For years, my friends and family have asked me how I could possibly have enough time to do ALL of the things that I do everyday. In high school, people were in awe when they heard my daily schedule. Of course, it included school, 3 hours of cheerleading practice, four hours of dance rehearsal, studying for AP classes, and the social life of a teenage girl. It was A LOT, but I’ve always enjoyed having a jam-packed schedule and I’ve recently realized how well it prepared me for the ‘real-world’ and my advertising career.
On any given day, I work about 10 hours at my day job, at least 3-5 hours on the blog, hangout with friends, workout, spend time with Tom, make dinner, me-time, the list can go on and on. Some days my time management skills come into play at work where I’m responsible for multiple accounts and projects. Other days, my time management skills are SUPER helpful when balancing my friends and my boyfriend. And on most days, I just use these skills to pretend that I’m a sane person who isn’t COMPLETELY over-committed and crazy.
Okay, let’s get down to it. The below tips are ones that I’ve found to be tried & true, but everyone is different so I’d love to hear your personal tips in the comments if you have any!
1| Start Early. We are ALL procrastinators and I’m the first one to admit that I work better on a tight deadline, but starting early helps you be more efficient with your time later. When you receive an assignment or plan a meeting, immediately start thinking about when you will be working on that assignment, when you will prep for that meeting, or how you can get ahead so you don’t fall behind while attending said meeting. I know this is so hard when that assignment is due weeks or even months away, but you never know what will come up. I promise you’ll be thanking yourself when that due date creeps up out of nowhere!
2| Plan By The Hour. It can be daunting, but plan every single hour of your day. Having a few free hours to ‘work’ can be incredibly inefficient if you don’t have a set to-do list to accomplish. For example, if you have a 3-hour block of uninterrupted time to get shit done, think about what you are going to do in each of those hours. Don’t waste the first 30 minutes to make that to-do list. I usually like to make this plan first thing in the morning while I’m drinking my coffee. It helps motivate me for a productive and efficient day.
3| Set Expectations. Sometimes it is simply impossible to get everything done, and that’s okay. If you set expectations with your team, your friends, your boyfriend, you’ll gain perspective into how you need to prioritize in that moment and in the future. This means if you let your friends know that you may be a little late to happy hour because you have a lot going on at work, they may offer to move happy hour back an hour or to another day entirely. This tip is also great to use at work. If you have 10 things on your to-do list and your boss sends over another task, tell him or her that you can absolutely complete the task by x day and time. He or she will either give you a thumbs up or ask you to reprioritize your tasks.
4| Don’t multi-task. Ugh, this is the one that I find the most difficult. We are all so connected with our iPhones, computers and tablets that it is hard to focus on just one thing at a time. It has become natural to lay on the couch and watch TV while working on an important project and simultaneously text in the group chat. However, if you just focus on one thing at a time (even if it watching that TV show) you will get SO much more out of what you are doing. Nothing is worse than leaving a meeting and not knowing next steps because you spent the final minutes of the meeting writing an email or having to re-watch an episode of The Real Housewives because you were distracted.
Okay! So are you ready to start the week on a productive and efficient note? Get to it! 👊
These are some great tips. I definitely think that starting early is such a benefit. I love that when I start to work on my to do list and tasks for the day very early, I end up having a decent amount of free time. I tend to multi-task and sometimes I end up getting overwhelmed. I think it’s great to slow down and take time to complete our work.
These are great tips!!! I have a hard time with #4, sometimes I feel like if I am not focusing on 3 things at once then I am not doing enough. But the truth is, the more I try to multitask the worse it is because not one of those 3 things gets my full attention and most likely doesn’t get done the way I want it to.