Time management tends to be hard, independently on where you're at life - usually it's hard
because in the beginning you know nothing about time management but as soon as you start
mastering your habits, your routine changes because some event in your life forced you
to lose track of all of your progress.
That's why it's important to keep evaluating progress on where and how we're using our
time.
Working long hours is one of the struggles of correct time management.
Either because your job demands it or because you are achievement-motivated, relying too
much on work to fill up the majority of your schedule will probably harm other areas of
your life in the long run.
When you feel like your regular work hours need to be extended beyond your usual schedule,
it's probably because **you're not managing your focus levels** correctly during the day.
In a past video about **Cal Newport's book "Deep Work"**, we've discussed the importance
of learning how to enhance focus during work sessions before we start tackling other issues.
Practicing deep work requires a moderate level of isolation but it also requires that you
give yourself a strict period of time to spend working.
This creates a false urgency that, despite being hard to replicate in a non-urgent context,
can be easily mimicked with calendar blocking techniques, alarms or by sharing the accountability
with a colleague or a family member.
**False urgency mechanisms** will force you to do your best work in the shortest possible
amount of time and that will help you avoid the need to work long hours in a regular schedule.
In a way, mastering short bursts of focused work during your working hours acts as the
direct application of the **Pareto principle** or the so called **80/20 rule** which asserts
that 80% of outcomes or outputs result from 20% of all causes or inputs for any given
event . In business, the 80-20 rule is applied by identifying an entity's best assets and
using them efficiently to create maximum value and in your case, you should be identifying
the type of work or tasks that produces 80% of your results and prioritize and improving
that 20% margin.
One way to do so is learning the three core principles of time management: (1) schedule,
(2) focus and (3) reprioritizing .
We've already talked about focus.
Scheduling should be an integral part of your daily routine and should have its own place
in your calendar or task list - yup, that means you should be scheduling when to schedule
things in your calendar.
It's the meta concept of making time in your day to make time in your day.
But as accustomed as you may be to the act of organizing your work accordingly, re-prioritizing
is sometimes the most difficult part of your routine because it's very easy to fall into
that loop of doing things the same way, every day.
Re-prioritizing means you should look at the full range of tasks and projects to complete
and distribute your time accordingly by starting working right away on the tasks that produce
the largest amount of results, then, you should re-evaluate on a daily or weekly basis which
tasks actually correspond to that 20% of your work - and that's because the level of variation
can be immense, depending on the type of work you actually do.
In one day, tackling the foundations of a huge project can produce big results for your
team, but your role in that project may not produce many results if you keep reaching
milestones that require skills that you don't actually have.
So what practical steps can you take to actively manage your time better?
1.
Revisiting the meta concept of scheduling when to schedule, you should **save time in
your calendar to get organized every single day** - make it a ritual to sit down with
your planner or other organization tool and just look at the work you're currently involved
in and checking those milestones.
2.
**Use the pomodoro technique to track short bursts of focused work**.
I've been using Forest since my first year of college because it's a great way to set
a timer, block other apps in your phone and have a visual tracker of your productivity...
and it just looks *really* nice.
The pomodoro technique is a time management method that uses a timer to break down work
into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks, which is
a perfect way to practice efficient time management on a daily basis.
3.
Force yourself to **make pauses** and start thinking of them as productive work too, as
long as they're controlled and fit your schedule accordingly.
Once again, the pomodoro technique incorporates this principle seamlessly by forcing you to
make short pauses between bursts of 25 minutes of focused work.
The trick here is having truly enjoyable breaks instead of scrolling through your phone without
purpose.
4.
**Limit your work day** to avoid working long hours and consequently blur the boundary between
productive time and regular home routine.
Although it will be impossible to fit everything into a strict schedule day after day, having
a stricter schedule, *at least by principle,* and recording that in your calendar or planner
will at least allow you to have a daily end-goal, which will motivate you to work harder to
meet that deadline.
---
**Wrap up**
So to wrap this up - The 80/20 rule can be used to create a false sense of urgency, that
increases productivity and induces correct time management skills.
These rely on scheduling, focusing and reprioritizing tasks which you should do on a daily basis.
To practice correct time management, it's important to make time in your day to organize
your work, use the pomodoro technique to track your focused work and remembering to make
pauses and limiting your working hours.
Using these principles will make sure that you work correctly and productively, and will
help you make more time that you can use to tackle new creative projects and manage any
new challenges that are currently arising.
---
If you feel uncertain about what's next, a creative challenge or productivity class may
offer some guidance and help you discover new topics and interests, and get you started
on that side-hustle that you can do at home and help reinforce your budget - and to get
inspired and delve into thousands of courses, there's no one out there better than Skillshare.
Skillshare allows you to learn almost anything for less than 10 dollars a month.
They have thousands of courses on management and business, productivity, photography, writing,
languages, illustration and design, music, cooking and so on.
And if you want to start getting into videography you can watch this class on
And even if you're not willing to start paying 10 dollars a month for classes, that's not
a problem because the first thousand people using my promo code will have two months of
classes for free, no strings attached.
Using this promo code also tells Skillshare that you came from my channel which is always
nice if you enjoy my content and want to keep supporting our study corner.
I hope you enjoyed today's video and I will see you next week.
Bye guys.