How to do more in less time: best time management tips

You have exactly the same 24 hours as Elon Musk, J. K. Rowling, Beyoncé, or Shakib Al Hasan. Do you know what differentiates their days from yours? They know they will never be able to do everything. That's why they only focus on the tasks that allow them to achieve their goals, the tasks that will have a real impact.

These people have understood the difference between being busy and being productive.

Being busy is—

• being overwhelmed by a multitude of little things that have little importance
• get up 1 hour earlier to catch up on everything you failed to do
• feeling overwhelmed by your agenda and never satisfied with what you accomplished during the day
• become irritable and impatient.

Being productive means—

• focus on what really matters
• create a personal and professional organization
• stop dispersing or procrastinating
• and in the end, gain hours of freedom!

The good news is that all of this can be learned. Everyone is capable of creating the life they dream of. But for that, you need above all a guide like this from Ghoori Learning because the road to productivity is unfortunately very complicated to find.

What if you could do more in less time?

Chaining the hours, getting up always earlier, and always working later did not allow you to complete your endless ‘to-do list’ with satisfaction. Nor to get your activities off the ground or achieve your life goals.

On the contrary, for years, you were on the verge of permanent burnout. For this reason, the below tips could help you regain control of your time and use it for the things you care about:

• Whether it's spending time with your family
• Do more sport
• Travel
• Cook
• Or build that project you've been keeping in the back of your mind for years.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, employee, freelancer, student, or unemployed, with this guide, you can regain control of your life. So, if you feel like you're treading water as you strive to work hard every day, if you are a perfectionist and find it difficult to follow through on what you need to do, if you are constantly running after time, and you simply feel overwhelmed. 

This guide will profoundly change the way you organize yourself. Even better, you'll find that you can customize it to suit you and the way you work perfectly, even as your situation changes over time.

Tip #1: Time yourself

To manage your time well, knowing yourself and your abilities are fundamental. For this, timing daily tasks will help you. It's the only way to know exactly what you're spending your time on and then be able to optimize your days.

Tip #2: Set limits

Your time is precious and some tasks are not worth spending hours on; help your collaborators to identify them and define with them a time limit not to be exceeded during their realization.

Tip #3: Divide your projects into multiple tasks

Breaking down the most complex projects into several simple and quickly achievable tasks will surely assist you with better time management. This method offers a clearer view of the project and its progress.

Tip #4: Plan ahead

By taking into account tips 1, 2, and 3, you have at least theoretically all the cards in hand to carry out a daily and/or weekly schedule. Will you hold it? Probably not, at least at the beginning, for lack of sufficient knowledge of the obligatory passages of life in a company but it will come soon!

Tip #5: Manage priorities

Not all tasks require the same effort or attention. Hence, you have to identify the most important missions and reserve the best time slot for your employees.

It is also recommended to separate the creative tasks from the reflective tasks and to reserve entire half-days devoted to one or the other of these categories to optimize your right brain or your left brain.

Tip #6: Avoid multitasking

Multitasking may sound productive but it diverts your attention from one task to another and increases downtime. One performs better if he gives attention to one task at a time. Grouping similar tasks can be proven effective.   

Tip #7: Avoid sources of distraction

Mobile phones, mailboxes, instant messaging, and social media, with these ultra-connected, external stimuli are numerous and deconcentrating threats. To avoid giving in, several solutions can be considered: turning off the phones, checking the mailbox only once or twice a day, isolating in a quiet corner, etc.

Tip #8: Prepare the day before

If you have problems with punctuality, a good day's work is organized from the day before. Preparing lunch or polishing the shoes before bedtime, for example, will allow you to save considerable time the next morning in addition to arriving on time at work!

When it comes to time management, it's all about prioritizing. To recall these good practices in all benevolence, why not start with the story of the big pebbles? The important thing is to identify your big rocks like goals, dreams, etc., both privately and professionally, to devote the time needed to achieve them and to make them a priority!

Tip #9: Use time management apps 

Knowing how to manage your time and optimize your organization is essential, both professionally and personally. Without it, you can quickly feel overwhelmed by the vastness of the tasks to be accomplished in a day. Fortunately, technology helps a lot. It can help you organize yourself better, save time and improve your productivity. Many time and priority management tools are available on the market, which sometimes makes the choice difficult. Here is a selection of time management apps to help you be more efficient at work.

i) Rescue Time

With detailed reports, this application lets you know how much time you waste each day on the web or other mobile applications. Rescue Time also allows you to see how much time you spend answering your emails, in meetings, or working on your various projects. You can also note completed tasks here. Finally, it is possible to block distractions and know the duration of your activities on your mobile. This app helps to better manage daily working time to the data it provides you. The App is available on iOS, Android, and desktop versions via online software.

ii) To do list

Minimalist and easy to use, To do list allows you to plan and prioritize your tasks and projects by priority level. The time saving is real because you know exactly what to work on. The little extra of this app is the language recognition that allows you to automatically add tasks to your calendar. For Example, if you have a team meeting every Monday morning at 10 a.m., write: “team meeting at 10 a.m. every Monday of the month“. The app will create a recurring task in your calendar. The App is available on iOS, Android, and computers.

iii) Trello

Trello is a very simple tool to use thanks to its system of boards, cards, and lists. Depending on the progress of a project, you can manipulate them by "drag and drop", like post-its. This gives you an overview of your team's work in progress. Although it has many features, the use of the tool remains very fun. The App is available on iOS, Android, and desktop versions via online software.

Conclusion 

You have more work than you can handle as things stand. You have established your priorities. You planned. You have delegated. You tried hard to concentrate. All you have to do is become more efficient in order to be able, with equal performance, to save time. 

While the choice of method to follow will vary from person to person and depending on the situation, my experience as a time management coach or courses in Ghoori Learning has taught me that the implementation of even only of the nine strategies will save you several hours a week.