These 13 useful tips on how to save your precious time will prevent time wasting by determining what you want to do, monitoring progress, prioritizing, and ensuring chosen tasks are worth your precious time. Read below 13 tips on how to save your precious time.
Determine What You Want To Do
This is about goals for both your work and home life. For instance, you may want to cook healthy, lose excess weight for improved health, plan on spending more time with your family, allocate time for exercise, schedule drop-off, and pick-up to and from school for your children, or work-life balance. When you determine what you want to do, you can break it down into little tasks and fit them into your life.
Making Work-Life Balance Work
Prepare a to-do list
A “to-do” list is dependable, but you can try other means too. However, it’s important to write them somewhere and keep track wherever you go on your cell phone, for example. A listkeeper tool or calendar app is probably on your phone already.
Rank in Terms of Priority
Avoid putting many tasks under “urgent and important” because they can cause stress. Instead, focus more and spend most of your time on tasks listed as “not urgent, but important”. This is how to save your precious time and where you can get the most useful things done without being overwhelmed.
Program Your Day
Be flexible with your planning, know what works best for you, and don’t hesitate to switch tasks. For instance are you an early morning or late afternoon worker, or do you like your evenings free to relax? Are you more likely to do garden work if you have plenty of free time to do it once or spread it out over a week? Choose what’s best for you.
Just Begin, Don’t Postpone
If you feel a strong urge to postpone tasks, find a way to push past it and take even a small step forward. For instance, going for exercise is an activity you’re likely to put off. But once you step outside and take a few steps, you’ll feel better, as your quickened pace restores your energy.
Handle the Difficult Task First
If you have something difficult to do, get it out of the way first so you don’t have to worry about it the rest of the day. For example, if the difficult task is a 1-hour gym workout, get it out of the way. Setting aside the difficult tasks helps you relax over the less difficult tasks thereby eliminating stress.
Monitor Your Progress
It may help to monitor the time it takes you to do things. People tend to overrate how long it takes to do something simple like taking a shower, but underrate the time needed for bigger tasks, like writing a business plan. So if you know the precise time you spend on tasks, you are likely to manage it better.
Be Time Conscious
If you schedule a work session at 11 a.m., stick to it. 11.15 a.m. won’t do even if you work alone. Once you miss your start time, you’re likely to keep missing others. However, if you want flexibility you can switch tasks but stick with the scheduled time allocated. If at the end of the day, this is not working for you, you can always change the work schedule.
Set Time Limits
how to save your precious time
That is, set the most allowable time for the task. You may get it done sooner, but if not, the limit helps keep you from overdoing it. Once you hit the limit, move on to another task.
Be Tech Savvy
Technology, including the Web, email, and social media networking sites, can distract you for hours. But it can help too. So look for tools to help you track and schedule your time, remind you when to do something, or even block you from the time-wasting websites that tempt you most.
Reduce Email Time
Emails can take your precious time particularly when posting hundreds of emails daily. Therefore, one tip on how to save your precious time is to be proactive with your emails as explained below;
Delete: If it doesn’t concern you or isn’t something you need to know, delete it.
Respond: If it’s an urgent message that can be responded to quickly.
Forward: If an email asks you for something better handled by someone else, forward it to that person and move on.
Treat later: Defer for later action if it’s going to take more time than you have at that moment.
Take a Break
It may seem “resourceful” to work through lunch, but it can backfire. The reality is that 30 minutes away from your job will help you work better in the afternoon. If you’re not hungry, go for a walk outside or do some stretching. You’ll likely come back with more energy and focus.
Plan Recreation
The whole point of getting better with your time is to make more time for the things you want to do. Add fun, healthy, non-work stuff throughout your week to keep you positive about your schedule and motivated to keep going. This includes breaks, snacks, recreation, exercise, and even vacations especially when you finish an important task.
