What are Common Time Management Mistakes and Solutions
Planning too many chores from the start is one of the main reasons we can't finish what we want to do. With too many wants and needs, we can overfill our daily list.
If we spend 2 hours exercising, 1 hour reading, and 4 hours socialising after sleeping 8 hours and working 8 hours, we have 2 hours for eating, drinking, cleaning, getting ready, and transportation.
Our plan no longer fits a day. However, using all 24 hours of a day efficiently may be unrealistic. A sudden incident, traffic, or the need to rest and be idle can break our everyday routine.
How can we plan more realistically? When organising our day, we should be honest with ourselves. Some things we can say, “I can finish this in an hour!” even though they're challenging.
Accepting that our work may take more than an hour and scheduling two hours for it will help us prepare realistically and avoid delays.
Insisting on doing everything daily can sometimes make our job tougher. We may be more productive if we spend half an hour a day on academics and one hour on sports.
Another time management mistake is not prioritising our list. If we don't prioritise our various tasks, we may try to do them all at once or give them equal attention.
At the end of the day, we may have finished a bunch of small chores but not our most important one, or a task due next week but not the next day.
If we've arranged a doctor's appointment for next week, cleaned the home, and bought a gift for a friend but haven't finished our project due tomorrow, we haven't prioritised our critical work. In this scenario, we did not use our time well.
Prioritising urgent and vital tasks helps us use our time efficiently. How do we prioritise our tasks? First, we can list our due-date tasks. A calendar or agenda can assist now.
When we look at the large picture and note our tasks by date, we can see what is coming and respond accordingly.
You may be thinking which task to prioritise when you have multiple each day. We may not have time to buy a birthday gift for our friend and a project tomorrow. We can prioritise our project and offer our friend the gift later.
Given this, why not try Google Calendar if you prefer an online calendar? The agenda area lets you categorise your calendar and add shared activities with pals. However, you can organise your tasks in the to-do list by importance.