Improving your organizational skills will not help you reduce stress and anxiety but also help you increase your productivity and improve your time management skills.
Ending up with too much on your plate to be finished in very little time is the worst feeling ever. Time management is one of the essential life skills be it in your personal or professional space. It might seem a difficult task at first, but with a little bit of perseverance, effort and organizational skills you can manage time like you know it at the back of your hand. Here are some tips and tricks that you could try to make improve your time management skills.
Plan Ahead
Have a calendar handy. Documenting your activities for the day, week, month and year would give you ample time to allot time for each task. Also, maintaining a calendar would help you not missing out on appointments or important events. Once you have planned your to-do list, it would also get easier for you to visualize the resources you need to complete the task. Doing this will help you stay one step ahead of time as long as you stick to your plan.
Avoid Multi-Tasking
You are a person, not a machine. There’s only so much you can do in 24 hours and that includes giving yourself the time to fulfill your basic needs like eating, relaxing and sleeping. Also, you have only one brain and while multi-tasking might sometimes seem like the only viable option, it’s not smart thinking. Multi-tasking reduces your efficiency while increasing your effort.
Prioritize Your Activities
It’s okay if you don’t get to complete all the ten tasks you have listed to be done for the day. Prioritize your day’s tasks and move forward accordingly. Do a task only if you think it’s worth your time. We often invest too much time doing things that come last on our priority list leaving little to no time that fall under the high priority category. Complete your important and time-sensitive tasks first and then move on to doing things that require little to no time.
Don’t Procrastinate
If you are feeling lazy or doubtful about getting something done in time, fight the urge to procrastinate. Set deadlines for yourself and get yourself into the groove. You can also motivate yourself by keeping a reward for you at the end of completing the task.
