Successful individuals are considered to be great at following time management tips. If you want to be an incredibly successful professional in your chosen area, efficiently planning your day is something that you don’t want to miss.
For instance, Elon Musk who is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s 4th richest person stands by few rules to make a day productive. He has a highly planned life and doesn’t hold large and frequent meetings. He considers “emails” his one stop shop to get things done. He gets maximum done on the 5 days he works and finds time for his 5 children on the weekends.
Suddenly, you can’t wait to get started and immediately plan your day right? There is a small problem, though — where are you supposed to start? What tips are really going to be effective and easy for you to adapt, with all the tips, strategies and tricks that you have come across. How can you even get started, with all the stress and demands during your day?
The definition of time is the first thing that you should take care of. Simply put, time is an idea that is subjective and varies from individual to individual.
You may think that it’s enough to spend fifteen minutes brainstorming your ideas, while some entrepreneurs even spend three days just brainstorming. You may also think that spending time with your loved ones should be done on a regular basis, although some people just think it’s a waste of time!
Time is subjective. Your definition of time is different from the idea of it that most people have. Therefore, if you do not believe that time needs to be managed, everything that you read and hear about time management is irrelevant. If you think your time is useless, if you would rather watch TV all day than work on your personal development, or if you would rather spend all day lying in bed instead of trying to make a difference in your life, planning your day for success is not the solution.
On the other hand, if you believe that your time is important, here are five tips to help you organize it successfully:
1. Schedule your day the night before
Before going to sleep, make sure you that you have a plan for the next day. Take out a journal or calendar and note your action plans in there for tomorrow.
It would be best if you can have at least four plans for every day – one could be work-related, one can be like an errand for a personal activity and two could be for fulfilling your life dreams.
2. Allot time for interruptions
By setting up time allowances for interruptions in your schedule, you can get frustration out of the picture. If you suggest that from 9 am to 9:45 am you’re going to complete a task and then another task from 09:46 am to 10:30 am, you’re only setting yourself up for trouble!
Don’t expect everything to go as planned. Only if you prepare for interruptions will you be able to schedule the day calmly and effectively.
3. Start your day by completing something significant
You start eating the dish you don’t like first when eating a meal, so you can focus on enjoying the rest of the meal, right? The same goes for your day. If you have something major to be done that day, do it first.
This way, even though you do not achieve something else, you can always be happy that at least you have done something big.
4. To help you remain on schedule, use a time-tracking app.
There are plenty of them available to be downloaded and helps you reduce the time you spend listlessly among tasks, on breaks, in meetings and on social media. Of course, you can continue browsing Instagram and Twitter but you just need to plan for it and manage your time for these things so that you don’t get distracted.
5. Accept the fact that you won’t be able to do everything in one day.
You don’t have superpowers, so in a day, you can’t do it all. Instead of working and cramming a huge project into one day, schedule milestones. Don’t be disappointed and be hard on yourself if you were not able to finish everything you’ve planned.
Remember, you still have the next day but that doesn’t mean you keep putting off things to be done.
