Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity

A plan is only as good as what goes into it. In many ways, your plan is your task list. Rather than just write down things to do, you want to organize your tasks. Organize them by:

• Priority
• Due date
• Steps that need to be taken
• Start date
• Who it is for
• How long it will take
• What you need to complete the work

This is what will help you to stay on track. Consider creating your own template and testing it. See what best supports your needs and helps you meet your goals. It also helps to take big tasks and break them into smaller steps.

If you want to know how you spend your time, you need to have some kind of time-tracking method.

You don't have to get software or download an app (although you can). You can do it using a simple table.

Break down your time to intervals of at least 30 minutes.

In your table, list categories of tasks you normally do and start keeping track of whatever you’re doing and then identify the categories of the tasks you’re spending your time on. 

Honesty and discipline are the keys to learning from your time tracking. Then you can decide if that is the best use of your time, given your goals in life.

There are all kinds of time management systems, but the purpose of this course is not to sell you a particular time management system.

It's possible that you have a preference for a specific system, and when this is true, it's really in your best interest to try to learn the system of choice. Otherwise, don't feel compelled to use a system just because everyone says it's the best system. 

The best system is the one that helps you to be productive and effective. That's really the bottom line.

• Keep your desk free of clutter. 
• Recycle or shred unneeded documents.
• Organize files on your computer in a way that makes it easy for you to find things.
• Keep your calendar current and accessible from multiple devices to avoid double-booking yourself and missing deadlines. 
• Make sure that your cell phone and your tablet sync with your work computer.