If you struggle to get your most important work done each day, better time management will help you increase your focus and productivity. These easy time management tips are ones I use with my clients as a time management coach.
As a time management coach, I help people free up their time, and manage their time better so they can achieve their goals faster. If you never seem to have enough time, better time management can help you feel more productive, focused, and in control of your time.
Good time management aims to use your time more effectively to achieve your goals faster. Effective time management reduces stress, overwhelm, and procrastination.
We all have the same amount of time. If you want to use your time more effectively, there are some easy time management tips you can implement to get more done in less time. Managing your time effectively will help you set better goals, prioritise wisely and spend your time on your most important work.
If you have a lot going on and feel busy but not productive, here are some ways to make time management work for you. This article shares 9 easy time management tips for better time management.
9 easy time management tips
Here are 9 easy time management tips to increase your productivity.
1. Work out your goals
To manage your time better, it’s important to set goals that are achievable and measurable. Goal setting helps you decide what you want your ideal future to look like, and your priorities in life.
Setting goals gives you long-term direction, and short-term focus and motivation. The ability to set goals is a good way to stay organised and productive and ensure you’re spending your time on your biggest priorities.
Get my step-by-step guide to goal setting.
2. Create a time audit
To manage your time better, you have to understand how you’re spending your time. To understand where your time goes, it’s important to track your time for a week. Tracking your time will help you understand where your time goes, not where you think it goes.
Once you know where your time goes, you can make adjustments to use your time more effectively, and productively. Creating a time audit will help you identify time wasters, and ensure you spend your time on your biggest priorities.
3. Prioritise wisely
People often treat their to-do list as a priority list, but the reality is, there are only so many items on your to-do list that are actual priorities, and you can achieve in a day.
To make your time work for you in the most effective way, it’s important to narrow your priorities, to 5-6 items you can achieve each day. Time is elastic and will stretch to accommodate what you choose to put in it. To effectively prioritise your tasks, you need to identify the three biggest priorities to focus on.
Get proven tips on how to prioritise your time.
4. Plan ahead
To make time work for you, it’s important to plan your days and weeks before you are in them. Planning your week on a Friday or Sunday is a great way to identify your priorities for the week ahead, so you start the week feeling focused and productive. Make a list of 5 things you want to achieve that week.
You don’t need to go into lots of detail, but listing these priorities, and planning them in greatly increases the chances you schedule them in, and they get done.
Plan your week with my guide to weekly planning.
5. Make a list
Longer hours and longer to-do lists won’t make you more effective or productive. The key is always to work smarter and focus on the activities, skills, and relationships that will help you achieve your goals.
To help you manage your time effectively, start each day with a small to-do list of your biggest priorities. Less busyness, and greater productivity, will help you manage your time much better.
Plan your day with my guide to daily planning.
6. Take breaks
It’s tough to make the best use of your time if you feel overwhelmed and exhausted. To manage your time and energy, take regular breaks during the day and take mini-breaks during sustained periods of work.
Try scheduling breaks for 10-15 minutes every hour and take one long break throughout the day. Managing time this way boosts your focus and concentration and keeps your energy high.
7. Focus on results
Good time management requires a shift in focus from tasks to results. To manage your time effectively, it’s important to get clear on the results you want to achieve. When you are clear on the outcomes you want, you can look for the simplest and fastest route to achieve that result.
Focusing on results ensures you work in a way that’s results-driven and avoid activities that take you away from achieving that result. When your focus is on focusing, you eliminate the distractions that take away your focus.
8. Focus on your strengths
To manage your time effectively it’s important to spend more time using your strengths, rather than trying to improve weaknesses. When you spend more time doing the things you’re good at you’ll be more productive, more efficient, and more creative.
People who manage their time effectively focus their time on their biggest strengths to help them achieve the results they want. When your time at work is a source of energy and excitement in your life you can achieve more at work and have more time to pursue your passions outside of work.
9. Set yourself up to win
You can make your time work for you when you take control of your time and set yourself up to win. Achieving a small number of daily priorities makes you feel more productive than finishing half of your to-do list.
To manage your time effectively, find ways to feel like you’re making progress each day. When you do, you’ll feel much better about how you’re spending your time.
Summing up
These 9 easy time management tips will help you be more productive and achieve your goals faster. To manage your time better, it’s important to choose your goals carefully, prioritise your tasks and schedule your tasks and deadlines.
Managing time effectively starts with planning your week, making a daily to-do list, and tracking your time to ensure you’re spending your time on your biggest priorities. Use these tips for effective time management to be more efficient and productive.
Now I’d love to hear from you.
Which one of these easy time management tips will you implement first?
Let me know in the comments.
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About Mark Pettit
Mark Pettit is a time management coach and accountability coach based in Colchester, Essex, UK. He provides time management coaching programs and accountability coaching programs to business owners and entrepreneurs in the UK, US and Canada.
Mark also writes about time management, productivity and goal achievement. Each month, over 10,000 people read Mark’s articles to help them achieve their goals faster.
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