Whether you have too little or so much free time, answering the question of where your time goes is always relevant to being productive. As we all know, time is a limited resource: we can always earn money, but we cannot bring back time. "Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity" is a free course in Coursera offered by the University of California, Irvine. It provides these smart time management steps that yield better day-to-day productivity. I personally find it effective not only for time management but also for achieving work-life balance. 1. Always create a work plan. Having a work plan gives you a direction for the day, week or month. One technique is to put similar things together. For example, on a weekend, you can chunk all the things you have to do outside the house and finish it all in one trip than going back and forth, which causes more interruptions and uses more time. Having a plan does not mean a lack of flexibility. You are free to make changes and having the original plan at hand makes it easier to make modify it when you have to. 2. Define work-life balance. Work-life balance means having an equilibrium between one's work and personal life, or simply, being able to devote ample time for each one. But what does that exactly mean? How much time is enough for each? It is only you who can answer that. You need to come up with your own definition of work-life balance. You can be spending 12 hours at the office thrice a week and that makes you feel fulfilled and happy as long as you are able to run in the treadmill at least 30 minutes per day. Or maybe, you prefer working strictly only from 8AM to 5PM, and have the rest of your time for yourself. 3. Track your time use. Some people wake up early, do a whole bunch of things and end up really tired by the end of the day but did not actually get to accomplish tasks that matter. Time tracking allows you to reflect what is actually done through the day. Try to make a list of categories of tasks (e.g., household chores, studying, answering emails, reading the news, chatting, etc.) and classify what you did, let's say, in each hour. Maybe you spend too much time browsing through Facebook or Instagram and do not realize that it is getting beyond your intended momentary distraction. 4. Know your Reserve Time. This is time left after you handle normal responsibilities. Find out how much time you need to devote to activities that you regularly have to do, and see if what is left meets what you need to satisfy your definition of work-life balance. After sleeping, eating, traveling for work, being at work, etc., do you have time for other things you want to do, especially non-negotiable items? These can be going to the gym, socials, doing volunteer work or committing quality time with your kids or even your pets. 5. Set priorities. If in the end, you do not have enough time for all of the things you want to do, then you have to start prioritizing. Choose the activities you want to devote more time on. You can find ways to simplify some of your work processes with the use of apps and other services to shorten the time it takes to do them or eliminate them from your list. Perhaps you have to give up some work that you can actually assign to others. For example, instead of spending hours washing your clothes or car, you can send it to the laundry shop and go for a car wash and use the time instead to start learning that new hobby you've been wanting to try. Or, if you prefer to save money and do physical exercise at the same time, then doing these chores yourself is the way to go. 6. Estimate. Learn to estimate how much time exactly you need in accomplishing the tasks you have to do. You need this to make realistic work plans and deadlines. You might put a lot of things in your to-do list for the day and fail to accomplish some tasks because you did not estimate well the time you need to finish each one. Estimating leads to having plans that are more feasible to execute. 7. Focusing on one task versus multitasking. Doing one task continuously lessens switching cost, i.e., the time you lose from shifting from one task to another. While you may feel that you are accomplishing more by multitasking, studies show that focusing on one task at a time more often leads to finishing tasks. and is therefore the suggested method to tick off more things on one's to-do list. If you have to leave a task, make some notes on top of it, like details on where you are when you stopped. This lessens the switching cost once you go back to work on it again. 8. Consider the impact of the time of day on productivity. People can vary when it comes to their productive hours: some prefer to do more mentally-challenging tasks in the morning when they feel more energized and reserve routinary tasks in the afternoon. or vice-versa. Observe when you are best in doing certain types of activities and if possible, consider it when you make your work schedule. 9. Practice Working Smart tips with clear priorities.
Begin applying these smart steps by selecting one to three changes. Create a goal and make sure it is measurable. Check how you are doing and reward yourself for accomplishing each one. How do you define work-life balance and manage your time to be productive? Leave a note below and share you have other thoughts and ideas. :-)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
LifestyleArticles that aim to help you with day-to-day problems. About the AuthorA psychologist who is always mistaken to be a psychic. Archives
October 2015
Categories
All
|