Time Strategies

 

Photo of a clock in a persons hands.
Credit : Unsplash

To be quite frank, time management is something I've yet to master, I am a huge procrastinator, always have been, but I hope I won't always be. When I saw the time management task for this week, I instantly thought "thank god", something to get me motivated to be on time with my work and get it done in good time before the deadline (funny I'm writing this about two hours before the deadline to this task). The biggest tip I've seen from reading the task is to start early. easier said than done for a procrastinator, but the two articles I read following this put everything into perspective for me.

The article I read first was "The Important Habit of Just Starting" by Jory Mackay, and it was an extremely insightful read. The article made me reflect on my own procrastination and what the catalyst for it was, the fear of starting. Something I know many struggle with, its a killer and can really put you behind on things not just academically but in your own personal life. Once you start though, momentum kicks in and you're flying it. One thing I learnt from the article was the break up bigger goals into small shorter ones and planning ahead. For example getting ahead with the "task 01 and 02 this week tomorrow at 2pm", rather than just saying "get some tasks done tomorrow". It makes a small difference whether we realise it or not and is something I definitely will implement into my schedule each week.

 "3 Steps to Recapture Time" by Joynicole Martinez was the second article I read surrounding time management. This article went through three different rules to do before and during a project. Relax, identify the tasks needing completion that day, break up your work in short chunks - doing all that within the first 15 minutes makes a huge difference in your work ethic and how you spend your time usefully. Recognise and going through the pruning season, letting go of what's not swerving you and holding you back helps with lack of concentration, tiredness and lack of motivation for the task that needs completing. Learning to say no to overworking yourself or taking on too much work at once, helps ease stress and gains more focus for the tasks on hand. 

This article helped me identify a time management strategy that works best for me, which is doing small chunks of work at a time, relaxing before heading into work, turning off all distractions during the process and organising my time efficiently throughout the week. I will definitely implement this time management strategy from next week and see how it goes, if it doesn't work there's always room for change !