Now when I write about time management ideas and ideas for organization people who know me in real life might think that this is ironic because I am not known for being organized with my home or my time. I think that this is a good thing, though. Who better than someone who struggled with it and is making improvements to offer advice.
My mom is very orderly and structured so she never understood my chaos growing up. I never took her advice seriously because she hadn’t been there. She didn’t know what it was like to be messy and disorganized. Staying organized came naturally to her personality. So if you are kind of messy, struggle with organizing and getting things done, Then trust me when I say I understand.
So if you’re willing to listen to what I’m doing to change my ways. These are my top nine ways I’ve improved my life by managing my time and schedule. Some of them I’m really good at using in my life and some I’m trying to improve on because it would make me more productive in my home life and in business.
1 to-do lists:
The to-do list. I usually type mine out. You can write it on paper put it in your phone, whatever. Just get all the things you need to get done out and then you will know what you need to work on. It’s funny I’ve never been much of a list maker but my daughter is. When my mom took Bella shopping for school supplies, Bella made a list to take with them so she could mark things off.
2 schedules:
One of my big goals this year is to get better with scheduling. I keep track of things with Google Calendar so I can keep track of stuff on my computer and iPad. I’m really trying to schedule my blog posts better.
3 prioritize:
This point I’ve realized is so important in getting things done. You have to prioritize what’s most important to your life or your business and get those things done first. Then get the other things done. You have to put your effort and time into what’s most important. Once I started doing that. I have become more productive. Also, I’ve found that getting done the important stuff first helps you get it out of the way so that you can feel accomplished early on. Then do the lower priority tasks during the periods of time in your day when you aren’t at your best. Things like answering emails, going on social media, etc. still need to get done so you should save them for when you’re not at the top of your game.
4 use high energy times:
This one is so important. We all have times of the day where we function better and are more productive. I don’t like to work early in the morning, my brain likes to wake up for a long time. For me, I’ve found my best time starts at about 3 and lasts until 8. I can work other hours but I get the most done during that period. Find your time period and use it for your most important projects. I don’t work well in the morning. My brain needs the time to wake up and adjust before I’m able to be productive and do my work well.
5 get rid of distractors:
This is a weakness of mine, as I’ve mentioned before I like watching TV and reading and don’t want to give those hobbies up so I either watch TV while doing mindless computer tasks or reading or I go 1 hour of work 30-minute break back and forth. I use to watch a lot more TV and stuff but I needed those hours for more important things.
6 set mini tasks:
This is the one I’m working on improving. I have trouble breaking down a big task like clean the office into smaller more manageable tasks. So I see the huge task of this messy office and I don’t want to try to tackle it. I need to get better at making smaller goals and tasks so I will get them done.
7 set a timer:
We use the microwave timer at home for setting time for cleaning, Bella is supposed to do ten minutes of picking up at night, so she sets the timer. I also have the 30/30 app on my iPad and set 30-minute chunks of time to do certain tasks. Like 30-minute break to read, 30 minutes to go on social media, 30 minutes to write blog posts, etc.
8 know what you’re good at and what should be delegated
I don’t have anyone else in my business to delegate tasks to but hope as my blog business grow to be able to delegate some of my least favorite tasks to someone else. At home, we try to strike a balance of who does well but I accept doing more because my husband works a lot. We all have certain things though that are our responsibilities though to not feel too overwhelmed.
9.realize you can’t do it all:
You can do a lot and accomplish a lot but if you are trying to manage a home, a family, and a business not everything is going to be done perfectly, and sometimes things won’t get done and that’s why step #3 of prioritizing is so important to make the best use of your hours.
when working on finding time management ideas it’s important to realize that you only have a certain amount of hours to work with and not everything you might want to get done can be accomplished.
