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23 Time Management Techniques of Insanely Busy People
Eliminate Distractions
- Turn off all notifications on your phone, computer, and tablet
- Leave your phone in odd places that prevent you from immediately finding it
- Work with headphones as people are less likely to approach you.
- If you find interesting articles, save them to read later, such as during the commute
- Turn off your Wi-Fi when your tasks don’t require internet connectivity
- Don’t browse social media at work at all.
- Use “Do Not Disturb” functions on chat systems.
- If you have an office, shut the door.
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Key Ideas
Write A Stop-Doing List
Remind yourself of items that don’t bring you joy, and contribute very little to your long-term goals.
This way, you’re unlikely to spend a lot of time doing time-sucking, non-rewarding work, freeing you up to do the work that does make you happy in the long run.
Schedule Procrastination Breaks
During this allotted break, give yourself permission to do time-wasting activities (social media scrolling included) until you got bored and want to move on to your next task.
Divide Your Day Into Themes
And if your job isn’t ideal for focusing on one thing per day, you can dedicate your morning to one focus area, your early afternoon to another, and late afternoon to another.
This way, instead of being overly restrictive about finishing a task in that time period, you have the flexibility to do any work that moves you forward in that particular focus area.
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Key Ideas
Do
Simply put, act on your tasks. The 2-minute rule can help with that: If you can complete a task in two minutes or less, do it now.
It's amazing what you can accomplish in just 120 seconds: write an email, make a quick phone call, pull a report and so on.
Delete
You don't have to do much of anything beyond making a simple decision to do or to delete.
If the deleted item is a simple activity that won't bring you results, remove it from your to-do list and move on with your day. The second most pleasing thing after completing a to-do list is removing an item from it.
Defer
To defer means saying, "Not right now" rather than, "Not ever." This could be a new project you want to com mence in a week or two or it could be van idea you want to reflect on before taking action.
But be careful, there's a fine line between deferring and procrastinating indefinitely.
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Key Ideas
There isn’t enough time
A one size fits all solution
Instead of relying on a tool with all the bells and whistles, find out where you’re struggling and what’s essential for you.
For example, if scheduling is taking you away from product development, then you could use a scheduling tool that uses machine learning to automate most of your scheduling needs. If you’re wasting too much time on email, then consider using a tool to help tame your inbox.
Less anxiety
Time management is only useful when you’re aware of your limitations and don't let the system dictate your entire life.
In other words, when you don’t tread lightly (especially at first), time management can add more stress to your life.