Time Management Tools To Boost Productivity: Blog
Miles Davis said, "Time isn't the main thing. It's the only thing." And how true that statement is. When you are good at managing your time, you can end your day with a checked-off to-do list and a feeling of accomplishment. However, properly managing your time is not always easy, and poor time management may leave you feeling frazzled, tired, and stressed.
You're not alone if you feel like you could improve your time management skills. Fortunately, there are numerous tools and effective time management techniques available that can help you properly manage your valuable time.
Extensions to help you stay on task
If you complete work on the computer, it can be easy to become distracted by social media, online news, and other enthralling options. Before you know it, you’ve spent half an hour watching videos on YouTube and another 15 minutes scrolling through Facebook.
The following browser extensions are great time management tools that can limit your time on certain websites, or help with tracking time spent online, which may help you complete the work you set out to accomplish.
Self-control
The Self-Control extension allows you to limit entry to certain websites for predetermined amounts of time. So, if you’re working on a big report but find the temptation of browsing your favorite blogs luring you away from work, Self-Control allows you to block these websites for the duration of your workday.
When you visit the website, a prompt will remind you to stay focused and also prevent you from having a few minutes of blog reading turn into hours of time you wish you would have spent working.
Stay focused
Stay Focused caps the amount of time you can spend on certain sites each day. This way you can think about how long you’d like to spend on social media or news sites, and then set limits accordingly. Stay Focused can also be a good way for you to realize how much time you’re truly spending on certain websites.
Avoid becoming distracted by your email or favorite blog
Checking email is often a necessary action, but it can also turn your thoughts to new subjects and therefore limit your productivity. When you check emails, your time shifts away from dealing with your agenda and towards dealing with others’ agendas. Here are a few tools that can help you take control of your email and therefore increase your productivity.
Boomerang
Boomerang allows you to control when emails come into your inbox and when you send them out. This allows you to put checking and responding to emails onto your agenda at a set time rather than allowing incoming emails to distract you.
You can select how many hours you want to pause your inbox or choose an exact time that you want to receive your new messages. You can also choose if you want to have your email sent out directly when you type it or delay sending messages to a specific time.
The email game
The Email Game encourages you to check and reply to your emails quickly, preventing you from becoming bogged down by details. The game begins when you start checking your email; you’ll have to quickly decide if you will skip interacting with the email, file it into a folder, bin it, or read and respond to it. The faster you go, the better your score is.
Additionally, the more emails you keep in your inbox, your score will be lower. This helps you to make quick decisions and remove unnecessary messages.
Track your time with time management tools
Before you can learn to manage your time, it can be helpful to know how you’re spending it. You likely know you spend a certain number of hours at work or school, commuting, and getting ready in the morning. But do you know how long you spend cleaning, checking social media, online shopping, or spending quality time with loved ones? Tracking how much time you spend on certain activities can help you realize where you’d like to spend more time and where you’d like to cut back. There are both offline time-tracking tools and digital apps that can do this for you and provide you with custom time reports.
It’s a good idea to continue tracking time for at least a week, to get an average of your activities. You can utilize multiple apps to track time or use a pen and paper. At the end of the week, you can average the amount of time you spend on certain activities per day. Use this information to analyze how you spend your time and determine any change you’d like to make.
You can try setting both limits and goals for the future. For example, maybe you want to limit your social media use to 30 minutes per day and spend at least an hour a day spending quality time with friends and family. Try writing down these goals then spend a few weeks working to make them a reality. You can then track your time again to see how you’ve changed how you spend your time.
Pomodoro time management for writing blog posts or completing other tasks
One of the most widely used time management systems is the Pomodoro technique. If you find you work better in set periods interspersed with short breaks, the Pomodoro technique might help you boost your productivity. This time management technique involves setting a clock that reminds you to work for 25 minutes and then take a five-minute break. After four work periods, you take a longer break of 15 or 30 minutes.
This helps you train your mind to stay focused while you are working and rewards your work with breaks. Since you know you will only need to focus for a set amount of time, you may find it easier to fully commit to the task at hand.
This technique is especially great if you work at a computer or sitting down. Every time your timer goes off, it's a great reminder to get up, stretch, and move around. This can help you become more active and less sedentary while also boosting your productivity.
Organize your tasks and documents
While sticky notes and magazine clippings can help remind you of deadlines and provide inspiration for projects, they can easily get lost or turn into clutter. Instead of using these physical reminders, you can utilize an organizational app like Evernote as a project management tool for to manage projects from start to finish.
Evernote acts as a digital file cabinet where you can type in notes, upload pictures, and save articles you find online. One of the best things about Evernote is its search capability. Once you have a document or image saved in Evernote, you can search for a word in Evernote to find what you are looking for. It is even able to search for words in pictures that you have taken, including your handwritten notes. It may also be an effective strategy to divide tasks into urgent tasks, which are the most important, and less urgent tasks. This method also allows you to view complete tasks so that you can see how effective you have been over a period of time.
Use a planner
With all the available online tools, apps, and calendars, it's easy to forget about using a simple planner. Planners can help you keep track of deadlines, appointments, and bills while also providing a space to jot down notes, accomplishments, and goals. Many people find that the most effective planner allows them to see the month at a glance and then a breakdown of each day, but it may be helpful to try out a few planners to find one that works the best for you as a task management system.
Are you struggling with time management?
While the aforementioned tools may help you improve your time management, sometimes you need a little outside help. Mental illnesses such as depression, ADHD, and general anxiety disorder can all make it difficult to properly manage your time. Working with a mental health professional who understands these illnesses may help you come up with a way to manage your symptoms and improve your time management.
Even if you don’t have a diagnosed mental illness, mental health struggles can make managing your time difficult. Working with a licensed counselor may help you recognize stressors that are making it difficult to manage your time, and also develop a plan to deal with your emotions healthily.
The trouble is that it can be hard to fit therapy into an already busy schedule! It may seem difficult to fit in appointments if you feel like you’re already having trouble managing your time. Online therapy makes connecting with a licensed therapist a bit more available. Rather than driving to an office, you can meet with your therapist from anywhere with a strong internet connection.
Online therapy can be an effective approach when it comes to treating the symptoms of ADHD, depression, and anxiety, all of which may make it difficult to manage your time.
Takeaway
Frequently asked questions
Read more below for answers to commonly asked questions about time management tools.
What is a time management device?
A time management device is a type of tool that may help you stay on track, accomplish tasks on time, and stay on schedule. These can range from simple solutions, like clocks and timers, to elaborate task management software, browser extensions, and more. Some examples include:
- Project management tools: For people who work in team environments, software with project management features can help visualize projects, assign tasks to different people, and measure a team’s productivity.
- Time management software: A time tracker can provide insight into how you spend your time so you can make appropriate changes to your schedule. These tools may offer more features than a traditional clock or timer, like more accurate time-tracking reports or the option to track billable hours.
- Distraction-limiting devices: These devices are aimed at helping people reduce distractions to avoid losing time to browsing, social media, or other activities. This can be helpful for those who have trouble staying focused.
- Calendars and planners: Tools for managing your schedule, such as day runners and calendars, can give you a longer-term view of your upcoming tasks and commitments. This can help you avoid overbooking yourself and get a more realistic view of upcoming deadlines.
Devices like these may help you save time and stay organized. That said, it can be important to consider your needs, preferences, daily routine, and work environment when deciding which one is right for you.
What are the four types of time management?
Time management can take various forms depending on a person’s preferences and work style. That said, four common types of time management people may use include:
- Completing goals a little at a time by breaking them into smaller tasks
- Tackling the most important tasks before handling the less important ones
- Identifying unnecessary or unimportant tasks and putting them on hold or canceling them
- ingsDelegating tasks to others when possible (and when their schedules allow it)
These are four of the ways someone might choose to manage their time and stay on top of their work.
What are the 10 time management techniques?
Finding the right time management technique to keep you on track, either at work or in your personal life, can take some trial and error. That said, there are many options to choose from, so if you aren’t sure where to start, the following methods may help:
- Use browser extensions, apps, or existing tools on your device to limit social media, internet games, and other distractions.
- Silence your email notifications, or use other tools to limit email interruptions.
- Use time-tracking software to get a better idea of what you’re spending your time on.
- Track projects, project tasks, and important meetings using project management software.
- Consider getting a day planner to organize your daily tasks, or using a common team calendar to keep your and your coworkers’ schedules straight.
- Schedule meetings in advance and immediately write down the dates and times.
- Break your day down into different segments to ensure you don’t spend too much time on a single task.
- Coordinate team projects, hobbies, and events outside work as far in advance as you can.
- Before you finish your work for the day, review your tasks for the following day and decide how much time you plan to spend on each one.
- Avoid switching back and forth between tasks so you can give all your attention to what you’re currently working on.
If you’re having trouble practicing efficient time management and would like extra support, seeking counseling may also be a useful way to boost productivity and manage the stress you may be feeling.
How can I improve my time management skills?
Although learning time management might seem intimidating, there are several strategies you can incorporate into your routine that may make it easier. Examples of these include:
Reorganizing your schedule: Try listing your tasks in order of importance and urgency, starting with the most important and urgent and working your way down to the least urgent and least important. This may help you prioritize the most critical work when you don’t have enough time to do everything.
Delegating: Delegate tasks whenever it makes sense to do so. For example, if you have an urgent work deadline coming up, you might try passing some of your more minor tasks to a coworker. You can also do this at home—for example, by asking your spouse to do this week’s laundry in exchange for making dinner next week if you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Timeboxing: Try breaking your daily schedule down based on different types of tasks. For example, you might put all your household chores at the beginning of the day, followed by answering emails, and then other work tasks. This may help save you the mental effort of switching back and forth between tasks.
Plan ahead: It can also help to take a broad view of your schedule for the coming weeks, rather than just looking at the week ahead. For example, if you know you have a busy work week coming up next month, you may be able to get some of it done early to make it less overwhelming when the time comes.
Developing time management skills can be an ongoing process, and it may not happen all at once. It can be important to be patient with yourself, ask for help if needed, and try starting with small, sustainable changes.
How do you manage tasks effectively?
Learning to effectively manage tasks can be helpful for improving your work performance and staying organized. This skill can also be applied to your personal life, whether you’re juggling a busy schedule or you have personal goals you want to accomplish. While the most effective methods may vary, a few general tips for managing tasks include:
- Set clear goals. Ask yourself what exactly you want to get done and what success looks like.
- Break large tasks down into smaller ones. There is no limit to how small these “subtasks” are, as long as they’re manageable and allow you to chip away at your larger goals.
- Set deadlines, even for side projects. This can help motivate you to work on things that might otherwise fall off your calendar.
- Focus on one thing at a time. Limit distractions, and avoid switching back and forth between tasks, as it can take a while to refocus on what you were doing before.
- Take breaks regularly, even if you have a lot to do. This can give your mind a chance to reset and may help you avoid getting overwhelmed.
- Decide what you want to prioritize ahead of time, either every day or every week. This can help remove the guesswork from your routine and save you valuable time.
- Remember to practice self-care strategies, like staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, and eating a healthy diet. This can help you stay well and maintain your productivity.
Finally, it can also be helpful to seek support if you need it. Talking to a coworker, mentor, or mental health specialist can help you clarify your goals, figure out what to prioritize, and decide what to do if you run into challenges.
What is the most popular time management technique?
A few popular time management methods include:
- The Pomodoro Technique, in which work is broken into 25-minute bouts followed by short rest periods
- The Eisenhower Matrix, in which tasks are organized and prioritized based on urgency and importance
- The “eat the frog” method, which focuses on getting the hardest task out of the way first
Other popular time management techniques include time blocking, the 1-3-5 technique, and the Getting Things Done method. That said, it may be worth remembering that the effectiveness of each of these can depend on the person.
What are the 3 Ps of time management?
Time management can typically be broken into three main components, sometimes referred to as the “Three Ps.” These include:
Planning: Effectively planning out a task or project in advance can help you stay on track and complete each portion on time. This might involve creating a detailed schedule, figuring out who will handle what, and deciding when and where to delegate tasks.
Prioritization: Prioritization refers to identifying which parts of a task are most important and focusing more of your time and energy on those than the less important ones. This can help ensure that, even if you run into issues or delays, the most critical things are getting addressed first.
Performance: Performance refers to the act of actually accomplishing a task. This might include meeting deadlines, delivering quality work, collaborating effectively with others, or taking steps to respond to problems as they come up.
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