Time management and Productivity

Time is one of the most or let's say the most important thing in our daily life.

All of us have same amount of time yet some of us end up achieving lot more and most of us keep on struggling. How can we make sure to get most out of available 24 hours?

Think and Prioritise

First thing is to understand the importance of time. It's worth considering before spending (as with salary), this will change our attitude. You can spend time to earn money but you can't spend money to earn time. So, treat time as a scarce resource and spend it wisely. Rather time should be Invested not spent.

Start prioritising things that you have to do. Do right things (rather than doing things right), do things or activities that are crucial and will help you achieve your goals and objectives. Ask before doing any task: will this help to achieve end goal? Is it really important and worth doing or is it just a routine or ritual kind of thing?

Find out most productive hours

Every person is different and has different styles. Find out what is your productive time when you're in full energy. Try to fit important things during those hours so that you can get more done and be more productive.

Delegate

If you able to delegate some of your tasks, please do so. However, be careful while doing this. Select tasks that can be done by someone else and don't need your expertise only. Delegate properly, communicate clearly what needs to be done and ask if they need any help.

To do list

Try to spend some time making your to do list. Same rule applies here, only important things should be on your list. It will help you stay focused and will keep you alert before accepting any new assignment. You may like to celebrate small wins as these will provide you motivation and happiness.

Multitasking

Everyone likes to be a multitasker but have you ever thought about it? Are we really more productive while multitasking? Think of yourself answering a phone call and at the same time replying to an email. Can you do both at same time? You might be able to do that but will you end up doing both in correct manner? What if you reply to an email with full attention and focus, answer phone call without any disruptions.

When you need to focus, do so. Turn off notifications and don't get into the habit of replying every email instantly. You will see some of them will no longer require your action, and some of them are just FYI, if people start copying only relevant people on emails it will save lot of time for many people.

And yes, use technology and automate repetitive tasks

Say No

Yes, you need to learn how to say NO. Don't just say yes/ no without any thinking. Always think how much time you have and how important that task is. If you start saying yes, all your colleagues will end up throwing everything on to you. Say no to task and not to person. See how important that person is, you might ask them how urgent that task is, be honest to tell them you are working on some other important things. You might guide them to someone else who can do it, or you may explain how they can do it themselves, and suggest they come back once they have done their part or whenever they are stuck.

Same way, don't just accept all meeting invitations for the sake of acceptance. Be careful and think who is attending? What is purpose and is your presence really required?

At the end, remember we all have same amount of time available and it is up to us how we spend it. Better if actions take most of it. Try to wake up early and you will see you have good amount of time to finish your tasks.

Being productive is always better than being busy.