Before, I wrote about some methods to use your time effectively, such as Pomodoro, Seinfeld method, frog rule, Richard Branson’s method, 2 minutes, Eisenhower, etc. you can check with the following link:
https://mrcicek.medium.com/more-than-24-hours-73ef394efde5
Today, I will write some other steps to make your time efficient and how to fulfill your desires/to-do list like a pro.
The modern world is sometimes weird. We have many tasks and wishes to do but don’t have time for all. This problem creates a new approach to deal with it and fits our minds to modern requirements. What I will write today is also from these approaches used in business life, academic life, psychological tricks, and time management methods. Let’s start:
- Know your tasks
As everything is to be planned, you should know what to plan. Imagine that you open Netflix and spend almost an hour finding what to watch. In the end, you probably, don’t watch anything at all because you already wasted that time. If you knew at least which genre you want to watch, you spend less time. If you have a certain show you want to see, you spend 1 second only and start watching immediately.
Life is the same. If you know what you want to do, you don’t waste time with unclarity. Therefore, It is important to know your tasks during the day. You can write them down or just think about them in the morning for 10 min. I am a lazy person and run to work in the mornings. Therefore, I make this task review at work in the first 10 minutes.
2. Prioritize and Score Importance Level
Writing all my wishes down is a useful method for me because of 2 reasons. First, I don’t have to keep in my mind and make my mind busy. Second, I can see what task I have.
Prioritization is important. Many things we want to do are not usually that important. Like in Eisenhower’s method, some you can delegate, some you can eliminate and some you should do immediately. So, it is a good strategy to write all down and see. Then, give a score according to importance and urgency. This will save a lot of time and energy for you. For example, you may want to watch a movie, read a book, or learn a language after work. If they are all hobbies and not a must, you can choose what you feel to do. If language is a must, you should do that first or you can do it by watching a movie as well.
3. Know the Result
To know the result is important. What do you expect from the task? So, you can also know how important it is and what the opportunity cost is. If you know, opportunity cost is what you give up to do something. You can prefer to go to a bar with a friend just because you feel so and give up going to sport. The opportunity cost might be your health. Or you can choose Netflix instead of checking some job-related task, the opportunity cost will be that knowledge and the benefit it might give.
So, if you think, for example, practicing some skill makes you professional and makes that work in a shorter time. It means you will earn more time and maybe money as well. If you know this is the result, then you can prioritize this skill-learning activity over being lazy.
4. Create Daily Plan and Review Your Week
This method is very useful in an agile mentality at work. More frequent reviews, more accurate results. That’s why it is important to make a daily plan to see what you are doing, what is your task load, what you have time to do, what you don’t have time for, what you did, and how much time you spend.
At the end of the week, you can check what you have achieved and what you couldn’t. Then you will have a better plan and more realistic wishes.
Imagine a road with %1 slope. You never feel it. Now, imagine you have a car on it and it is free. %1 slope will move the car slowly. If you check your car every 10 seconds, you can be aware that it is moving and you will have a chance to stop it because it is slow. If you check it every one minute, it will be faster and you won’t be able to stop it because it is quite fast. If you check every 5 minutes, probably your car would have crashed already at a higher speed.
5. Focus on one task at a time and fix them
Multi-tasking is a desire killer and the biggest enemy of the human mind. Although you may think that you do great with multi-tasking, you spend so much effort and time switching between tasks. Normally, you can do something have a break and come back, then continue where you stopped at. If you do multi-tasking, you will always start from behind a bit and spend time remembering where you were at. That’s why don’t try to maximize tasks you can do in your free time instead do one thing at a time until you are done and you reach your goal. You see that you progress better.
It is also good to fix things at certain times. Let’s imagine you want to learn to play piano, learn a language, take some online courses, visit friends, read books every day, and sports. If you don’t have a certain time for them, you will switch always and it will confuse you. You will easily lose motivation and also you will waste time thinking as it was in the Netflix example. So, better to say that I learn piano on this day, this time, I learn a language at a certain time, I will take courses on a specific day, I will read this much before sleep and I will visit friends after I am done with other things.
Of course, it is possible that everything is not as it is planned and maybe take longer than you think. I mostly spend 2–3 hours more with friends than I imagine. It is not probable. You don’t need to make yourself under time pressure but if you fix the time and know your tasks, you will be able to move your tasks to the proper place and you will do them certainly and you will see that you have progress. Otherwise, you just skip them and do nothing while trying to do everything.
6. Plan the interruptions and block out distractions
Put time for interruptions. This can be meeting friends like the previous examples, other responsibilities, unexpected events, time on social media, etc. You should plan it. Not name it specifically because it is unexpected sometimes but you should consider this time out of your plans and give yourself freedom with them.
Blocking out the distractions is similar. Focus on what you are doing and do not keep your mind busy with other things. Just use your time with what you are doing. Thinking about other things at the same time reduces your quality of life and also causes procrastination and skipping.
7. Don’t hesitate to say no
Sometimes, you are overwhelmed with everything. You have tasks but your friends invite you everywhere and every day. It is not nice to say no always but you should be able to put your boundaries and be able to say no if it is less important than your tasks and priorities. It is easy to waste time with friends and pleasant events but in the end, you see that the time you spend for yourself is for your good. It is a choice to be moderate or miserable later or enjoy the benefit of your sacrifices. What is important is always balancing. Sacrificing for the future completely is not also good but sacrificing some joy returns you to a better social environment, more time, more confidence, more money, and more flexibility later.
8. Do not procrastinate
This is another enemy in the modern world. We are not like previous generations. We are not living on farms with no jobs. We don’t have the luxury to waste time. Therefore, push yourself. The beginning is always the hardest. If you think about something just do it. You will see as soon as you leave your comfort zone, you have the power to do things. I am always told about planning but planning is something continuously only doing the process. So, don’t spend your time overthinking and planning everything. There are always unknowns. Start what you do then plan on the way.
9. Plan free time, stay from away distractions
I am talking about distractions again because it is important. You should have a real experience, not the fake one. You need to act not overthink.
For a healthy mind and life, you need to plan your free time. Relaxation and chilling should be so. If you say that I will for est 2 hours, you should do that and avoid anything else. Stay from the way social media, stay away porn, stay from way dating apps, and stay away from any possible distractions because they keep your mind busy and lower your living life standards as well as your mood. All the steps I wrote are also valid for free time. If you want quality time, even if you don’t want to do anything, you should plan it and make sure that you are in this free state.
bahadirhancicek 
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