Time is the essence of our lives. In order to lead healthy, energetic and productive lives, we need to utilize this rare resource and use it effectively. It is true that you can compensate for almost any lose in life – be it money, relationships, ideas, possessions or even limbs- but you would never be able to compensate for the lost time. If it is gone, then it is gone forever.

The market is full of books, articles, tools and various sorts of content on time management. Yet we see more and more people complain about their inability to manage their time effectively. If you’ve read this fare, most probably you too struggle a bit with time management and so did I, until I found a magical formula that worked like charm for me.

The fault of traditional time management is at its core. The books on this topic are great and you get really excited motivated while reading one. You might try a method or two or even all of them, yet slowly but surely you’ll get back to the normal state you’re accustomed to. If you’ve ever tried one of those methods where you should track every minute of your time for a week or so, you’ll know what I mean. Tracking itself is ok; it gives you a good and accurate insight of the measured variable/variables, but in the case of time, it is not as easy as portrayed in books!

So what should you do? Here are 7 simple steps that you can start applying today:

1. Never try to micromanage your time

Micromanaging your time will not bring you any good. Instead, it will stress you out and turn you to a living freak. We live in a world of high uncertainty where nobody can predict for sure what’s going to happen in the next couple of hours, not to mention calibrating a schedule for 24 hours or even a week.

Continuously breaking your schedules and pushing away appointments and tasks will make you feel bad. It will affect your self-image and weaken your trust of your ability to ever stick to a schedule of any sort again.

Action step: instead of micromanaging your time, macro-manage it. Always look at it as a whole, divide it into blocks of 2-3 hours each or regions – morning, noon, afternoon, etc. – and try to allocate important tasks into those regions without specifying a numerical hour:minute:second value to it. This will give you flexibility and reduces the stressful urgency you feel when you try to chase your time by the minute. Also it will eliminate the amount of guilt you feel when you –for example- send that important email on 4 pm instead of the scheduled 15:35:20!

2. Focus on your most important outcomes for the day

An outcome is a desirable result you want out of something. Each day should be defined by its most important outcome. Usually a day will have an outcome or two that can be classified as important outcomes and rarely there will be more than three.

Action step: before you go to sleep in the day before, grab a small piece of paper and a pen (I chose to do it the old fashion way and leave the sophisticated mobile apps for something else) and write down your most important outcome/outcomes for the next day. By doing this you will clear you mind and most importantly you will be more likely to achieve those outcomes.

3. Beware, to do lists are dangerous

Entrepreneurs are fond of to-do lists. They’re a practical way of keeping track of all what you want to do. They also give you an exaggerated sense of achievement; since the mere act of writing stuff down makes you sometimes feel as comfortable as when you’ve achieved them – sounds familiar?

Do you remember being so eager to buy that great book/audio program/online course you’ve wanted for so long and felt like it will be the book that will change your life forever, and finally you bought it? What happened next; just after you’ve put it on the shelf or laid it on your desk? You were so satisfied and felt so comfortable that you didn’t have to read it anymore! This is exactly where the danger of to do lists resides; writing them might subtly sedate you into not taking any further action. Even worse, by the end of the day when you review what you did and didn’t, you easily postpone the uncompleted tasks to the next day. Surprise! This will satisfy you for the rest of that day – because scratching items out of to do lists is linked subconsciously with achieving them even if you’ll rewrite them for the next day, and then to the next and so on.

Action step: instead of being obsessed with to do lists, use them as a ways to remember things without falling in the trap of the to-do illusion. Never postpone a task more than one time; make it a personal must and stick to it.

4. Utilize the power of NOT-to-do lists

“Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

When I read that quote for the first time, I immediately fell in love with it. Our days are full of tasks that should be done – or at least so we think. Most of these tasks are trivial matters that don’t contribute substantially to our wellbeing and success. In this sense, NOT-to-do lists play a much more important role than to-do lists. They allow you to live a richer, more fulfilled life.

Action step: Put it your goal to differentiate between what matters the most to you and what doesn’t. This should originate out of your heart and guts. Then start to eliminate as much as you can of the trivia and daily nonsense.

5. Schedule time for recreation and relaxation and stick to it

Usually people falsely assume that productivity is related exclusively to workplace or business. However, being productive simply means that you produce large amounts of desirable results and goods. In order to be able to do that, you should rest; relaxation and recreation are integrated parts of productivity.

The time you spend resting is not wasted at all; as long you do it consciously for the sake of your wellbeing. If you want to cut trees you can’t do that forever without sharpening your saw every now and then; because it will wear gradually until it becomes useless.

Action step: put aside an hour a day for total relaxation. It has nothing to do with the time you allocate for sleeping. During this hour you can meditate, listen to calm music or just lie down and admire the lovely clouds and the blue sky. Consider it a chance to recharge you batteries and increase your productivity.

6. Use the Pomodoro Technique®

The Pomodoro Technique® is a time management method. This Technique helps you to transform time into a valuable ally by helping you accomplish what you want to do and charting continuous improvement in the way you do it.

This technique helps you eliminate distractions by working in 25 minutes time blocks. You should totally focus on the task for 25 minutes then you take a 5 minutes break. You repeat this cycle 4 times and after that you take a longer break for 20 minutes. Your brain will use this time to assimilate new information and rest before the next round of Pomodoros.

Action step: learn more about the Pomodoro Technique® by visiting their website (Link) and try to integrate it into your daily routine. You will notice large increase in productivity within a couple of days. Try it, it is amazing!

7. Use the 7-minutes rule

Procrastination is one of the worst productivity killers on earth. It sneaks into your life unnoticeably a little by a little until it takes control over your whole being. One of the biggest reasons behind procrastination is that our brain gets intimidated by the perceived complexity of a certain task and therefore, it tries to protect you by moving away from that task.

The 7 minutes rule is a diplomatic way to ease your mind into doing any task you want. You simple say that you will do that task you’ve been putting away for just 7 minutes. Then if you like it you’ll continue and if you don’t you stop. Once you get started, you’ll gain momentum and find it much easier than what you thought. You’ll hardly stop at that point and before you know it, the task is done!

Action step: make a list of 3 important tasks that you’ve been postponing for a long time. Pick one of them and give it a try for 7 minutes. Once the task is completed, do this for the remaining 2 tasks.

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Photo: listentothemountains

Start today and notice your progress for the next week. I will be glad to receive your feedback and comments on what worked best for you and which other methods you use as well.

Stay Lively 🙂
Saed