Ever feel like you just don’t have enough hours in the day to get stuff done?
We can’t magically make your days longer, but what we can do is equip you with some time management tools to make things a little less manic.
Here to help is entrepreneur and author Terry Blackburn, who’s all about productivity hacks.
Ahead, he shares his top tips for maximising your day.
Work out what’s most useful when it comes to achieving your goals
Do all the tasks on your to-go list actually matter?
Take some time to work out what your goals are, in terms of work, health, money, relationships, whatever. Then check in on how you’re spending your time – are your tasks helping you towards those goals? If not, why are you doing them?
Do the most important things first
‘On your to-do list you might have something that is pretty pointless or which you could give to somebody else, but you end up doing it anyway because it seems easier to do it yourself,’ Terry tells Metro.co.uk. ‘People typically do the easy things first.
‘But whether something is hard or easy, you should do the most important things that help you achieve your goals first.’
Don’t move on to your next task until the first is done
Terry isn’t a fan of pausing one thing, doing something else, and trying to come back to it.
‘Every day I work solely on one task until it’s done, so I won’t get distracted,’ he says. ‘It’s just about planning every single day and prioritising what I’m doing.
‘I then aim to have tunnel vision on one task until it’s done. That can’t happen if you’re getting emails pinging mid-task or if you get distracted and end up doing something else. It’s about staying focused on that one task until it’s done before then moving on to the next task.
‘It’s a great feeling when you scrub something off your to-do list. It gives a sense of achievement and accomplishment.’
Use the ABCDE method
Terry explains: ‘There is some great time management advice from business guru and author, Brian Tracy – which he calls the ABCDE method:
- A tasks – are the most important tasks which have consequences if you don’t do them.
- B tasks – are important but don’t have huge consequences if you don’t do them.
- C tasks – are not really that important, and don’t really have consequences either, but they still have to be done.
- D tasks – can be delegated
- E tasks – can be eliminated’
Eat the frog
‘The frog is the task you don’t want to do each day,’ Terry explains. ‘There’s an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, then you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing it’s the worst thing you’ll have to do all day.
‘Your frog is your most challenging task and the thing you’re most likely to avoid and procrastinate on. But if you get it out of the way, you’ll get everything else done a lot faster.
So, rather than having an unwanted ‘frog’ hanging around you, causing negative energy, tackle it straight away. If you do it early on, you’ll find it so much easier to nail the rest of your to-do list each day.
Terry Blackburn is an award-winning entrepreneur and author of Be A Lion out now, priced £14.99 available on Amazon.
Credit: Original article published here.You can read this post on My Celebrity Life.
