4 tips that can help you manage your time better

A lot of us struggle with managing our time properly and working from home only makes it worse. 

I use a combination of these time management rules to help me power through my workload. If you're struggling to manage your time or find the will to power through tedious tasks, then these might help you.

1. Deep work. Deep work is when you put everything aside and only focus on a task at hand for a certain period. Could be 1 hour, 3 hours or even 20 mins. No phone, no chatting, no daydreaming. When the time is up or you're done with the task you can take a break. It could be a 10 minute or a 30-minute break. Whatever works for you.

Now taking a break doesn’t have to be your official break of the day or a lunch break. It could be just chilling at your desk, scrolling through your phone, chatting with a colleague, going on a short walk, or just going through other tasks slowly. 

Deep work ensures you’re getting through your tasks and so when you’re not fully focused on work (i.e your breaks) you don’t feel guilty or anxious.

2. The 10-minute rule. If a task is so tedious or annoying that you don’t want to do or start it, give yourself only 10 mins to work on it. Set an alarm even. If after 10 mins you still feel hatred toward the task then let it be and do something else. If not, then you can keep working on it but you can stop anytime without feeling bad/anxious because you already exceeded your goal of working on it for at least 10 minutes 🏅 
 

3. Make a to-do list. Write down your weekly tasks and then your daily tasks in a list. Break it down into what you want to work on during the day and insert breaks (lunch or deep work type breaks) between them. 

You can also write things down in order of priorities or importance. So you can work on a big/important project, then switch to a smaller/less tasking project without losing track of your time. For example, I add responding to emails to my to-do list because going through my inbox and responding to all the messages takes over an hour. Setting time aside for it also means, when I get an email during deep work time, for example, I don’t have to respond immediately. And that gives me more control of my time. (Unless it's an emergency of course).

When you make a to-do list you can visualize all you need to do that day or week and it helps you stay organized, on track, and checking things off a list is always a good feeling!

4. Tedious Tasks: If you’re doing a tedious task that doesn’t require a lot of brain focus you can listen to podcasts while you do it. Any kind of podcast you like. When you do this, you'll feel less bored and so less likely to abandon the task.

I hope this helps!