My 8 points of time management

Why is it, that deadlines are the ones that keep me more focused on the topic? When a deadline is approaching I can prioritize more easily, I see the bigger picture and am able to eliminate all time wasters. Why am I not able to act like this all the time? Of course this situation does not occur often, but my aim is be able to anticipate enough so that this will not happen.

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There are a lot of techniques how to manage time efficiently, but I would bring out the following, which do I follow (or at least try to follow):

1. HAVE A PLAN AND STICK TO IT

First things first – objectives! What is the aim of the plan? It is important to have to-do lists, but most important is to be clear what are these for. I have to-do lists for all projects separately and then timed to-do list in my daily calendar where to-do is sorted with more urgent being on top of the list. To-do lists are really vital for me and I make sure that they are well updated and I do try to stick to them.

2. PRIORITIZE

Unfortunately I find myself too often in the position, where everything is important and urgent. I need to be more aggressive and compartmentalize the actions in important and urgent, important and non-urgent, non-important and urgent and non-important and non-urgent.

3. MANAGE E-MAILS

It is challenging to assign certain times during the day when I actually open my mailbox, answer, delete and leave for later reading and once I am finished close it, but I am heading towards it. The ideal would be to be able to check e-mails 3 times a day for me (morning, lunch and evening). It is so tempting to open the window once the little envelope icon flashes up and also, because I am used to answer e-mails instantly. But I do keep saying to myself that if there is an actual emergency or someone requires an instant response, then they will call me.

 4. MANAGE SOCIAL MEDIA

Assigning time, when I am posting/updating in my calendar has helped me. I do check my social media accounts three times a day and once I am done, I close that tab. There is always a danger to keep on scrolling and clicking, but I keep the session 15 min at a time and if there is something interesting, but requires longer time to read, I bookmark them for later. Also I would like to emphasize that I use social media mainly in a professional way and do not interact too much on personal matters.

 5. TIME SHEET

Previously I wrote that I have a daily timesheets for all my projects, which are separate to the to-do list. These show what I have done and how much time it has taken me. This way I can actually see what I have done in a day/week/month, how much time it has taken me and what I have been paid for that, because I keep them all visible to get a better understanding. This way I can see if I have been actually busy with real outcome, or I have just ′being busy′ without achieving anything.

 6. EVALUATE

Time sheets are great to evaluate the progress of the work as well. And not quantitative, but mainly qualitative work. This will give a good overview of initial plan, has everything been checked in the to-do list and were objectives met.

 7. STRUCTURE MEETINGS

When I first started my freelance career, I was so excited to go to a meeting, because I felt that this will make me so important. All my meetings have been very interesting, but not always efficient, without actually having a clear end result. Now I tend to agree the aim of the meeting in an e-mail beforehand to be very clear why is the meeting necessary and what is the desired outcome.

8. ONE ACTIVITY AT A TIME

I think that at this point it is important to link back to the top of the list: make a plan, to-do list and stick to it and if possible eliminate everything that might distract. Therefore I do prefer to work from home most of the time, because I can truly focus here. But if I am working in different environment, then headphones are my best friends.

There are a lot of different time management techniques, but these are the ones that work for me. Some of them are quite self-evident, but I  do believe that the key is to get into the habit of implementing all of those points all the time.