Practical Ways To Boost Your Time Management Skills

Happy first Monday after Daylight Savings! If you’re struggling to finish your tasks or even start them (and not just today, but on all days), you’re far from alone. While it’s easy to get overwhelmed about everything we have to do, if we don’t have a plan of action, we’re even more likely to procrastinate, leading to more stress, and being more overwhelmed. It’s a vicious cycle. Here’s a few of our favorite techniques to boost your time management skills so that you can get back on track and accomplish your dreams.

Start Early

Many successful people start their days early, around 4 or 5 AM to be exact—but you don’t have to start that early. “Early” means something different to each person. Waking up early gives us time to start the day off how we want to start it, giving us more control over our day instead of the other way around.

Deal with Your Stress

When we have a lot on our plates, it’s easy to sit and stress about it. And even if we muster up enough energy to start completing our tasks, our stress is still there because we didn’t deal with it when it arose. Clear your stress by finding time to meditate - even 10 minutes can be a huge help, over time. Affirmations are also a great way to spark a little motivation. After-all, we need to believe in our abilities and talents in order to trust ourselves enough to finish simple tasks on a to-do list.

Additionally, it sometimes help to write down what seems to be causing us the most stress. By not trying to absolve the point of stress immediately — but rather just put a finger on it to start, is an excellent way to get to the root of it all without forcing yourself to tackle the entire problem in one sitting. Just acknowledging and understanding where the stress comes from, can often give us the right first baby steps to take to, over time, get to the root of the issue

Use Time-Blocking

Take a look at your agenda for the day, week, and month and block out time to get your work done, relax, and do house chores and other essential tasks. For example, you might block out 10 AM to noon each day for “focus time,” when you get as much work done as you can in those two hours. Once that time is up, you’re free to take a break or perform a different task. This is one of our favorite tips, btw, for how effective it can be!

Delegate Tasks

We often like to think we have to do everything—because if we want something done correctly, we must do it ourselves, right? Unfortunately, that’s an unhealthy way to look at things because it puts an unrealistic expectation on us and forces us into a “lacking” mindset. If your home needs cleaning, try asking your partner or roommate to help you out with some chores; you’ll have a much easier time managing your time when you delegate tasks.

Take a Break

The most critical step to using your time wisely is to take a break. That may sound counterproductive, but it’s all about how you use your time—it doesn’t mean watch Netflix all day and call it a “break.” You must take some time away from your work to return refreshed and ready to tackle more. Your stress may even cause you to feel sick after a while, so be sure to use your paid time off wisely - and be sure to take it in the first place! Burnout is real and can definitely affect time management skills.

And just remember that smaller, intentional steps can often make a much bigger difference in the grand scheme of things.