“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today.” – Wayne Dyer on Time Management.
All jokes aside, time management is an issue we all face. In a 2022 study, around 89% of workers stated that they wasted at least 30 minutes a day at work. The funny thing is that the survey took 30 minutes to complete, making quite the paradox. In a day and age where AI can build your website in 2 minutes, we have to start thinking about the world in a different light. The world is not moving faster. Rather, the human race is moving slower, and we need to stop procrastinating to succeed.
Why Time Management Matters
Whether at work, at home, or at school, it does not matter; there are still 24 hours in a day and only 7 days in a week. We all need to start being disciplined in our behavior, and this article will discuss some time management techniques.
First, we must go over the basics.
It takes around 30 days to build a routine fully, yet 42% of workers think meetings are a waste of time; 7.5 hours a week are wasted at work for various reasons. You would be happily surprised that wasting time is NOT social media. This surprised even us here at TemproShop. We figured employees would spend a lot of time on YouTube or Facebook, but this has decreased radically in recent years.
However, this does not mean that we do not waste time.
Tip #1: Change Your Mindset
This is the hardest tip of them all. It is very difficult to break routines and even more difficult to do so when you are going about it without a strategy. The best advice we can give you is to keep a schedule and a calendar, or download an app (search the App Store for “time management apps”), and to try to stick to it. There is no magic formula for maintaining time management; it is an art and a science that solely depends on how committed you are.
If you feel you need help, check out our Daily Task Management template, a Glide app you can customize specifically to adapt to a new routine. Simply plug in what you intend on tracking, and go at it. The psychology behind changing a mindset and a routine is pretty simple: we are creatures of habit. If you have woken up every morning at 7:00 a.m. for 20 years, chances are that schedule will remain.
But if you change jobs and have to work the night shift, you will have to break that routine, and that is a matter of how well you adjust to your circadian rhythm. Every form of time management requires a subsequent subset; learning to manage your time is dependent on the situation.
For starters, try changing the way you think about time management. Instead of saying, “I have to spend less time on Facebook at work,” think instead: “I have to make sure I don’t get fired.” Which option sounds more risky? The riskier the outcome, the better the result will be.
2) Set Realistic Goals You Can Follow First
One piece of advice from the Talk To Angel blog is, start small. Start with smaller goals. Do not try to readjust your entire routine in one sitting. The average person requires around 30 days to adapt to a new habit, and 30 more days to stick to it. So, start with smaller goals. Start by saying: “I will try for this month to find 20 more minutes a day to play with my children.” This sounds a lot easier than: “Okay, this month I’ll make more time for my kids, will work on a gym routine, and will start sleeping in less.”
The simpler the goal, the more likely it is to be accomplished, and this will allow for you to gain some confidence that you can truly change your routine. Time management is a psychological game, just like all of them (as I call them: “a game of psychological Chess”), and to win it, we need to trick our minds into believing that we can succeed. If you start small, you will gain more than you think.
3) Maintain Task Prioritization
What? Well, in laymen’s terms, that simply means you need to take out a sheet of paper and decide what is most important throughout your daily routine. It involves finding what is at the top of the list, and what is at the bottom. This seems obvious, but there is actually an entire science behind task prioritization, and it starts by not procrastinating and instead, writing up a list of “High Priority,” “Medium Priority,” and “Low Priority.” Again, we suggest using our Daily Task Management Glide app template for help.
This should simplify the journey.
4) Stop Thinking It Is Hard
We bet you thought this would be a blog about how to achieve time management. It is not; you can find all of that on Google. Rather, this is about a mindset shift, and if you stop thinking to yourself that maintaining a schedule or altering your routine is difficult, chances are you will find it easier.
In an article by Robert Boy Britt, it was emphasized that when we think too hard about something, toxic chemicals and various neurotransmitters (chemical messengers that communicate between cells) build up in the parts of the brain responsible for decision-making. Ever get a headache when you think too much?
This Is An Actual Disease!
This condition is called “Brain Overload,” and it is even listed in the American Psychological Association’s “DSM-5” Manual. It means that if you think too hard about something (whether changing a nasty habit or staying off of Facebook for a week), you will develop the wrong types of chemicals in your brain, thus leading to impaired thought processes and physical pain.
Thus, stop thinking that it is a difficult task. If you think it is easy to change your routine, then it will be. If you delay, you will find it hard. I made a goal to go to the gym three times a week. I went 12 times this month. The habit, as we stated, takes around 30 days to adapt, and now it is like second nature.
5) Keep A Schedule (Duh!)
Only 18 percent of Americans use a schedule. Whether a pen-and-pad calendar, an app, or any other variation (or if you are like most, sticky notes lining your desk), consider being a part of that 18 percent. If you want a challenge, here it is: make that number 19 percent of Americans, depending on where you live. If you keep a schedule, most people’s problem is not following it!
You have to commit to time management techniques, or you will fail. Why waste 10 hours planning your week when you are not going to follow through with any of it? Try to keep things simple, as stated, start small, and build your way up. Focus on one change at a time, and you will be set.
Concluding Thoughts
Time management is crucial to success in life, but we will be honest with you: it is not an essential component. If you want an easier way to do things, our Daily Task Management app can help. Also remember something: overplanning is just as bad as underplanning, and this is a fact. So, try to keep casual about your change in routine or schedule.
The harder you try to change something that just does not need to be changed, the less likely you will succeed. If I asked you: “Would you risk your job if it meant being able to play video games all day?” most would say “no.” But some…well, some may actually do just that.
The point I am trying to make is to think about what changes benefit you the most, and focus on the easiest ones first. Do them for a month (one at a time, please), and you will slowly build the confidence to change another habit, and another, and another, and so on.
A Case Study: My Uncle
Time management does not need to be so horrible! Just think what you will lose if you do not change. If you were diagnosed with liver cancer, your first objective is to quit drinking, and yet many still continue the negative behavior despite the consequences. “I’m already going to die, so why not enjoy my remaining years?” said my cancer-diagnosed uncle.
I will tell you this much: he died a painful death, and it would have been a lot less painful if he had quit. My point is to change what is needed, keep what is not hurting yourself or anyone else, and live your life happily while maintaining a sense of realistic thinking. This is your key to success.
