The world can feel so big. So incredibly big. It can feel overwhelming, overbearing, complicated, and, at times, devastating. To make sense of the many complications of life, and ultimately work towards creating peace and harmony with these complications, it can be helpful to maintain control over your time and daily routine.
Time management is a proven tool to reduce stress, increase productivity, and aid in maintaining a happy and healthy life. According to Health Link BC, time management is celebrated for its positive effects on one’s life.
Personally, time management has been a large part of my life. Without effective time management, I could not imagine handling the amount of tasks, work, and social activities that comprise my life. The four most effective ways to focus on and implement time management in my daily life are: using a calendar, using electronic reminders, ranking my tasks from most important to least important, and giving myself free time.
Calendar
Creating a calendar, online or on paper, can help to schedule your activities and deadlines by blocking chunks of time dedicated to the task. These chunks of time should contain information about things that need to be accomplished in that time. For example, if you need to contact your bank to discuss a new credit card, you could create a block in your day with information about the credit card you wanted to discuss, the goal of the meeting, and the desired outcome. Creating a block with the relevant details will help to not only remind yourself of the time needed to complete the task but also about what the task entails. This will help to avoid straying off topic, ignoring the task, or incorrectly completing the task.
Electronic reminders
Using electronic reminders in your daily life will also aid in time management. Electronic reminders can help structure your day and eliminate over-working or under-working on a task, or forgetting the task entirely. Setting a timer while working on a project (or even a workout) can push you to spend the allotted time working on the task at hand, while also letting yourself take a break once the time block is over. These time blocks can be synced to your online calendar, created with a timer on your phone, or built into any calendar/timer you prefer on your electronic device.
Prioritizing
Ranking your tasks will help you to accomplish them in an effective and timely manner. I recommend making this to-do list out on pen and paper. According to Dan Silvestre “hand notes help you process information better.” Ranking tasks by importance will not only help you to prioritize them but also reinforce the reasons for their importance.
Scheduling free time
Giving yourself free time is the most important part of time management. To avoid burnout, it is essential to give yourself a moment to breathe. Such free time can allow you to explore personal interests, take a nap, explore your city, or practice other forms of self-care.
Self-care can also work to prevent burnout. Burnout is when one is physically and/or mentally exhausted as a result of major stress in one’s life. These stressors can include work, social life, devastation, loss, or any kind of large impact one has on their day to day being. Although there is no medical diagnosis for burnout, it can significantly affect people as it causes exhaustion and an inability to cope with life’s daily activities. It can also cause social withdrawal or work withdrawal, as well as poor performance in one’s duties (Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care). One can learn to avoid or cope with burnout, but dedicated “down time” has proven useful for me.
Time management is a huge part of creating a balanced and positive lifestyle. To make sense of the chaos that life can bring, one must stay on top of their tasks and complete them in a healthy and timely manner.