Have you ever found yourself frustrated and wondering, “what did I spend my time doing today?”
Even the best planners amongst us sometimes feel the hours slipping away without accomplishing the tasks they set out to do, but for those of us who personally struggle, or have a family member or friend who struggles, with time management skills, days like this can happen more often than we would like to admit and lead to a loss of confidence in our ability to handle our daily lives and accomplish personal goals.
If simply ‘working harder’ has not yielded the results you were hoping for, perhaps the tips here can help you develop skills to manage time more effectively and efficiently – and avoid some annoying pitfalls.
With a brand new year ahead, it’s a great time to try some new techniques, be more productive, and feel more in control of your day.
The good news is that these five, most common time management mistakes can be tackled and tamed!
Getting Started
Before we review time management strategies, it might be helpful to evaluate if time management issues are at the heart of you or your learner’s challenges. To learn, download our free .pdf Executive Functioning Assessment, which has specific tools to evaluate time management skills.
1. Procrastination
Of course, it’s easier to engage in activities we find interesting. Intrinsic motivation, our internal reward system, typically helps fuel the desire to tackle challenges and complete tasks. However, it’s not uncommon for problems to start mounting when we are required to do tasks we really don’t want to do.
Procrastination of non-preferred tasks can be a stumbling block that keeps you stuck and not progressing toward your goals.
Manage Procrastination with Pairing
One way to move towards completing non-preferred tasks is by working on your motivation. Sometimes, pairing the non-preferred task with an enjoyable one can create enough reward to help you persevere through it — and stay committed to your longer-term goals.
If sweetening the deal with a small reward, like allowing yourself a favorite beverage, treat, song, or video, during or afterward, can help keep you on track, allow yourself to do it.
‘Eat the Frog’
Another technique for dealing with procrastination is to ‘eat the frog,’ which means to tackle your least desirable, but important, task first. After completing the difficult job, you may feel more empowered and motivated to continue working on easier ones. Climbing over the initial hurdle can sometimes push you through the others that you feel more confident to handle.
Procrastination Fueled by Perfectionism
Procrastination can also be fueled by perfectionism.
The desire to produce high-quality work can be admirable and motivating, up to a point, but it can also lead to an avoidance of tasks when the circumstances you are working under are less than perfect. And let’s face it, that is much of the time. Instead of demanding perfection, try gaining perspective by remembering the big-picture goals.
Completing your work, to the best of your abilities, is often more important and productive than trying to do every item perfectly.
Perfectionism and all-or-nothing thinking can impede progress and lead to more stress, anxiety, and resistance to task completion. Try to understand that no one can work at his or her highest level all of the time, and yet if you do your best, that can certainly be good enough.
2. Time-Wasting Distractions
If not managed and limited, time-wasting distractors can sideline your goals, and keep you from completing required tasks.
Emails, texts, Tik Tok videos, surfing the internet, phone calls, coworkers, etc., the list goes on for the endless distractions that can interrupt your daily workflow. By scheduling specific times for work only, on one task only, followed by short breaks (25 minutes of uninterrupted work time followed by a 5-10 minute break) some distractors can either be eliminated or at least saved for your break times. This proven technique is referred to as the Pomodoro Method and can be helpful and effective.
Take Scheduled Breaks
Taking scheduled breaks can also boost your productivity by allowing you to switch gears mentally or physically. A movement break, some deep breaths, or a short walk outside can all refresh your ability to focus and avoid those time-wasting distractions.
If you often feel restless after sitting still for a period of time, try organizing a few stretching or other physical activities for your 5–10-minute break times and repeat them throughout the day.
Reduce the noise
If other distractors like people talking, random sounds, or pop-ups on your phone or computer screen lead you away from your work, consider techniques such as wearing noise-reducing headphones, closing your office door, silencing your phone, or adding an app to track your online browsing time.
Understanding your personal peak performance time of day to focus and be productive can highlight when distractions need to be reduced or removed.
3. Unidentified Stressors
Unidentified stressors such as lack of sleep, too many demands or time commitments, lack of regular exercise, skipped meals, and unrealistic expectations can all weaken your time management abilities.
Create a weekly schedule.
Creating a weekly schedule and sticking to it as best as possible can help eliminate some undue stress. Specific times for activities and building a strong routine can help you manage your expectations of how each day will progress.
Also, learning to say “no” to unrealistic demands from those around you can help you stay on track to accomplishing what really matters to you.
Have a back-up plan.
Of course, it is also important to create contingency plans for when something unexpected happens and interrupts your routine. Having a plan B and C if something goes astray can relieve stress by having an alternative plan.
If an unexpected stressor occurs, try being flexible by switching gears and completing tasks that are less demanding for the time being. This can help you keep on track towards completing your work even if you can’t focus as strongly as usual.
4. Tackling Large Projects or Assignments
Whether at school or in the workplace, another reason why many of us get stuck is that a complex project or task can seem overwhelming, maybe even insurmountable, and we don’t know where or how to begin. A step-by-step plan can help reduce anxiety and help you get moving along.
Creating a visual guide, check list, or ‘to do’ list with time estimates for each part of the process can provide the order and structure necessary to break down complex tasks into manageable pieces. Also, if an interruption occurs, you will have a reference for where you left off and how to continue your process.
ActiTime has some useful resources, including free ones, to help you break down and track important tasks.
Specific child-friendly time management tips can be found here.
5. Inefficient time management
Time management issues can look like spending too much time on insignificant tasks, poorly estimating the time required to complete tasks, failing to prioritize important items, and not setting goals each day. Learning how to identify these tendencies can be the first step to overcoming them.
The Mere Urgency Effect
The Mere Urgency Effect can result from working too hard on items you might think are urgent, although more important items fail to get done. If you find yourself doing urgent tasks and missing important ones, try using the Covey Time Management Grid. By understanding where your tasks fit within the matrix, you can prioritize those that are both urgent and important, while moving other items within the remaining boxes, to be done afterward.
The Ivy Lee Method
The Ivy Lee Method can be used to reflect, each evening, and write down six, prioritized items that need to be done the following day.
In the morning, you complete the tasks in order, one at a time, before moving on to the next, until all six are done.
This method is useful because it eliminates spending time trying to decide which item to do first and by helping to complete entire tasks instead of multitasking, resulting in only partially finished items.
The Fudge Ratio
If you have a difficult time estimating how long it will take to complete tasks, and it leads to a stressful time crunch, or uncompleted projects at the end of the day, try using the Fudge Ratio. Most people tend to underestimate the time needed to complete tasks and are surprised by how much time is spent on each one.
So, by writing down your time estimates versus the actual time it took to accomplish a project, you will know how to make better future estimates and manage your time and expectations better.
In Summary
By regularly reviewing, refining your processes, and checking trusted resources at Life Skills Advocate, you can better understand your learning style and specific executive functioning needs.
Perhaps consider getting your free assessment or working with an Executive Functioning Coach for guidance and support.
You can improve your time management skills and ensure that you are honestly moving in the direction you want to go in the new year.