Time management is one of the trickiest parts of everyday life. I wanted to share 5 easy ways to manage your busy schedule. As ensuring that you have time for all of your various tasks can often feel impossible. It can feel that each job is taking time away from the other crucial work which needs to be done. As a big part of this, lateness and forgetfulness can plague us. It doesn’t have to be this way.
To help you out, this post will be exploring five of the best ways to start managing your time, giving you the chance to take full control over this part of your life, stay passionate and avoid burnout.
Manage Your Time
At the risk of stating the obvious, smart phone calendars are a blessing. With just about everyone carrying a smartphone with them, nowadays. It makes sense to start with an option which revolves around these devices. Both Apple and Google have developed calendar apps to go with their smartphone offerings. These calendars can sync across many devices. You can set notifications when an appointment is nearing and have recurring appointments set up. They have loads of benefits which a normal calendar can’t offer.
This can go further than making life a little bit easier, though. Using systems like Apple’s Siri or Google Assistant, you can dictate your schedule with your voice, having each entry added to the calendar automatically. Some can even take dates and times from emails and add them for you. Though this sort of system isn’t as solid as the other features on offer, making it worth being careful if you decide to go with this option.
Keep A Diary
Keeping a digital diary is great for some people, as it is a little easier than writing everything down. Others will find it far easier to remember their appointments after writing it down with a pen or pencil. Sometimes it’s simpler to have a paper record of your day that you can chop and change as events unfold. Having a physical diary is good for more than your memory, though, and can be a great way to ensure that you’re never without your schedule. With smartphones being internet-based devices, users can find themselves unable to access the information they need to carry on with their day as the result of wifi blackout. Paper doesn’t rely on connections, power, or any other resources, being perfect for those who don’t like to rely too heavily on technology.
Strictly Business
When it comes to managing your business time, things can get a little more complicated. Not all schedules are equal. Some people’s daily routine being far more complicated than others. This makes it a good idea to look at the a wide range of different time-management options for your business. Keeping your work moving forwards is always easiest when you have something telling you what needs to come next. You can find examples of tools with this potential below, giving you the chance to get started on using them right away.
There’s are loads of Customer relationship management tools for business. For businesses which have to deal with large amounts of customers and leads, having a solid CRM company, like Copper, behind them can be essential. Customer relationship management involves communicating effectively with customers to make sure that they are happy with your business. Having a system which can do most of this work for you is a great way to make it easier.
Set Deadlines
Each of the tasks you have to complete will be incredibly important, but it can be easy for the larger ones to make the others seem secondary. Companies like Asana have built clever systems which can make it far easier to handle this. By giving each of your jobs a deadline and a priority, you can have automatic warnings come through when it’s time to move on to the next piece.
While it may not be designed for business owners to keep themselves in check, task delivery software can be very useful when you’re trying to motivate yourself. Systems like this require an upload when a piece is completed, forcing you to let the computer know when you’ve finished something. If you don’t get your work done in time, you can have emails sent to yourself which will remind you that there is a lot to do.
Artificial Intelligence
A lot of companies have been talking about AI over the last few years, with loads of clever systems being developed to make different parts of life easier. When it comes to your schedule, few minds are better at the task of putting something together like this than a computer, making it worth relying on these devices to let you know when and what you should be working on. This can take all of the pressure off of your shoulders, making it far easier to get yourself moving in the right direction with your time-management skills.
Artificial intelligence comes in a wide variety of different forms. Your smartphone uses AI to help with its voice recognition, and this means that you’ve probably already used it quite a bit. Along with this, though, this concept is also be applied to problem solving. Finding fast and efficient routes is very hard for a human, with each of the options being clouded by confusion when they try to think about too much. Machines don’t suffer this sort of issue, instead being able to power onwards with even the most complicated of issues. AI is already happening, so it’ll be interesting to see how it develops in the future.
Hire An Assistant
While computers are accurate, there are few things better than a human when you’re looking for a way to manage your time. Being able to spot potential mistakes, coordinate with other people to rearrange difficult appointments. Hiring a PA can be a good idea when you are struggling. This sort of professional will cost a fair bit to have all the time, but this doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth it.
Along with the idea of hiring someone directly to help you out, it could also be worth thinking about the idea of using a third-party company to provide this service. There are loads of scheduling services out there, and they all have the potential to solve your problems with time. It will be worth reading some reviews before getting started with this sort of work, especially if you don’t have a huge amount of experience.
Staying On Schedule
Sticking to a schedule isn’t always an easy task, with most days offering unique experiences. If you want to be successful, though, it will be crucial that you’re able to manage time properly, and this is something which you will have to condition yourself for. In the beginning, this will mean being very strict with yourself, and you may have to put work into things which you don’t enjoy very much.
A big part of this will involve keeping an eye on your schedule. Building a habit which involves checking you diary each morning and evening, for example, can make it far easier to remember the tasks you have at hand. A lot of people start each day without any idea what it has in store for them. If you plan ahead, though, you will limit the chance of things taking you by surprise and making the whole thing a lot harder.
It’s worth trying out different time-management styles to see what works for you. A lot of people struggle in this area, finding it hard to know what they need to do to improve their time management skills. If you try our one or two of the above you will most likely discover the method that works for you. I find a combination of my trusty Filofax, writing a to do list each evening and also using the i-phone calendar works best for me. We are all different, if you struggle with time management, try challenging yourself to adopt a new habit.
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
―
Stay fabulous
Christine
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