9 Ways You Can Manage Time & Stop Losing It

It is the beginning of the year and time for New Year resolutions. I am sure you have made some resolutions like I do every year. As a freelancer, each year I try to ensure I manage my time and balance my work-life better.

If you are a freelancer or are just beginning your career as one, your top concern must be - how to balance it all. You work full/part-time and need to have a life, take care of yourself (and a family if you have one) both mentally and physically.

I am no exception, with a small family. It is important to manage a social life, get enough sleep, read a book to my kid every night and lose the extra fat I keep gaining. At first, it felt like everything falling apart, but it was important to maintain my sanity. Balance means to make choices and enjoy it so here’s how I balance my freelance career.

• Maintain a to-do list

I do this early morning before everyone wakes up. It helps me manage my day better. Every day create a to-do list. It helps in prioritizing tasks based on deadlines and urgency. The more you work, the less effective and productive you will become - short and long-term.
I recommend you try these To-do lists, not only do they look cute, but help you set priorities. You can easily keep up-to-date with daily tasks.

Image courtesy Amazon

  

• Write your priorities and goals

I have a list of goals, resolutions, and priorities, whatever you would like to call it. It keeps me on track. You can decide how to best manage your time.
I recommend making use of the Lucky life planner to set goals, get things done, as a productivity planner and balance your life and be accountable. That is our main aim. You can use it to handle common life challenges with innovative tools such as the Habit builder, Decision maker, Mood booster, Creativity booster, Belief Changer and much more.

• Plan and protect your time

I dislike spontaneous plans. Though they are fun; they are productivity killers. It is better not get into the habit of making spontaneous plans. This does not mean you should work overtime, it will also kill productivity. If you work 6 hours daily, shorten your work week to 5 days to increase productivity. It will also give you time to do other things you are passionate about (side hustle) or even spend time with your family.

• Stay accountable

You can do this alone or with like-minded friends. Talk and discuss progress made and set the goals for the next month. This will help you imbibe habits from friends to stay accountable to your goals.

• Know your most productive time of the day

I am most active early morning, so I wake up 3:30 AM and work until 6 AM. It helps me concentrate better sans distractions. Track and pay attention to when you are doing your best work. This is your best weapon in time management arsenal. You just need to work smarter. However, this does not mean I do not get my 8 hours of sleep and a power nap.

• Create a system that works

Make use of apps, productivity-planners, to-do lists, systems, and ideas to get you through. Once you have tested it all, perfect it. Make it work for you. I make use of the 80-20 rule; avoid tasks that bring low or almost no results. Take in less work and produce better results (better pay) rather than taking in more work and getting lower results (and pay).

Automate tasks whenever possible. Nowadays, when I do something more than 5-6 times every day or week, I look for a program to do it for me. Hire experts, use apps and the Pomodoro technique to get you there. Time is money (most valuable commodity); spend money to make money. A bad system will kill you.

I recommend you use an hourglass sand timer. With the timer, it gets easy to track your work, measure your progress, and prevent burnout. The timer times you for half an hour of work and a solid 5-minute break so you can stay focused and productive for longer.

• Scheduling/ mapping work

Map out your week on a Sunday or first thing Monday morning so you will know what the week is like. If you’re a beginner, create a “default template” with everything you do every week. Stop doing everything yourself, seek help when you need it. In my default template, I had:

1. Breakfast/ lunch/ dinner cooking
2. Cleaning (alternate days)
3. Food shopping on Wednesdays
4. Working
5. Commuting
6. Exercising/working out (twice a week)
7. Reading
8. Add appointments, engagements, and meetings once you know what your week looks like.

• Build in time

Create time to work on your side hustle, goals, and priorities. Keep track of time, so you can steal some for yourself and pencil it in. I usually work on my side hustle once a week, usually Saturday/Sunday mornings. Snatch time to read; I do it after lunch when my kid is asleep and use my smartphone to share on social media.

• Have a do-nothing time

I make sure to spend time with my family, call family once a week (it's a ritual we follow). Allocating time to each area of my life and following it helps me balance work and life better. Life does not get done with somehow; you will have to work it out.

Essential time management apps and tools

Time management apps and tools

With the right combination of all apps and tools, you can manage your time better. You must experiment, prioritize, focus and stay accountable to manage time and stop losing it. Time is non-refundable and there is no way out but to manage it intentionally. Change your relationship with work. Unless you manage time, you can manage nothing else. Get to work today and make time work for you. How do you manage your time and live life? Share in the comment section.

5 Things You Can Do In Your 10 Minute Pomodoro Break

If you have been wondering how to best utilize your break after a 25 minute Pomodoro session, here is a list of things you can do:

1.   Enjoy a cup of tea, coffee, snack, or a glass of water.

2.   You can invest the 10 minutes to a short session of desk exercise.

3.   A small session of meditation or a yoga Asan.

4.   Enjoy a hand or a neck massage.

5.   Clean up or perform a small organizational chore, something you do not dread or find cumbersome.

Leave your desk or work area, get up and walk around. Allow blood circulation. A short break will be refreshing and stimulates problem-solving creativity. Give your mind rest from tasks at hand. This will rejuvenate you for another Time management Pomodoro session. Let's Go!

I recommend you buy a Pomodoro timer with pre-set time (A perfect gifting idea too). It is available in other colors and different time intervals. You will not need to program it either. The timer has a loud alarm and a red light that will blink when the countdown is finished.

You can click the link provided to buy the timer, it will help me generate a small commission to run this blog page.

I hope you do follow the Pomodoro technique to be more efficient, creative, and make more time for yourself to relax. Let me know the way you use the break time and if it helped you.

Is The Time Management Pomodoro Technique for You?

What is Pomodoro Technique?

You must be wondering what is Pomodoro? The Pomodoro Technique is a well-known time management technique. It is easy to implement and can be used by anyone. You need just a timer, motivation and discipline to start using this technique.

The word ‘Pomodoro’ is Italian for ‘tomato’ even though it has nothing to do with tomatoes; the technique helps you focus on work, facilitates efficiency, inspiration, and productivity. In 1980’s, Francesco Cirillo developed this technique using a kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato.

The technique focuses mainly on break times to increase productivity, efficiency, and focus. Consequently, you should include work tasks along with breaks in your daily work plan.

In this technique, every Pomodoro session is a 25-minute work session, followed by a 5-minute break. After you complete 4 Pomodoros or work sessions, you can take a longer break of 20 to 30 minutes. You can use it to break down larger work sessions into smaller chunks.

I recommend you use the Pomodoro timer (click to buy in another window) to time yourself. They are fun and functional kitchen timer with preset-times in the plastic finish. It is available in various designs. You can use them for cooking, baking or homework help. If you buy using the link provided, it will help me generate some income to run my blog.

What happens in the Pomodoro technique?

When the brain sees a timer ticking, it works with a sense of urgency and a challenge to complete the task within the duration is created, and a reward at the end of the session - a 5-minutes break.

The technique allows two 5-minute breaks with a one-hour duration. This way the brain is trained to work for short intervals and does not get distracted.

Once you begin employing the Pomodoro technique, you will see an increase in your productivity, efficiency, focus, and motivation. Mind and body do not get burned out in this technique.

Who will benefit? Who can implement this technique?

The Pomodoro technique is for everyone who wishes to be productive, including those who procrastinate, cannot work long hours, including those who find it difficult to concentrate or focus.

Everyone can train their mind to work only for 25 minutes and then play hard for the next 5 minutes. You can exercise, play ball, a quick shower, a snack, a cup of tea or coffee, you can even give a nice warm hug to your mum, child, partner or pet.

During the five minutes’ break, any kind of physical activity reduces the chances of obesity that occurs because of sitting. It takes you away from your workstation, takes your mind off work for a short duration which helps refresh and your mind begins to work with the same fervor.

If you are a Student, Parent, a Writer, Lawyer, Developer, Teacher, Director or even a Manager, we all need to work with time rather than against it. It helps eliminate burnout, create a better work-life balance, manage or reduce distractions to achieve the maximum.

With the Pomodoro technique, you will learn to achieve everything you need to each day and save time in the future. To learn more click here to get a book on 'The easy way to do more in less time'.