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Top Tips for Time Management…

nuggetsoflearning • January 20, 2020

Time is non spatial it is not a product that we can buy off the shelf. We have to learn how to manage it by altering our own behaviour. We have to work at habits that enable us to manage time in our own way.

10 Top Tips

Clear distractions – clear your desk, peripheral vision, you can easily be distracted by other papers on your desk.
Email – take your email alert off
Identify prime time – scientifically we all have one hour in the day that is our best hour to get stuff done. Ensure you protect that hour by not having meetings during that time.
Buckets of time – Be realistic about what you are going to achieve each day. Allocate tasks to buckets of time:-
- - Daily
  - Weekly
  - Monthly
  - Annually
  - Projects
Patterns of the day – understand when to get your best work done according to the patterns of the day:-
- - Peak (in the morning) – analytical work
  - Trough (after lunch) – administrative tasks
  - Recovery (late afternoon/early evening) – creative thinking
Procrastinating – Get your hardest job out the way as quickly as possible. The term is “ Eat that Frog ” – if you had to eat a live frog you would want to do it as quickly as possible.
Decisions – make quick decisions, can I do it now? can I delegate? can I delete it?
Pomodoro – Breakdown work into intervals, the pomodoro technique is that you work for 25 minutes (a pomodoro) and then you have a 5/10 minute break. Once you have completed 4 pomodoros you can have a 30 minute break.
Transformational – Review your day at the end of the day and write what you want to achieve the next day. Be realistic and allocate some tasks to other buckets.
Power of 3 – Identify the 3 things that will make the greatest difference to your day