“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
– Stephen King
Do you have this gnawing feeling that you need to be more organized or disciplined with how you spend your day? Or do you often feel overwhelmed with how much work you need to complete and finally end up with nothing done? Some people try to manage their time more effectively by working overtime, at the expense of sleep. However, it´s needless to say that poor sleeping habits lead to burnout, anxiety, fatigue and restlessness. Therefore, extending your workday is without doubt, not an option. By learning how to better manage your time, you can improve your sleeping habits, reduce stress and form an ongoing positive cycle. Here are some tips for stepping up from this destructive routine, stop wasting time or procrastinating, becoming more productive, and get the necessary work done in the pursuit of what matters to you.
First of all, take a moment to acknowledge the type of person you are: Perhaps you´re classified more like a “procrastinator”, or as a “perfectionist”, “easily-distracted”, or as the “disorganised”. Or are you maybe a mix of those? Noticing and accepting the habit provides you with the chance to change it and take action.
Stop complaining that you don´t have time! Make some!
Prioritize your to-do list, and put in the effort corresponding to the degree of priority. This mainly applies to the ” disorganised”. You will change your life by using a “To-Do” list which you update every morning This has helped me a lot personally. Likewise, this is in particular useful for perfectionsísts too. You can´t deliver perfect quality in everything, therefore, by setting priorities, we can make it good enough and fit for a purpose other than perfect. Break it down in small chunks and use your calendar to foresee the time when you´ll be able to complete it.
Evaluate how you´re spending your time
You´d be surprised with how much time average people spend on the phone, surfing on the internet, or scrolling down on the Instagram feed only to get distracted from what they are really supposed to do. This bug is eating all the time you could use otherwise! Can you identify other bugs that do not allow you to be productive? They also quite often appear in the head! For example, thinking or worrying about something whilst carrying out an important task doesn´t lead anywhere. Notice these distractions and eliminate them from your daily routine.
Train your will power muscle
More or less, the main reason that we cannot get something done is simply because we hide by the plain excuse of not having enough time. The explanation is that sometimes what we do appears to be very exciting, however, other times we might not feel like doing it, potentially due to tiredness or lack of motivation. However, in order to overcome this state, you must urge yourself to complete the task no matter the circumstances, whether you feel tired, sad or bored. If it matters to you, you can always find the willpower and discipline to fight the states of being that get in your way. If you don´t feel like doing it, ignore that. Remind yourself of the reward, find a cue, get started, and the lack of motivation will soon fade away. Overcome the laziness and wake up earlier, it always helps. The will power is like a muscle, if we step out of the comfort zona and do what we´re supposed to repeatedly, it gets stronger together with your self-discipline, and thus in the future, it becomes easier to overcome procrastination and get more done over a shorter period of time.
Schedule some time for recharging
However, the will power muscle like any other muscles, it gets overtrained as a result of too much unbearable discomfort. If we run around multitasking, without any breaks at all, the battery eventually becomes depleted. Therefore, the lack of willingness to complete your tasks gets in the way again due to to the mental fatigue. In this case, a break is what makes the difference. Like any other muscle, by allowing it to recharge once in a while, it gets stronger and refreshed.
Note and let go of distractions
Focus only on one task at a time, if you have too much you´re stressing about, take a minute and list all the things that bother you, plan when you´ll complete those tasks, and come back to what you were doing. If it keeps persisting and gnawing you from the inside, take a breath and make a mental note; That you´ll come back to it when you´re done with what you´re doing now. In this way, we can avoid procrastination and focus drifts.
All points considered, we’ll always have a great number of things to do, and there will never be enough time and energy to do them all. But once you begin learning how to use time management skills to simplify your life, you’ll become much more organized, balanced and content. So take the time to reflect upon your habits now and make a change! Like Winston Churchill said: “Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”
Aaand one more quote!! 🙂
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”
– Bruce Lee
Nice read. I think we always have time, the important thing is to prioritize the things that you want to do with your time. And the hardest part, not to procrastinate !!!