1. Know Where Your Time Is Going

Have you ever actually tracked your time? Do you know what you did in the past hour?

If you haven’t already, start by keeping an hour-by-hour log of exactly what you do during the workday for at least two weeks. You’ll likely notice a pattern of when you’re most productive and when you might be wasting time.

2. Plan Ahead

Planning is essential to managing your time well. Pick a time to plan for the week ahead, day-by-day. Plan your schedule, write it down, and put it somewhere where you can see it. Include personal activities, too! Make sure to schedule date night, doctors’ appointments, and even break time.

3. Prioritize

Once you’ve tracked your time and dissected your activities, prioritize them. Figure out which tasks you can eliminate completely, then organize the rest by importance.

An easy way to think of this is by identifying “rocks” and “pebbles.” Rocks are your big, must-do tasks. Put these first. If possible, batch them, or schedule similar activities together.

Then, add your pebbles. These are smaller tasks that still need to get done, but aren’t quite as important as your rocks. Try your best not to multitask as it actually causes you to lose time and productivity because you’re switching from one task to another instead of focusing on your schedule.

4. Delegate

After planning your schedule, see if there are any tasks that you can delegate to other team members or an assistant. If you don’t have an assistant, figure out if it would be feasible or worth it to hire one.

5. Remove Distractions

This may seem like a no-brainer, but some distractions disguise themselves. If you work from home, is there a television close by? Is your desk near the refrigerator? Do you keep your cell phone in arm’s reach? Social media browsing and text messages, or even the lure of leftovers can interrupt your schedule. It’s important to be proactive about limiting distractions. Turn your message notifications off and shut the door to your office so you’re not tempted.

Ultimately, time management is the key to working smarter, not harder. Follow these tips and soon, your productivity will be off the charts.

Master Time Management With a Coach

To dive deeper into time management and learn how to run your business effectively and efficiently, request a free workshop with one of our certified sales coaches.

Forest:

This app urges you to stay focused by using a digital tree. You plant a tree that will continue to grow as you work. If you leave before the work is finished, your tree will die. The app also partners with a real tree-planting organization, so you can feel good about your work in more ways than one.

RescueTime: 

This app focuses on productivity, automatically tracking and categorizing where you use your time. You can block distracting websites like Facebook for a certain amount of time and set custom work hours to maintain work/life balance.

Timeular: 

If you’re more of a kinesthetic learner, Timeular might be the tool for you. This app comes with a physical tracker that you can customize with your daily activities. Flip the tracker to the appropriate activity and it will track time for that particular task.

Focus Booster: 

This simple app is based on the Pomodoro technique, which uses a timer to break work into chunks, with short breaks in between. Users can receive an aesthetically pleasing dashboard that shows how time was spent at the end of the day.

Timely: 

As you schedule your week in Timely, the app will predict how much time is needed for each, and as you track your time, you can compare the predictions with how long each task actually took to plan better in the future.

For more help with time management, consider giving 1:1 coaching a try! Contact us for a free consultation on how personal coaching can help you take control of your life and reach your career goals. If you’d like to book a free workshop for your team, let us know!