Most of us make gruesome time management mistakes that not only cost us our precious hours but also result in increased anxiety, stress, and a derailing work-life balance.
Let’s look at some of the most common time management mistakes and how to avoid them to increase our productivity:
1. Not Setting Goals
Working aimlessly without a goal in mind can result in a lack of motivation and productivity. You easily give in to distractions and don’t manage your time well.
How to Avoid It?
Setting goals and committing to them gives you direction and motivates you to complete your tasks. You become more focused and manage your time and resources better to achieve your goals.
But remember, not all goals are equal. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, & Time-bound) goals perform better than unspecific goals. Several studies support the claim. One such study conducted in the banking sector of the Cape Coast Metropolis found that setting specific and challenging (yet attainable) goals helped increase employee performance.
So instead of having “to complete my first novel” as your goal, use its SMART variant, i.e., “to complete at least one chapter of my first novel every month”. The latter is more specific, challenges you, and sets a time limit for your goal.
2. Not Prioritizing
If you don’t have a to-do list to help you stay on top of tasks, you’ll find yourself jumping at them haphazardly. At the end of the day, you’ll still have a lot of undone tasks and frustration. It’s not that there’s not enough time, but the fact that you’re not managing your time well.
How to Avoid It?
Having a to-do list helps you prioritize your tasks and manage your time well by assigning time on the basis of the importance and urgency of your tasks. Here’s how to go about it:
Find an app to list and prioritize your tasks that suits your needs. Write down all the tasks you need to do in a day or week in your to-do list. Rank them on the basis of their importance and urgency using a ranking system. Rank the most important and urgent tasks at the top, while the least important and urgent tasks stay at the bottom. Start with the most important and urgent tasks and move down the list.
3. Not Tracking Time
If you start a project without evaluating how much time it will take, it’s possible to take up more time than required. Or you can become overconfident and take up more than you handle, without having enough time to complete it. With less time on your hands, not only will you be unable to meet deadlines, but the work produced is likely to be subpar.
How to Avoid It?
Always evaluate how much time a particular project should take and strive to complete the project within that timeframe (make sure to give yourself extra time for short breaks). You should use a time-tracking app to track how much time you spend on a project or task.
Once you know how much time (on average) a particular task takes, you can schedule your tasks more effectively. Do this enough times, and you get a detailed log sheet of the time spent on different tasks on a particular day/week/month.
Once you have that, you can find out what recurring tasks are taking the most time, and think of solutions to do them more effectively or automate them to save more time. The internet is teeming with free time-tracking apps you can use to track your projects for better time management.
4. Procrastinating
Procrastination is a huge impediment to work, especially when you have to complete a difficult or boring task. Add to that a mix of compelling distractions, e.g., your smartphone, and you’ve got yourself the perfect recipe for procrastination.
You’ll slack, give in to distractions, and waste your time until the deadline approaches. Procrastinators are always short on time, behind their deadlines, and have little to no work-life balance.
How to Avoid It?
A great way to avoid procrastination is to break a huge project into smaller, more manageable tasks. For example, if you need to write a 2000 words article, instead of dreading writing the complete article, break it down into sub-tasks: outline, introduction, subheading 1, subheading 2, subheading 3, and conclusion.
Now assign yourself time slots for each of these smaller tasks and commit yourself to them. You’ll feel more motivated to complete these smaller tasks and less likely to procrastinate. Another great method to overcome procrastination is to use the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro technique follows a similar concept.
Here’s how you can use the Pomodoro technique:
Break down a project into smaller tasks Get a timer and set it to 25 minutes Give yourself 25 minutes and work on a single subtask Take a 5 minutes break, once the timer rings (after 25 minutes) Complete four 25-minute cycles and then take a half-hour break
5. Scheduling Ineffectively
Have you noticed that some days are not as productive as others? That’s because our energy levels vary throughout the week. Not only that, different people have different energy levels throughout the day.
If you’re not considering your peak productive hours while scheduling, there’s a chance you might find yourself with the most important tasks pending, with little time and energy left.
How to Avoid It?
Are you a night owl or an early bird? Evaluate how you work and find out your peak productive hours. Once you know the hours you’re most productive, schedule your projects accordingly.
Allocate your most productive hours to the most important (and intensive) tasks while keeping less important (or less intensive) tasks, e.g., replying to emails or setting up meetings, for the remaining work hours. There are several calendar apps out there that can help you schedule effectively; find the one that best meets your needs.
6. Giving In to Distractions
A June 2020 survey from Statista revealed that 53.7 percent of people working from home thought that their smartphone was the biggest cause of distraction. How often have you found yourself working and, suddenly, your phone starts buzzing? You get distracted and are now compelled to check your phone.
Whether it’s an email from a client, a message from your colleague, or a random notification from Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram; distractions can cost you a good chunk of your working hours.
How to Avoid It?
It all comes down to effective scheduling. Set out time slots for work, checking emails, leisure, etc. When it’s time to work, put your phone aside (on airplane mode), preferably in another room, and get to work.
Since the biggest source of distraction is now out of the way, it becomes much more probable and easier to focus on your work. Since you’re putting all of your focus and attention on a single task, you’re less likely to make errors and more likely to get the task done effectively.
What if putting your phone on airplane mode hasn’t worked for you? What if your mind wanders toward social media, and you’re compelled to pick up your phone to check emails or scroll through your Facebook feed directly on your laptop? If that’s you, try using the Freedom app to get rid of distractions, overcome procrastination, and achieve more.
Unleash Your Full Potential
While focusing on how to manage your time better, it’s easy to lose track of why you’re managing your time in the first place, i.e., to get more work done.
Navigating a multitude of productivity apps every day without getting more work done is pointless. Find out what works for you and stick to it, without losing sight of the bigger picture. But to find out what works for you, it’s important to understand your time management needs.
