7 simple but effective ways anyone can get good at time management
7 Time management hacks that anyone can do
If you’re like us, you could probably use an extra 10 hours in your day.
With these 6 time management hacks, it will feel like you do!
Time management hack #1 - Eat the frog
Yep, you heard us right!
“Eating the frog” is a time management trick where you start with the thing you want to do the least.
I learnt about this from Brian Tracy a few years back, and it has been saving my day ever since!
It is about getting a big, scary task out of your way.
It is about making sure you don’t think about it too much. That’s why you have to pick the thing you will procrastinate the longest!
We think that this is one of the best ways to clear your mind (as well as journaling of course).
If you “eat the frog”, you will lift a weight off your shoulders, and get rid of that pesky anxiety that is probably hanging over you when you ignore it.
Time management hack #2 - Time Block
Time blocking is when you take your daily planner and allocate a specific amount of time to it.
If there is one tip you take away from this post, make it this one! Gary Keller swears by this method in his book The One Thing.
We have had some massive changes in our biz this year. Since my friend Emily Gowor told me about time blocking, my team has probably got sick of hearing about it! Time Blocking, this is the time hack that I am relentless about with my team.
They might be sick of hearing about it, but it is the best way to work smarter not harder with your time.
Instead of having one, long, seemingly-endless to-do list, break it up.
For example, in the morning you block off half an hour for work emails, and then two hours to work on your marketing project uninterrupted.
If you are at home, you could block off one power hour of cleaning and then the rest of the day you can relax with your family.
This is also a useful tool if you are prone to overwhelm.
If it feels like you have a million things to do and no time to do them, use time blocking. If you have two projects going at the same time, block out time for the second one on another day.
This means that your brain can let it go because you KNOW that it has allocated time.
That means that you are free to concentrate on the task in front of you instead of trying to do two at once.
Time management hack #3 - Tick off the easy things first
Think about something you have been putting off.
If it takes less than 5 minutes, just do it now! It is pretty much the opposite of “eating the frog”.
In our house, we mostly use this for household tasks. We work some seriously long hours running our two businesses, so this hack means I can get as much done before and after work!
On your to-do list, mark the things that you know won’t take very long with a star.
This will make your to-do list seem much less visually overwhelming. It will also make you feel accomplished and organized and ready to tackle the rest of your list!
Time management hack #4 - Make a list of 3
Sometimes, the best time management hack is to reduce the number of things you need to do.
We know that you love ticking hundreds of things off your list. But instead of getting overwhelmed by so many things, we prefer this “make a list of three”.
Stop and think about your top priorities. What are the THREE things that are going to make the biggest difference to your day, your week your month? Make these things non-negotiable.
By the end of the week, you will have achieved 21 priorities. Imagine how much you could get done in your business, home and life every week!
This hack stops you from ticking things off aimlessly (don’t lie, we know that everyone has put a completed task on their list just to tick it off!).
Our Leanne Baker Daily Planners are perfect for this. Leanne built in the “list of three” every day to help you reduce overwhelm and reclaim your productivity. We recently launched all-new designs - they are so pretty we want it to be 2020 already!
Time management hack #5 - Beat The Clock
If you are reading a blog post on time management, you probably need a few procrastination hacks as well.
If you have a daily or weekly task that you really don’t wanna do, try timing yourself.
Make it into a game where you have to beat your last score!
If you want some motivation for this, check out Leanne Baker’s super satisfying cleaning time lapses, or the ones where she races the kettle to get things done!
Time management hack #6 - Anti- To-Do List
We see you. You have done so much this week. You’ve ticked so many things off your list (and gotten a rush of endorphins every time!).
But sometimes you need to take a moment to reflect on how amazing you are.
As well as having a to-do list, make yourself an anti-to do list (also sometimes called a ta-da list!).
Instead of throwing away all your completed to-do lists, put them together in a new list.
You can also add the things that you accomplished that weren’t even on your original list.
That way you can look back and see all of the amazing things you have accomplished! This hack is perfect for those weeks when you feel like you are getting nowhere.
You will have a list that proves otherwise.
Time management hack #7 - Task batching
Are you one of those people who can't seem to focus on one task at a time? You find yourself jumping from one computer tab to another, or getting started on a cleaning task and making it only halfway through before you remember something else and rush off to do that instead?
It may seem like an efficient way to do things, "multi-tasking", but it can get exhausting, not to mention overwhelming!
This one is for you! I find this particularly useful for work. Get out your to-do list. Look at every task, and identify similar tasks (social media, housework, emails) and batch them together.
As you get better at this and can think further in advance, you can batch together meetings, appointments, running errands, and so on.
This way, you will lose less time switching between tasks (not to mention brain power) and be able to focus entirely on the job at hand.
These are our favourite time hacks for running our business. Which one will you be trying this week? Don’t forget to let us know in the comments if you found this post helpful- then we can write more juicy content just for you!
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