Ways to manage your time better

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a little commission if you purchase through my link at no extra cost to you. Please read the full disclosure here

If you struggle with making proper use of your time and keeping up with your obligations, here are ways to manage your time better.

Time management is a habit that high achievers have mastered. It is one of the things that sets them apart from everyone else.

If you are someone with a lot on their plate, you need good time management skills to get by and get things done.

Our time management skills are often linked to our habits and routines, which makes it quite difficult to make efficient use of your time if you have habits that hinder that.

Better time management skills aren’t built overnight. It takes a bit of time, some patience, and lots of practice, but it isn’t impossible.

So, if you are trying to improve the way you manage your time so you can become a lot more efficient and achieve your goals, I’m glad you stumbled on this post.

Below are things you can do to help you better manage your time.

Plan, plan, plan

It’s a little hard to evaluate all the things you have to do and how much time and effort each task demands without writing it down.

Sometimes it’s easier to convince ourselves that we would remember all the things we have to do, but there is only so much we can recall at a time as we are constantly taking in new information and are exposed to different kinds of distractions all day long.

One pro to planning is that it helps you assess what problems you are expected to solve with each task, and a better understanding of a problem means creating a solution faster.

Planning is the first and one of the most important steps in staying on top of your commitments.

If you have always found it challenging to stick with planning, I recommend getting yourself a generic planner and planning for each week the weekend prior.

Write down the things you need to get done, figure out what you will need to get them done, and then break those things down into tasks you can allocate to each day of the week on your planner.

This can also apply to you if you are entirely new to planning. You should check out this post I wrote on how you can plan for a productive week.

I recommend weekly planning because it is easier to stick to when you are starting, takes less time, and is more efficient.

Prioritize

Sometimes, there aren’t enough hours in a day to accomplish every single task you have on your agenda. That is why prioritizing is very important.

Make a list of tasks and group them under the headings: urgent, mandatory, less urgent, and less mandatory. Now, if a task is urgent, you write it down in the urgent section. If it is mandatory, write it in the mandatory section.

When you are done listing all the tasks, you now have an idea of which of them are of a higher priority. For example, a task that is both urgent and mandatory should be tackled before a task that is urgent but less mandatory.

It is called the urgent-important matrix, and this article goes into many details about it.

This system would keep you ahead of your deadlines.

Get rid of distractions

I admit this is easier said than done especially when we have formed habits with these distractions.

Have you intended to take a 30 minutes break and watch a YouTube video but found yourself an hour or two later watching some other random videos? Well, YouTube is quite good at recommending similar videos that keep you glued. You tell yourself, “just one more video,” until you have lost hours from your day.

The same technology that simplifies our lives could also be distracting us from achieving our goals.

Getting rid of distractions could be limiting items, devices, and apps that steal away your time or removing yourself from an environment that distracts you altogether.

If you watch too much Netflix, consider unsubscribing for a while.

If you are constantly on a social media app, you should consider deleting the app for a while or setting screen time limits. It won’t kill you, I promise! I find that changing your environment completely when you need to get work done is half of the battle.

Just make sure to replace those distractions with things that help you be more productive.

Wage war on procrastination

There is a reason I say “wage war” rather than the vague “stop procrastinating” because let’s be realistic, everyone procrastinates sometimes but to what extent determines how detrimental it is to fulfilling your obligations.

If you procrastinate so much that it hinders you from getting things done, you would indeed need to wage war on it.

It takes a lot of persistence and patience to improve your procrastinating habits, but it is possible once you have made a conscious decision to improve.

You can start by allocating tasks for each day.

Plan like we said above. Break projects down into smaller tasks you can do each day. Avoid overloading yourself to make up for times you’ve spent procrastinating. This could lead to disappointment and discouragement if you fall short.

Another great way to combat procrastination is to get people close to you to hold you accountable.

You might hate it when they keep asking what progress you have made. But that is good; it keeps you out of your comfort zone.

Be active

Exercise is essential for maintaining a healthy body. It improves blood circulation to all parts of our body, including the brain.

This can improve focus and cognition. It maximizes your efficiency for the hours you set out to work.

You don’t necessarily have to go to the gym every day. A run or walk in the park or around your neighborhood is a good enough way to stay active.

Unplug

The next point on ways to manage your time better is to unplug.

Sometimes you need to unplug and, rest a little, pamper yourself.

A well-rested body is better equipped to handle more difficult and stressful tasks than a tired body. Do not underestimate the power of a good nap.

Take some time to clear your head and replenish your body. Clean your space and clear out the clutter; it would improve your mood almost instantly.

Cut down your appointments

You should learn to say no if you have a hard time turning people down. If a meeting or party is going to be of no use to you and more of an inconvenience, there is no point in attending.

A lot of times, we fill our days with lots of activities that keep us busy yet unproductive.

If you find yourself in this situation, it’s time to cut down on your appointments. Include the most important ones to make better use of your time.

Ask for help

Last but not least, on my list of things to do to manage your time better is to ask for help.

As someone who finds it difficult to ask for help unless, in desperate times, I can assure you how much easier my life was In moments when I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked for help.

You might be someone who prefers to figure things out on their own or someone scared of being rejected. Something I have come to realize, however, is that there are always people willing to help. You just need to find them.

Asking for help from people with experience will save you some time from figuring it out all on your own.

Ready to take your time management skills to the next level?

There you have it! You have come to the end of this post on ways to manage your time better.

To summarise, the points listed in the post were:

• Plan, plan, plan
• Prioritize.
• Get rid of distractions.
• Wage war on procrastination.
• Be active.
• Unplug.
• Cut down on your appointments.
• Ask for help.

If there is one thing I would like you to take away from this post is that with intention and consistency, you can become better at anything.

Becoming better at managing your time is easier when you focus and prioritize what is important.