Time management hacks to skyrocket your productivity

Somewhere along the line over the last few years, it feels like being busy has become a status symbol. It’s as if there’s some kind of glory to be had in constantly running around and chasing your tail.

But there’s a difference between busy, and being productive.

When you’re being productive, it means you’re getting closer to achieving your goals, and being busy can give you a sense of accomplishment and drive. Yet we've separated ‘busyness’ from intentional results.

Just because every minute of your day is filled with activity, it doesn’t mean you’re actually getting things done; it means that you’re not optimising your time efficiently.

It’s not surprising that people struggle with time management when you think about the number of distractions we have in the average day – if you’re working in an office, people are able to interrupt you at any point, and even if you work on your own, you’re likely to have phone, email and messenger notifications going off all day.

But time management needn’t be difficult, so this week I’m sharing my top tips to take back controle and manage your time more effectively!

Prioritise

If you’ve got a to-do list that’s as long as your arm, it’s hard to know where to start. Rather than just starting with the first item on the list, it can be really helpful to transfer all the tasks to an Eisenhower matrix to see what you should get done first.

Grab a sheet of paper and divide it into 4. Label the 2 boxes on the Y Axis ‘Important’ and ‘Not important’, and the boxes on the X axis ‘Urgent’ and ‘Not Urgent’.

Go through your list and add each item to the appropriate box: Urgent/Important; Urgent/Not Important; Not Urgent/Important; Not Urgent/Not Important. This allows you to then plan out your day more efficiently as you’ll see what’s most pressing and you can make some quick decisions:

·?????? Urgent/Important: Get it done now

·?????? Urgent/Not Important: Schedule a time to do it

·?????? Not Urgent/Important: Delegate it – can someone do it for you? ?

·?????? Not Urgent/Not Important: Bin it!

Stop multitasking, start task batching

If you think that you’re being efficient by trying to do several things at once, then you’re kidding yourself. ?What you’re actually doing is switching quickly between tasks, doing a small amount on one, then switching back to the other.

You’re not fully focused on either thing, and you won’t be concentrating properly, especially if you’re switching between vastly differently jobs, which means that you’re more likely to make mistakes you’ll have to go back and fix later. There’s research to show that you lose between 5-15% of your cognitive function when you try to multitask.

Instead of skipping between random jobs, tackle similar tasks at the same time and you’ll soon find that you’re getting them done faster, with fewer errors.

Stop procrastinating!

How often do you find yourself putting things off? You know there’s a specific job you need to get done, but instead you start work on something entirely different.

Procrastination is the voluntary delay of a task or action, even though we know we’ll be the worse off for that delay. It’s a problem that I think probably everybody has to deal with at one point or another (including myself!).

At its heart, procrastination seems counterintuitive. We know that delaying something is going to make life more difficult, and yet we still do it. So, what’s the answer?

Don’t avoid the task. It’ll need to be done eventually, so you may as well get on with it sooner rather than later. Try the three-minute rule, where you tell yourself you can stop after three minutes. The reality is that sometimes simply getting started is enough, and at the end of those three minutes you’ll probably find you just carry on.

If you want to know more about procrastination, I took a deep dive on the topic on Episode 159 of the podcast, which goes into far more detail.

Minimise interruptions

Learn to be ruthless when it comes to distraction and interruptions if you want to maximise your productivity. If you’re trying to work with constant pings and alerts, it becomes much harder to focus and make progress on important projects.

So be brutal about eliminating anything that stops you getting stuff done. Turn off or mute notifications on all your devices, and limit checking your emails, texts and social media to specific breaks instead of reacting to everything as it happens. Close any browser tabs that aren’t directly related to what you’re working on, and if you’re really struggling to stay disciplined, use a website blocker to stop any temptation to check Facebook…!

If you work in an open plan space with a lot of people, put on headphones to block out any noise, and if that doesn’t stop someone approaching you to ask questions or for help, don’t feel bad about saying No until you’ve done what you’ve needed (assuming that it’s something that really can wait)

Look after your big rocks

In his book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Efficient People’, Stephen Covey uses ‘big rocks’ as a metaphor for priorities. Imagine filling a jar (which represents the time in your day), with rocks, pebbles, sand, and water—each layer representing less important tasks and commitments. You have to put the “big rocks” in first—the things that truly matter most—or they simply won’t fit in later.

Now, this isn’t just another way of talking about prioritisation, but rather adding a point about being clear on your goals. When it comes to time management, prioritising those ‘big rock’ goals (and therefore identifying your most important tasks) is key to making sure you dedicate the needed focus and effort on what is essential.

Don’t let piddly jobs eat up your precious time early in the day before locking in meaningful progress towards key priorities.

Know when you’re at your best

Of course, that’s assuming that you’re at your most productive early in the morning. Pay attention to when you get your best work done (and when you have a slump) and schedule in the appropriate task for that time of day. If you’re rubbish first thing in the morning but great later on, sort out the small things earlier in the day and ringfence time in the afternoon where you can really get into the more meaty stuff.

Being busy, but not productive, will just stress you out. If you can use a bit of discipline to nail your time management, not only will you get more done, but you’ll be happier as well!