When people ask you personally or via email something that you are struggling to decline, use templates. Templates are standard response you use to everyone. With the use of these, you refuse them politely without offending them. Also, it saves you time and there's less emotional pressure compared to writing a decline every time.
I gave up on to-do lists; here's the super simple way I plan my days Last year, I shared my One Big Thing philosophy. The idea is simple: Focusing on one big thing each day is more productive and more satisfying than checking off as many tasks as possible.
A To-Do list is composed of your routine activities that continue to come up daily.
A Might-Do list is composed of the things you might do someday, things that are your goals and you will, in the course of time, schedule them in your calendar.
There are some general areas that all of us should prioritize in order to function well and generally make life worthwhile. These areas are:
Health and fitness. Bad health and fitness habits add up over time and have a knock-on effect in other areas of our lives.
Sleep and rest. Inadequate sleep leads to unstable emotions, impaired learning, imbalanced hormones and a compromised cardiovascular system.
Friends, family, and relationships. It's hard to mend relationships once they've been frayed. Be proactive about being the connector and decide beforehand what you won't miss out on.
Productive work. Instead of working harder, we should work smarter (more strategically.)
Intentionally take your focus away from distracting areas in your life.
Social media and entertainment. While they can add fun to our days, it's worth reducing how much time we spend on apps.
Busy work. These are tasks we do regularly but that fail to move us forward. These tasks should be delegated, automated, limited, or deleted.
Negativity. When we focus on the negative, we are prevented from seeing reality clearly. It is then important to be aware of your inner thoughts. Maintain a running record of positive things people say about you.
Good time management techniques simplify how you work and help you get things done better and faster. Here are my 23 favorite time management techniques. They are a set of principles, rules, and skills that allow you to put your focus on the things that matter and help you be more productive.
Switching between tasks can have damaging costs to our work and productivity.
Develop the habit of single-tasking by forcing your brain to concentrate on one task and one task only. Put your phone away, close all the browser windows and apps that you don’t need. Immerse yourself in this task. Only move to the next one when you’re done.