write down how you spend your time every hour and see where the time goes. By doing this you’ll be able to build an accurate picture of how you really spend your time.

Once you’ve got your log then take a good hard look at it. If you realise you’re not spending as much time as you think you should be working, then change it.

Time Management Goals
You can do this by creating some time management goals. Write down what you’d like to do better. Maybe it’s spend 30 minutes less watching TV per day, or starting working a little earlier. Whatever it is, write down all of these goals for things you’d like to achieve.

Then implement it! Start with a couple of small changes that are easy enough to make into a habit. Look for goals that aren’t too difficult to implement but will have a dramatic impact on your life.

Track these changes in your diary and see if you’re actually spending your new time on what you wanted to spend it on. Keep trying and don’t give up.

If you’d like more tips on ways to stop procrastinating, then check out my free productivity guide: http://www.ultimateproductivitysecrets.com/free/

Why You Should Get Up Early

As Ben Franklin once said, morning

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Ben was pretty spot on.

What was true back then is still true today. In fact, it’s probably truer than ever considering our fast-paced lives and the way technology connects everything causing so many more distractions.

Waking up early might just be the best kept secret of highly effective people. Pretty much every story you read about a successful person refers to this as one of their best habits.

So why should you get up early?
The earlier you get up each day, the more time you have to get things done before the rest of the noisy world creeps into your day. Mornings are a peaceful time, free from buzzing phones, text messages, social media, and email notifications. Nighttime can be good too, but you don’t get the benefit of natural sunlight which is when humans are their most mentally alert and effective.

You can also just start your big tasks of the day before everyone else wakes up. What a great way to start your day!

But It’s Not That Easy
Personally, when I try to go to bed earlier I end up staring at the ceiling for hours and hours, unable to fall asleep! Then I’m very tired and I DEFINITELY can’t get up early!

Then whenever my alarm goes off in the morning, I just hit the snooze button. I can’t win! Some experts say that you should “listen to what your body’s needs”. Which means you should sleep when you’re sleepy and get up when you wake up. Makes sense. But in the morning, my body never tells me to get up!

However, I finally found a solution that works for me. It’s simple and I’ve read many biographies of successful entrepreneurs who have applied this method to their own lives. I bet they do this without even thinking about it.

The Solution
The answer is a combination of the two parts above. Firstly, go to bed when you’re sleepy (when your body tells you to), but wake up early at the same time every day. Your body doesn’t know what the weekend means. If you keep doing this, then you’ll eventually become too sleepy to stay up late.

I’ve made a habit of getting up at 6AM every day, even though I might go to bed at any time from 10PM to 1AM. And I go to bed when I’m too sleepy to stay up. I know I’m ready for bed when the pages of my book start to get blurry.

Also make sure you hop off the computer and TV in the hour before you want to sleep. The unnatural lights from these devices keep you well awake. Reading a book before but is a much better alternative.

This technique won’t be easy the first couple of days, but soon after you’ll see that you become naturally tired as time goes on. You don’t have to force yourself to try and sleep when you’re not tired. Try being an early riser this week and see if you get more done!

For more great tips on how to Stop Procrastinating, check out the Free Productivity Guide. It’s full of tips just like this!

How I Learned To Overcome Procrastination

dragging onBe honest: Do you put things off that you know you should be doing?

You’re not alone.

Procrastination is very common. In fact, in a study by DeSales University, about 20% of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. While it might not be a big problem for everyone, for some people it can be a very real issue.

Feelings of anxiety and extreme guilt from not fulfilling responsibilities to others can be paralyzing. And this only leads to more procrastination, which creates a self-perpetuating storm that’s very tough to end.

So why do we do it? It doesn’t seem logical. We repeatedly and consciously avoid doing activities that we know will be good for us in the long run, or which we know we’ll have to tackle at some point, no matter how long we ignore them.

There are a couple of common responses to why we waste so much time. One is due to laziness or a “lack of time”. The other is fear.

We can all relate to not having enough time to do something. After you’ve been working all day at a 9-5 job, and then you come home and you’ve got to think about dinner, clean up, do the washing, etc. then there’s really not much time for anything else. Those little chores and your big to-do list can really grow. We get that.

Laziness is also understandable. Even when you do find free time, who really wants to spend it working on difficult tasks? Playing video games, watching TV, and chatting to friends on Facebook is much more enjoyable. Though often when we procrastinate we’re not living up to our potential.

The idea of procrastinating because of fear might be surprising, but it’s actually a root cause. You see, initially there is a fear of doing a tasks, especially if it’s a particularly unpleasant one. Fear or starting. Fear of the stress of doing the task itself. However, the longer you put a task off the more fearsome it can become.

If procrastination is having an impact on your life, and you’d like to beat it, then I’ve got some solutions for you.

Download my free guide on how to stop procrastinating and stop worrying!