Do you feel busy all the time? Worry that you won’t be able to finish half-completed tasks in a timely manner? Do you wonder how on earth some of those around you are able to maintain a full and fulfilling work-life balance? The answer (or solution) is simple: time management. We’ve been hearing this term since our primary years in school– it may have even been a section on your report cards growing up. And yet, many of us still struggle with this important life tool. In his article “Time Management Skills Everyone Needs to Have,” Tony Robbins offers a few tips on managing one’s time effectively. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Learn to Say No. While many of us enjoy taking things on and helping out when we can, there is a point where each of us should be saying “no” to new projects. You are no longer helpful to people if you’re going to miss a deadline or produce shoddy work!
- Understand what a “priority” is. Not everything can be a priority. If everything everything is a priority, essentially nothing is. Prioritizing tasks in order of importance and sensitivity to time will allow you to devote time and energy to all projects in a systematized and strategic way, rather than trying to tackle everything at once and becoming overwhelmed.
- Minimize your distractions. We’ve all experienced it– trying to concentrate on something that absolutely needs our attention, then our phone goes off. And then again. And again. With constant buzzes, flashes, and rings, we have to really push ourselves to not look at the phone and whoever might be trying to contact us. So put it away! Turn it on silent! You can always obsessively check your notifications later.
Photo: “Time Management” by Luigi Mengato, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 License.