Time Management - Page 7 of 8

Figure Out Priorities With A Productivity Matrix

September 25, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

As any incredibly productive person will tell you, it boils down to knowing what your priorities are and systematically attacking your tasks with a focused mind. The one resource in the world that is common to millionaire CEOs and the average Joe is time.

We stumbled across this great tip and illustration of Stephen Covey’s time management matrix from the blog of an iDoneThis user, Eva.

Determining what your priorities are paves the road to getting stuff done in an order that makes sense!

Check out Eva’s Productivity Monday posts for more useful tips.

The Freedom Experiment: Scheduling “Me” Time

August 22, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

The Freedom Experiment lists 55 ways to take care of yourself when the going gets busy. There are many gems but we especially liked this one about remembering to schedule me-time and honoring it:

To make your life less chaotic, it’s a good practice to keep a planner. Make sure you write down every single appointment, to save yourself from unwanted surprises and missed meetings. Just remember to schedule time for yourself. Honor your appointment with yourself just as much as you would keep an appointment with anyone else. Just make sure you schedule time with yourself first – anyone else needs to come in second in your life.

The Hilarious Louis C.K. on Managing Life

August 17, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

I learned that sharks sleep parts of their brain, like rolling blackouts; they can’t fall asleep because they can’t stop moving or they’ll suffocate. So they sleep sections of their brain at a time. So I do kind of a version of that, where I shut down brain centers. I literally tell myself, “Don’t logistically problem-solve for the next three hours, but you can talk to folks. Driving my kid home from school—don’t think about all the professional things you have to do.

Louis C.K., on how he manages his crazy busy life, in an interview with the A.V. Club. Shark-y brain sleep it is!

photo: Wes Bryant

How To Boost Your Willpower

August 8, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

How to Boost

— Mark Hoffmann comments on this NYT Well blog post, suggesting that willpower improves when you define your tasks better.

Perspectives on Procrastination

July 31, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

We are constantly trading off what we are doing now against what we might do in the future. As long as we are doing that in a reasonable way, it doesn’t matter that we are putting some things off.

Frank Partnoy reports on how experts in different fields view procrastination in Procrastination Rules. He describes how a journalist manages time by managing delay:

For projects that require different amounts of time, Guerrera makes separate lists. He describes a technique he and many other journalists use: “We have two sets of notebooks, a small one and a big one. The small one is for immediate day-to-day stories, the work we have to do right away. The big one is for big thoughts, features and stories that have some time. There’s an actual physical distinction between our immediate stories and the ones we can wait on. The physical form of two notebooks is our way of saying it’s too overwhelming to do both at the same time.”

Managing delay or, yes, procrastination, can be positive, reasonable behavior depending on what you’re actually trading off.

Tips for Better Time Management

July 24, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

[T]ime management isn’t primarily about using minutes well, it’s about using yourself well. And using yourself well means spending most of your time in your sweet spot, which is at the intersection of your strengths, weaknesses, differences, and passions.

Peter Bregman found that many people “agree or strongly agree that they don’t spend enough time at work in their sweet spot, doing work they’re really good at and enjoy the most.”

Focusing at work isn’t just about concentrating on the tasks at hand, but also about focusing your talents. Stay in your sweet spot longer.

Enjoy Time, Don’t Kill It!

July 17, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

Leo Babauta of zen habits is all for killing time. To Leo, “killing” is a misnomer.

Reframe killing time as enjoying time.

Is this what our lives are to be? A non-stop stream of productive tasks? A life-long work day? A computer program optimized for productivity and efficiency? A cog in a machine?

What about joy? What about the sensory pleasure of lying in the grass with the sun shining on our closed eyes? What about the beauty of a nap while on the train? How about reading a novel for the sheer exhilaration of it, not to better yourself? What about spending time with someone for the love of being with someone, of making a genuine human connection that is unencumbered by productive purpose, unburdened by goals.

To-Do Lists and Keeping It Positive

July 9, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

Recently, we highlighted a method of planning your day that consisted of asking yourself what you’d say “No” to. Just as important is to ask yourself “Why?” when it comes to the items on your to-do list.

Psychologist Michael V. Pantalon recommends making a Why-Do list to increase your motivation on those items that just never seem to make it off your to-do list. The key to Pantalon’s “Why?” exercise is keeping it positive. So instead of asking yourself negatively charged questions like, “Why can’t I do ____”, focus on the reasons why you wanted to do it in the first place and why those reasons are important to you.

This way, you may see how some to-do items don’t belong on your list and be more motivated to accomplish others — which connects back to knowing what to say “No” to.

Ask yourself “Why?” to know what to say “No” to.

Photo: Sarah-Wynne Taylor

Productivity Tips from Hank Green

June 29, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

To send you into the weekend, here’s Hank of the Vlogbrothers sharing some tongue-in-cheek productivity tips. I dunno – do you think that chair is ergonomic enough?

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

When Procrastination Becomes Useful

June 26, 2012 by I Done This Support Leave a Comment

Life might be a race against time but it is enriched when we rise above our instincts and stop the clock to process and understand what we are doing and why. A wise decision requires reflection, and reflection requires a pause.

Frank Partnoy, “Waiting Game”, Financial Times.

Partnoy, author of the forthcoming book Wait: The Useful Art of Procrastination, writes about the value of delay and taking the full time we are given to make better decisions.

Maybe the best way to think about time management is in terms of delay management!