Multitasking can hamper your productivity by reducing your comprehension, attention, and overall performance . Research has discovered that multitasking affects the speed and accuracy with which pharmacy doctoral students identify prescription errors.

Although you may feel that you work faster when you multitask, the truth is that you don’t. You work slower and less efficiently when multitasking (Cherry, 2021).

Humans experience serious difficulty in multitasking, due to the way attention and executive control work.

If you don’t have time for anything, it’s highly likely that you have an activity prioritization problem. This means you don’t know how to classify your tasks by their degree of importance or you don’t dedicate to them the time they deserve.

Try not to start something without first asking yourself, “Do I really need to do it now?” If your answer is no, then don’t do it. Do the most important and priority tasks first. Then, move on to the other things.

Prioritizing ensures that you use your time efficiently.

If you don’t review your schedules and plans, you may end up wasting your time and energy on things that are no longer useful or necessary. Ultimately, this will leave you feeling as if you don’t have enough time. That’s because your priorities have changed, but you’re still doing the same old thing yet expecting different results.

Clutter decreases your productivity and your chances of doing everything you’ve planned.

If you don’t manage your time properly, you won’t have enough. One study has found that practicing time management strategies also contributes to improving time management skills. This means the longer you spend practicing managing your day, the better you’ll get at it.

The study also found that time management behaviors are positively related to perceived time control, job satisfaction, and health, and negatively related to stress.

You may not have time because you don’t sleep well.

Sleep is necessary for your organic functioning and also for your mental one. An absence of quality rest is associated with reduced general well-being, performance, and productivity. If your cognitive performance and productivity are reduced, how do you expect to be able to do everything you’ve planned?

One study has demonstrated that people who sleep an average of seven to eight hours perform better in cognitive tasks of reasoning and problem-solving.

You don’t know how to say no to a plan, a commitment, or someone else’s request. This lack of assertiveness ends up taking away the time you might’ve had for other important things you want to do. Finding time for yourself should always be your top priority. So make sure you prioritize yourself and your well-being above others.

If you never have time for what’s important, maybe it’s because you’re filling your schedule with activities or tasks that meet other people’s needs and not your own.

For example, perhaps you’d prefer to stay at home on your sofa reading that novel you’ve just bought or watch the movie that’s been recommended to you, but you can’t because you don’t have time, as you have a thousand more commitments to fulfill as well as tasks that are overdue. That’s because you’ve spent too long pleasing others.