These time management tips are for the person who wants to manage their time better but doesn’t know where or how to start—the beginner so to speak. I am not the most efficient person in the world but for much of my life, I’ve had experience balancing multiple commitments, interests, and responsibilities. Most of these tips seem pretty obvious and intuitive to me but I don’t take for granted that they might help you.
Know Your Values
This is probably not the type of time management tip you were expecting to hear, but it is key. A wise person once shared that what you spend your time on is a reflection of what you value. Someone who values fitness is going to have some gym time in their day or week. Someone who spends time with their family likely values and appreciates family. Often times our ability to manage our time is all over the place because we don’t know our values and have not ranked them in order of priority. So the first step to figuring out how to better manage your time is determining what is important to you and then committing to making time for the things that are your highest priorities.
Become More Mindful of Time
Know how long it takes you to complete the tasks and activities that fill your day. Do you know how long it typically takes you to grocery shop? How long does it take you to get ready? How long is your commute? Mindfulness of time is important because it allows you to set more realistic expectations of what you will be able to get done in an allotted amount of time. The goal of better time management is not to do as much as possible in the 24 hours, it is to make the most use of the 24 hours you have. There’s a difference between the two. If you’re setting aside 30 minutes in your calendar to do a task that actually takes an hour or two, your setting yourself up for constant readjustment. Adjustment is fine and necessary but it should not be the default state of being.
A pro tip for getting to know how long tasks take if you’re genuinely clueless is to start timing yourself. (I shudder at the thought of this because it definitely reminds me of law firm billable hours but I guess there was something to learn from this.) Once you have a better sense of how much time it takes to complete certain tasks, work backward from this to plan out your days, weeks, and months so that you can set more realistic goals of what to do with the time you have.
I should add mindfulness and awareness of time should also help with being on time for things, which is a trait of someone who manages their time well.
Multitask When Possible
Think of the times in your day when you have meaningful opportunities to multitask. For me, that meaningful opportunity is typically a commute. Commutes are usually a great opportunity for me to edit a short “get ready with me” style video that I just filmed or reply to a few emails. Multitasking allows you to maximize time because you’ll be doing two things at once. You have to be careful to not overdo or force it. Some activities are meant to be enjoyed and other activities require your full focus and attention. For example, if you are someone who won’t go as hard during a workout if you have your attention on something else, or if you won’t retain information if you do something else while watching a video, then maybe that treadmill run is not the best time to rewatch old class lecture video. Just a thought.
But again, if we get our recommended 8 hours of sleep, we are left with 16 hours in the day. Multitasking can definitely help make the most use of time and energy.
Get Comfortable With Doing Things Alone
If you’re someone who constantly wants or needs a buddy to do some of the things you need to do, time management might be an issue for you. Adding other people into the mix means you may have to be on someone else’s time. Doing things on your own allows for more flexibility and allows you to figure out a timeline that works best for you. After all, it is your time that you are trying to manage.
Time Management Tips Recap
This is just a starter but even then these time management tips are probably more than enough to start with. To recap, here are some questions to ask yourself as you strive to get better at managing your time:
- What do I value? What are the things that are important to me?
- How long does it take me to do certain tasks and activities?
- How can I do more at a time? What are some easy ways I can multitask to maximize time?
- Am I prepared and willing to do things on my own?
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90: 12
