Meat Loaf said it best: “if you are only killing time, it will kill you right back”. How true.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Yet, all of us have different struggles and successes with time management. Let’s review some of the best ways to be optimally productive:

1. Prioritize Your Time

Take a 30,000 view of your life and your values. Do your daily activities align with these? Don’t say fitness is a priority if it has no representation on your calendar. Don’t say wealth is a priority if you have no plan to save a percentage of your income for a rainy day. Pick your top five values and align how you spend your time with these. You may quickly discover that “eating junk” is not a priority, yet you spend 30 minutes a day at a drive-thru. Like cutting spending, cutting timewasters will free you up for those activities that set you up for success.

2. Live in the Non-Urgent but Important Quadrant

I love Stephen Covey’s thoughts on time management from the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” Consider that if everything on your list is “urgent and important” you are not planning your time properly. While urgent things may creep into our day, ultimately being proactive and planning effectively means that you can focus on important things and manage these before URGENT happens. The same is true for things that are “unimportant.” If they are “unimportant,” do you need to make space for them?

3. Be Proactive

Being reactive is a time waster. When we “react” we enter a different headspace, are required to shift our focus from the events of the day to something unplanned, and often spend more time picking up the pieces than we would if things didn’t crumble in the first place. Do you have a warning light on in your car? Get it into the shop before you are stranded at the side of the road spending hours dealing with roadside assistance and not having access to a vehicle. Or better yet, schedule your car for regular maintenance to keep it running smoothly. Feeling sluggish or unwell? Take a day off to recharge, make some changes to your routines, or get into your doctor before you enter full-blown illness. Taking one day off to feel better is more effective than the week you will need when the illness spreads.

4. Use Technology Wisely

Technology is a tool, but it is also a trap. If your phone is littered with apps and games that distract you, look at your screen time and see how you are doing. Unless you are time-rich, do you really have scheduling space for hours of social media and candy-crush? Also, consider how much you use your phone to conduct business versus to just “be available.” Trying to conduct business on a smartphone often leads to errors in typing, autocorrect, and changes the response to something shorter, even curt. It can come off as unprofessional.

5. Plan Ahead

Proper planning is always an effective use of time. Leaving your home to realize your meeting is thirty minutes farther away than you expected, driving somewhere to realize you forgot something, going to the grocery store without a list, arriving to a meeting without reviewing the agenda beforehand, or cramming your PowerPoint the night before are all signs of poor planning. In our personal lives being unprepared wastes time and money, in our professional lives these jeopardize our professional reputation. Make time in your schedule to proactively manage your “to do’s”.

6. Know Thyself

Are you in tune with your capacity? Do you know when you can complete certain tasks optimally? What is best to schedule in the morning? After lunch? The end of the day?

7. Use Lists

In “The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” and even “The Four-Hour Workweek” both authors suggested that each day should start with a list of the top 3-5 things that need to be done that day. No exceptions. This strategy is exceptionally helpful and each morning, or even the night before, write yourself a short list of “to do’s” and enjoy crossing things off as you accomplish them.

8. Take Notes When Reading

When reading educational or development books have a note pad and pen handy. Why? Because to read a book about personal development and to not take away or implement any of the strategies is a lost opportunity.

9. Manage Your Energy Levels

\Maximizing energy levels maximizes productivity. Do this by eating quality and nutritious food, by having a solid sleep routine, managing stress, spending time outdoors, and exercising.

10. Delegate

To effectively delegate you need to look at the resources available to you and determine who might be able to take some of the responsibility and run with it. If you know you don’t have time to take on a new project, say no, or figure out who you can enlist to support you in getting the job done.

11. Practice Self-Discipline

It is easy to be distracted, coerced, or tempted by other, maybe more fun, but usually less productive, tasks. That phone conversation with a friend, google wandering, checking Facebook, that lengthy lunch. While these may ultimately align with your priorities, the things you are neglecting during your productive hiatus will only work to move things from “important” to “urgent” in no time. Self-discipline allows you to firmly focus on the tasks on your “to-do” list versus those other enjoyable activities that might sway you in a less productive direction. So, get the “to dos” done first before being pulled in other directions.

Conclusion

Implementing effective time management strategies is crucial for achieving optimal productivity. By prioritizing tasks, planning ahead, and leveraging technology wisely, you can make the most out of your time and accomplish your goals efficiently. Remember, it's not about managing time, but managing yourself within the time available.