Being more productive and have more time to spare? Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? It certainly does to me. I've often felt as though I have no time to complete anything properly and there's always something that's overdue, or being left til the last minute.
I'm always thinking, "If only I had more time! If only there were more hours in the day!"
My evenings usually consist of half-watching a film whilst reading a book, writing, reading blogs, studying for college, cooking, skypeing, texting - always doing more than one thing at once, and never giving anything my full attention.
It means that my work is always a half-baked effort, I'm never really relaxing and enjoying whatever I'm doing and at the end of each day, I'm feeling mentally overwhelmed and exhausted. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone here. Sound familiar? But, no more my friend! You have to consider, how many hours a day did Einstein, Shakespeare or Kennedy have? What will you do with your daily allowance of time? What will you do with those same 24 hours? Getting the most out of day seems to be all about multi-tasking these days.
The pressure to do and achieve more-more-more isn't healthy for anyone. It's a burden. The stress of it can make us want to throw our hands up in the air and not do anything!
Task One
Of a day, evening - whenever you feel you get the most work done, write down everything you do. Keep a track of how many minutes (or let's face it - hours) we spend on Facebook or Twitter, reading blogs, doing college work, doing chores, working etc.Task Two
Tally it all up! No wincing. How much time did you spend today doing non-essential things? Did you make time to exercise, and do something for you, like read a book or play an instrument? Compare that to how much time you spend lurking on Facebook, or Twitter. It's not until we take a very close look at what exactly we ARE doing, to notice what is falling at the way-side and just never getting done.Getting more out of your 24 hours can be done, and without burning yourself out completely! In fact you're actually about to take the treadmill down a notch, and yet still get more done, and to a better standard, than you usually would.
- Write a to-do list. Knowing exactly what you have to get done means you also know where your finish line is. Having a seemingly endless to-do list can be overwhelming, making you not want to start in the first place!
- Categorize. I have three sections on my to-do list: Blog, College, and Personal. Splitting your list into sections once again makes things more manageable. It's also going to help you to spend your time a little more wisely.
- Allocate. Now we get to the awesome new time-managing-you part. Allocate an hour, just one hour, to each of your categories and embrace your evening. See how you get on. You may find you need two hours to comfortably focus on one thing, and perhaps only half an hour on another. But choose a reasonably time limit that suits you, because you're going to be sticking to it!
The trick now, is that during your hour which you have just dedicated to blogging, studying, running errands, to only do that. No film in the background, no music (unless it's calming) give it your full attention. Blowing your mind with my originality, right? This however, is something that I truly never did. Until this week.
Having a solid schedule, and more importantly giving each task my full attention, rather than flitting between writing and Facebook, writing and watching Gossip Girl, writing and doodling, has really shaped up my productivity, my work-ethic and my mindset. Now, anything is possible! One dedicated hour at a time.
P.S - I would like to add here that I nicked the idea for my quotes from Megan Hayes' Manifesto for Miraculous Living! You can get it for free from her website, here.
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