As a writer, publisher, business owner, 9-to-5 regular employee, and now a student, I easily spread myself thin. If I didn’t have certain practices in place, I wouldn’t be able to keep track of even half my tasks, but thanks to years of practice and my natural affinity for being organized, I’ve mastered the art of time-management and getting work done, even with a busy schedule.
Start My Day Off Right
If you find that waking up is a tough task, challenge yourself to do something active that will get you up and going. I try to start my mornings with a 2-mile walk and after that, I drink a nice cup of tea. I feel refreshed and ready to start my day, but even when I don’t do my walk, I start with some tea and a light breakfast to start me off.
Starting your day off right–be it with meditation, yoga, Pilates, prayer, exercise, cleaning, etc.–is imperative in staying on a productive track.
Keep a Planner
Planners were first introduced to me in elementary school and I’m glad they were. I learned at an early age that, even with a great memory, keeping a recorded list of to-do items is the best way to get them done. These days, there are apps and digital planners available to use, but no matter how you keep track of your tasks, keeping them organized by date and time automatically increases your productivity.
I like to use physical yearly planners that don’t just focus on general tasks, but incorporate other facets of life, such as work, school, and home. There are even niche planners that help people reach specific goals. If you’re looking for a specific planner (one for entrepreneurship, moms, school, etc.), you can search Amazon, but I recommend buying the planner directly from the vendor’s website.
If you’d prefer to keep a digital planner that you can access as long as you have your phone or a device, you can use the Reminders or Calendar app that comes installed on your phone and sync it with all your devices. You can also use your email client’s calendar feature to keep track of appointments and meetings.
Use a Productivity Tracker
Productivity trackers are like planners but they take it up a notch. Much like niche planners, they assist with specific goal setting, productivity and time management, and they are perfect to use when you have multiple projects with several tasks under each.
I currently use Airtable, and I love it because I can section out each of my projects and businesses and keep each workspace base focused on one section. I can customize each base to fit the needs of the project and what’s even better is that most if not all the key organization features you’d need are included in the free plan.
You can also use Monday, GetPlan, and WeekPlan just to name a few.
Set Specific & Focused Goals
To do this, break down your overall project into pieces, and determine how and when you want to tackle each piece. You can do this one of two ways:
Arrange your daily tasks into specific time frames.
- Break out your day into time blocks and slide each task into those blocks. When I have an open-ended project or goal that doesn’t have a specific deadline, I’ll task myself with spending a certain amount of time a day on that goal. For instance: I’m an author, and I don’t put a deadline on my writing process until I’m closer to the end. Instead of saying that I want to finish a certain part by a certain time, I task myself with just writing for two hours. This enables me to potentially do more writing than planned, but no matter how little or how much writing I get done, I feel accomplished knowing I completed my goal of writing for two hours.
Organize your tasks based on level of importance.
- Focus less on designating time frames and more on completing time-sensitive goals first. As the COO of a start-up company, I have a lot of strategic planning and implementing to do prior to launch that must get done by a certain time. First, I set realistic deadlines and organize my planner according to what should take precedence over other tasks. Once I know that, I focus on that task until it’s complete or until I’ve made satisfactory progress. I prefer this method personally because it takes the pressure from completing certain tasks within a certain time slot and focuses your time on things that matter most.
The real key to productivity is getting a grip of how heavy your workload is and arranging your day according to what needs to get done and when. On top of creating specific and focused goals, creating a visually appealing planner or productivity tracker can help keep you focused and give you the extra boost of confidence you need to feel like you really are being productive.
- Color Code/Categorize Tasks; At my 9 to 5 job, I organize my emails by various color-coded categories to help me keep track of what I’ve addressed and what I still need to work on. This is what I do:
- URGENT (deep red): This needs to be addressed first and foremost.
- TO DO (light red): General to-do items that aren’t as time sensitive as the urgent emails.
- LOOK AT (orange): Things I need to look at more in depth or again.
- KEEP (purple): These emails contain information I know I will need to know later and I need to keep. I usually move these items to my SAVED MESSAGES folder in my inbox.
- INFO (blue): These emails contain good information but aren’t extremely important. I usually mark work announcements or guides with this tag.
- DONE (green): Items that were once marked as to-do that I completed. This helps me know if I addressed something or not.
- Highlight or Check off Completed Tasks; In my planner (I use for non-9 to 5 work & personal stuff), I keep the color coded theme going by highlighting items I’ve completed and crossing off items I decided not to do or did not complete. This helps me get a quick glimpse of how productive I was that day and what still needs to be done. I always feel great when I end the day with all my tasks highlighted.
The hard truth is that some days are going to be so busy that you will not be able to add some fun or relaxation into your schedule, but make a habit of winding down so that you don’t go to bed stressed out. It’s okay to relax, in fact, you should–just don’t make a habit of procrastinating on important tasks for the sake of relaxation!
