Life seems to get busier each passing day, and it feels harder to catch up with most of the things in our lives. Most of us have been to that phase where we don’t have any time to do anything and it makes us feel extra tired, or frustrated. I, myself, have faced those days too, and I try to find a balance between everything.
Having good time management is the key to be able to find that balance in your life. Some of us may have been overwhelmed with how to manage our times, but let me tell you that this seems easier than we think of. Continue reading to learn about the steps. (Video version of this blog post is also available on YouTube.)
To manage our time, we have a few simple steps to follow:
- Planning & making a to-do list
- Set priority
- Stay motivated
- Remove distractions
- Emergency free time
Let’s get into it and explain how these steps work.
- Planning & To-do List
Plan your day the night before. Write them in your to-do list. This will help you to be prepared and have an idea on what you need to do. Make sure to have free time for your own resting and for unexpected events (emergency free time). More about (emergency free time) in the upcoming steps.
- Set Priority:
When you work on things that are a priority and need to be done in a specific time, work on them first. Then, move on to other tasks little by little. And if you have a task that takes a lot of time, try not to pack your to-do list with things that aren’t as necessary, this way you’ll also avoid stressing yourself by not having a long to-do list.
- Stay Motivated:
First thing to do when you wake up is to MAKE YOUR BED. I personally feel more motivated to go about my day once I do that.
Try to start from the small tasks and tick them off of your list. Once you see a good amount of tasks ticked, it will give you a good feeling and motivates you to go on and try to finish the tasks that take more time.
Another way to stay motivated is to reward yourself. For example there is a TV show you want to watch, put it at the end of your to-do list and watch it once you finish everything on your list.
You can also stay motivated by thinking that this task is your responsibility, the sooner you finish it, the more you will feel relieved and feel less stressed. And no one will come to do it for you, YOU HAVE to finish it. Once you tick it off, you’ll be free and can do other things without feeling guilty. Try it, it feels wonderful without hearing the little sound telling you, “But you haven’t finished that.”
In cases of facing new challenges, like having to deal with something new that takes so much of your time, it’s okay if you couldn’t keep up with your to-do list, as long as it doesn’t take you long to get back on track. It’s something we’re all likely to face, so take a deep breath and plan it once you’re calmer.
- Remove Distractions:
When you work on the things you have, especially the more important ones, mute notifications from your social media accounts. Once you’re done, you can unmute the apps and check them out. Sometimes you’re being very productive and giving your all to something, then you hear a beeping sound from Facebook of someone commenting on your post or something like that, and you check it then the next thing you realize is that you’d spent the past hour scrolling and lost in the rabbit hole.
We don’t want to be distracted like this, so muting notification is a way to remove the distractions from social media.
Each person is different, therefore, each one of us has different distractions. That’s why first, find out what your distractions are, then you can work on removing them in order to perform better.
- Emergency Free Time:
As mentioned before, emergency free time is to have free time besides the free time you already have. In daily life, anything is likely to happen, so having an extra free time can be used for such unplanned things. And by emergency I don’t mean something bad, anything that you haven’t planned for can be counted as an emergency. And when nothing unexpected happens, you have extra free time to do anything you want.
A To-do List Example:
In that to-do list, starting with “watering the plants” would be better. As I said before, start with the small tasks.
I believe this is a simple doable method that most of us can follow. You can write your to-do list in your phone’s notes or use an app that can help you with that. If you want to be more precise you can also set reminders and specific time to do each task and the app reminds you to do them.
Feedback Time
Before sharing my method in a post, some of my friends agreed to use it and see how it goes for them. According to them, using this method helped them to organize their times better.
Here is their feedback:
“So each day I tried to set up my ideas in a schedule, this made me feel I work properly. I start from the priorities to end up with the secondaries. Every morning I made my bed (Something that I wasn’t doing everyday before I read this plan), and it makes me feel very organized and comfortable
I kept on working according to Dlvan’s time management plan. I can say that I finish the objectives and achieve the aim of each day. Very helpful, very useful, and beneficial.”
“To be honest, managing your time, having your to-do list, and planning your objectives show how much time we have in a day and how much time we waste. After I created my do-list and started to manage my time, I could do one week’s work in three days.”
“Worked well for me and motivated me to work harder. Having the list was like a game and a challenge which helped me to finish everything in a shorter time.”
“I feel like I’m more organized and motivated to do my daily tasks. It’s very time efficient and can’t wait to tick off my tasks and it is very rewarding to see what I accomplish everyday.”
“I usually plan my days on a monthly basis but after I tried this, I found it more effective to plan my day the night before. I also prepared a not-to-do list to be aware of the things that distract me from what I should do. It works better for me. Although no emergency break popped up this time but based on my previous experience it can be useful. I used Pomodoro technique to break down my work into 25-minute intervals separated by 5-minute breaks. After each interval I rewarded myself. I’m more productive using this technique.”
I would like to hear from you! Tell me your opinion in a comment below!
Dlvan's Thoughts 
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