Time Management Tips from Laura Vanderkam

At the end of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, Laura shares several time management tips (50, but I only share my favourite ones below). What strikes me about the tips is that not all of them are about time management per se, but instead may be about investing time so you have more of it in the future, energy management, or flipping our beliefs.

Plan something fun every day

Planning something fun every day gives you something to look forward to and makes your days go faster. Don't believe me? Try it yourself! Schedule a lunch date, coffee (or tea) in the afternoon, a fitness class or a date night and watch how your day goes just a bit faster when you have something to look forward to. As you may have noticed, it's not just about scheduling something at the end of the (work) day, but a side benefit of scheduling something after work is you have to stop working (and the deadline might make you more efficient).

Choose one task a week

We all have a long list of life-maintenance projects that may be weighing us down. Scheduling a check-up with the doctor. Getting the deck primed. Weeding the garden. The long list makes it feel impossible to get all of it done.

Laura's advice? Choose one task to tackle each week.

You don't need to finish everything (although if you can it will feel amazing). Instead, choose one task to tackle and slowly check off your list.

Give things a home

One of my pet peeves is being unable to find things in the house. We have at least a dozen pairs of scissors in the house, but when I go to find one, they aren't in any of the places I have them stored in.

Give things a home. Communicate it to everyone in your home that this is where [x] goes. When you are spending time hunting down things like scissors, shoes, special tools, well, as Laura says, it is simply lost time.

Also, I'll pair this with advice from Kevin Kelly, if you spent a ton of time trying to find something and you finally found it, instead of putting it back to where you last found it, put it back to where you first looked for it.

Make time to practice

On Stephen Covey's matrix of important and urgent things, we often prioritize tasks that are both important and urgent, yet, we allow little time for tasks that are important but not urgent.

Practicing is one of those important, but not urgent tasks.

Practice can be anything (though since this is on LinkedIn, this will be work-related). It can be practicing speaking on the fly. It can be practicing your presentation skills. It can be taking a course so you can learn how to better manage project risks.

If you're a subscriber to 1% Better at Work, you will know I read a lot. But reading alone isn't going to do me any good unless I put what I have learned into practice.

Run fewer errands

When online grocery ordering came out, I was (and still am) resistant to the change. Why would I pay extra to have groceries shipped? What if the grocer picks out bad produce? Am I getting charged extra for ordering online vs. going in person?

In other words, I was focused on all the reasons why I shouldn't be ordering groceries online.

But there are several benefits Laura points out. The cost of gas. The value of your time (specifically the time you aren't using going to the grocery store, parking, picking out what you want, waiting in line to pay, packing it in the car). The ability to shop around at multiple grocers. The ability to do this when you're on a break at work.

Yes, it might cost a bit more money, but also consider the (many) benefits too.

Measure what you want to change

If you want to improve something, measure it. While this applies to work, it also applies to things outside of work too. If you want to read more to your kids, track this time. Knowing ou will need to write this down means you may be more inclined to pick up the second (or fourth) storybook to read to your kids.

Hey you got to the end! Want more from me? Did you know I also have a Substack where I share what I learned from the 50+ books I read every year? It's a lot like this newsletter - a weekly article - except I also cover health and other non-work-related topics. Join hundreds of readers and subscribe so you won't miss the next newsletter when it comes out.