Time Management Techniques for Procrastinators
Time is that rabbit that stays with you no matter what…
Our work life, our emotions, our priorities… all bundle up inside this precious package called Time. It’s high time now to understand how to manage time properly so that we don’t get stressed out in completing tasks.
Let’s discuss some of the ways to manage time in our daily lives:-
1. Categorizing Tasks according to the Priority Matrix
What we basically do to manage time in our daily lives can be properly understood by observing a Priority Matrix.
A Priority Matrix is a grid in which you try to complete tasks based on urgency and importance. It is also called the Eisenhower Matrix. A typical Priority Matrix looks like this below:-
2. Make a Routine, not a TimeTable
Yes, you heard it right!
Making a timetable often creates so many unnecessary situations that act as obstacles in your time slots. Giving a specific time to each of your tasks might be helpful in speeding up things, but it’s not that helpful in the long run. Because you don’t know what time will it take to complete a certain work. Completing tasks is not like preparing a food item. Tasks are meant to accompany your lifestyle, not to make you a machine. So, it’s mandatory to set some mini-goals to complete during an entire day. You don’t allot time to specific tasks, just try to complete those tasks before sleep.
In short, a To-Do-List proves to be much more effective than making a TimeTable.
3. Choking all the Distractions
We will encounter so many distractions while doing any particular task. So do we adjust to it or eliminate it?
Adjusting our mental state to any situation will make us flexible and become straightforward in our work life.
While adjusting to a particular distracted scenario, we will observe two types of people:-
(i) Some people are always rushing to cope up with time without having the self-confidence to finish the tasks.
(ii) Some people seemed to have sufficient time to take things under control.
Eliminating our distractions is somewhat possible, but temporary. Getting rid of one type of distraction doesn’t mean that other types of distractions will not knock on your door. Elimination is just a medium to get things done, but it comes with due of mental pressure in the future.
4. Self-analysis of work schedule
We know how disorganized our daily life is; otherwise, why are you reading this🙄
Just think carefully about all the useless tasks you are doing daily. Then reduce the time wasted on those unnecessary tasks. The time we get from reducing will add up to our other time-consuming important tasks.
Caution:- A thing to remember is don’t get stressed while analyzing yourself. You might hate yourself, but you will learn valuable lessons to live a balanced life by reducing the valueless tasks.
5. Setting up a deadline
A deadline is the end-point or the limit under which you have to complete tasks. Limiting yourself or bounding your tasks with time constraints will make you much more productive and competitive. Most people tend to have that last-minute rush which is very deadly. It might make your day or might worsen your state of mind completely. Basically, it’s a box of uncertainty.
A deadline seems to be dangerous for procrastinators, and a boon for productive people.
6. Stop giving excuses
“I have no time to complete the work”,
“I’m very busy”,
“I don’t know when to talk with you, I simply don’t have the time.”
These are some of the common conversations which come under the box of Excuses. It’s very tempting to go with the flow of your emotions, but being thoughtful in these scenarios will be fruitful in maintaining our healthy lifestyle.
People will bore you, will disturb you, will ruin your current state of thought; but not everybody is alike. Some people might want to talk with you for good reason, but you ignored that and said that you have no time for them. For being socially acceptable, you have to give some of your precious time to these things too. Don’t feel bad after having a conversation with someone, just try to have a healthy conversation. If things don’t go well, then watch out for your pending work and leave aside everything that is bothering you.
Time waits for none, but plenty of time is available even for the busiest person on the planet. A busy person thinks he/she’s busy. What he thinks is not always true. Yes, you have a lot of work to do, but that doesn’t mean you have no time available. If you can, you will; if you don’t, you won’t.
Thanks for reading this far…
✍️Ajit Kumar Sahoo
