Time management is needful in our seemingly busy everyday lives be it in fulfilling tasks or trying to dress up and get to social function, Church service or interview on time. If I talk about all that here this post might be dreadfully long so I will break it down into two parts. For this post I’ll talk about fulfilling tasks and the second part on how to manage time will come later.  Sometimes we have so much to do that it often feels like twenty-four hours aren’t even enough for a day anymore. Whether you are working, schooling or self-employed we can all relate to this. I have found the following tips very useful ever since I incorporated them into my daily life schedule. I must say I haven’t gotten a mastery of all yet but I’m constantly working towards that. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.

1. GO TO BED EARLY

Early to bed, early to rise

I’m sure you must have heard that so many times that it sounds like a cliche now right? You are correct but that statement is very powerful if you actually follow it. When you sleep early there’s every chance you will get at least 8 hours of sleep which is recommended on the average. If you wake up early there will be an increment in the number of hours you will have in a day to do all that you have or want to do as opposed to waking up late with a fraction of the hours gone with sleep.

2. KEEP YOUR SPACE ORGANISED

Take out time at least once a week to reorganise your space and keep it organised. Check your Emails and get rid of all those promotion Emails you’ve allowed to build up, delete Emails that aren’t necessary. Clean out your closet and keep things in order so that you can easily reach for them when you need them without having to scatter the whole arrangement. If you work remotely or in an office, create a conducive environment for working that suits you. A conducive environment gets the thoughts flowing and new ideas readily available, consequently reducing the amount of time you spend on a single task. Over time you’ll find that this really helps, not just in conveniently managing your time but also unapologetically increasing productivity.

3. WRITE DOWN THINGS MORE OFTEN

Establish an implementation intention simply known as To-do list. Get a writing pad, diary or a planner and make yourself that list either daily, weekly or monthly. Or you could have a short-term to-do list and a long-term to do list. This is one great step to purging your brain of unnecessary cluster. Prioritise the points as you put them down, it just may appear that you don’t have as much to do as you thought you did. Place an actual or potential time limit on every point. In the case of long-term To-do lists, always utilise your calendars to double-check your expected date of completion and mark them. After realising a point, tick it or cross it out.

Designate specific time to social media as well, that will save you a whole lot of useful hours.

4. MAKE ROOM FOR ADJUSTMENTS

Now that you have mapped out everything and figured out what to do first, next and last you feel like you are going to finish in no time. To be more realistic you have to allow yourself some free time in-between tasks because you may never know who will call in for an urgent favour, emergency, delivery or even a meeting that will disrupt your day/list. Be meticulous about your time but yet flexible.

5. REWARD YOURSELF

Finally! You have done a great job, it’s time to reward yourself. Not necessarily with material things but that depends on you. You could go on a solo date, keep the frappuccinos for times like this instead of spending daily on them, hang out with friends, read a book, hang out with family, chat up that friend you haven’t written in a long time or go take a walk in the park and share a cone of ice-cream with the numerous strangers there.

So guys, here are my tips, they’ve been tried and proven, you can incorporate these into what you already do if you find helpful. Leave your comments below let me know how you manage your time.

xx