Time management skills are critical for improving productivity and reducing stress, but often we’re left to try and figure out time management on our own. There is no “time management skills” class in high school or even college. Yet, these skills and our mastery of them impact every aspect of our lives from relationships to work to our overall well-being. So shouldn’t we have some concrete help with how to master them?
I think so!
This post covers my 6 top time management skills and how to make them work for you. Enjoy!
Table of Contents
- Time Management Skill 1: Prioritizing and How to Make it Work for You
- Time Management Skill 2: Maintaining Boundaries and How to Make it Work for You
- Time Management Skill 3: Setting Goals and Making a Plan
- Time Management Skill 4: Managing Stress and Expectations and How to Make them Work for You
- Time Management Skill 5: Stay Flexible and How to Do It
- Time Management Skill 6: Avoid Multitasking and Distractions-How to Make the Most of Your Time
- Conclusion:
Time Management Skill 1: Prioritizing and How to Make it Work for You
One of the things that makes time management and mastering time management skills tricky is that everyone has different needs and perceptions when it comes to time. This can be especially true if you are a neurodiverse person or particularly struggle with mental health.
With this in mind, prioritizing tasks is a fundamental skill and one of the easiest to adapt to different people. Not all tasks are created equal, and some hold greater importance than others. I suggest two major strategies for developing this time management skill.
First, is the glass ball/plastic ball technique. Imagine you are juggling, like, 30 balls (I know, it’s a lot). Eventually, some of those balls are gonna drop and that’s ok! This happens because time is a finite resource, and we all have to make decisions about which balls we want to keep in the air. One great way to do this with low-stress is to think of the balls as glass and plastic. The plastic balls you can pick up again later, the glass ones will shatter.
Any time you have to choose between two tasks, try to figure out if one of them is glass. This is a personal preference. A glass ball to one person is a plastic ball to another. This gets a little tougher when you start to add in personal relationships.
A lot of us don’t want to disappoint our friends and family, but you only have so many hours in the day. And at the end of the day, you are the one who has to live with your choices, not your friends or family. That means finding a balance that you personally can live with.
Remember prioritizing is often the trickiest to master even though it’s so adaptable to each individual’s needs, so don’t blame yourself if it takes a little while to fine tune.
For example, taking your kids to school every day might be a plastic ball for a lot of us. It’s a task that’s important, but that we could ask for help with. We can ask our partner, the grandparents, or the school district to take our children to and from school. If we can’t take them ourselves everyday, it’s not the end of the world. On the other hand, making it to sports games, recitals, or other special events will be glass balls for many parents.
Some work balls will be glass and some will be plastic. Some personal balls will be glass and some will be plastic. This goes for family tasks as well.
Try not to judge your preferences against someone else’s. It’s your life. Make the choices that are best for you and the people you love.
A second strategy is to use a technique like the Eisenhower Matrix. This time management skill categorizes tasks into four quadrants based on urgency and importance (once again, things only you can evaluate).
With the Eisenhower Matrix, you make a list of the tasks that need to happen within a specific time frame, like that day or week. Try to keep it short-term if possible. Then organize your tasks into urgent, not urgent, important, and not important.
If a task is urgent and important, do it first. You might have a couple of these and that’s ok.
If something is urgent, but not important to you, ask someone to help you.
If something is not urgent, but important, schedule it for later.
Finally, if it’s not urgent and not important, consider dropping it from your list altogether.
Time Management Skill 2: Maintaining Boundaries and How to Make it Work for You
Setting boundaries can be difficult for a lot of us, and understandably so, but it’s crucial for preventing burnout and maintaining a healthy life balance. One of the best ways to do this is to clearly define your working hours and personal time. You can even go a step further and designate some “you” time. I strongly recommend you do this. You might have to adjust these boundaries every week or month or so.
My husband likes to make a weekly schedule, not with specific tasks, but with blocks of time like “Shop time” and “Kid time” and “Work hours” because his schedule shifts and changes on a weekly basis. Having time blocks with different types of time reduces his anxiety significantly in a way that making task-lists does not. Lists of tasks make him stressed because of the large number of things he feels responsible for. Blocks with boundaries help him feel more in control and he can always move the blocks around if needed.
It helps that he clearly communicates these boundaries to the people that matter and uses “no” as a complete sentence. Make sure you communicate, but don’t feel like you need to give an explanation to anyone who asks. It’s ok to just say you’re busy and offer no further information (or strategically change the subject). This takes practice, but it’s a great way to set boundaries and it is deeply empowering.
Finally, avoid the temptation to constantly check emails or work outside designated hours, as this can lead to exhaustion and decreased productivity. The exception to this is if you feel particularly excited about tackling a task. Sometimes, I get a wild urge to work at ten o’clock at night. If possible, I take advantage of this internal motivation. I’m capitalizing on my own interests and goals, which is a great use of time and results in higher quality work. And it can also be restful.
Technology can be a great tool for setting boundaries. You can use automated email responses during non-working hours. You can also use your phone to create weekly schedules.
Time Management Skill 3: Setting Goals and Making a Plan
Setting clear goals for yourself and creating actionable plans are vital components of effective time management. Define both short-term and long-term goals, breaking them down into smaller, manageable tasks. Develop a plan outlining the steps required to achieve each goal, providing a roadmap for your efforts.
It might help to do short-term tasks at one time and long-term tasks at another. Try making goals that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. For example, I had a goal to ride twelve miles on a bicycle in under an hour. T
he number of miles was specific and measurable. I knew I was at a fitness level where this would be a challenge, but I could do it. It related to my bigger goal of getting moving again after childbirth, so it was relevant. And I gave myself three months to do it, so it was time-bound. The SMART strategy really helped me improve my time management skills (shout out to one of my best friends who shared this with me after college).
You might not be able to hit every single SMART factor for every goal and that’s ok. Goal-planning is one of those things where if you do it partially, it’s a lot better than doing nothing. Kind of like washing one bowl is better than washing no bowls.
Finally, don’t be afraid to reevaluate your goals and your roadmaps for achieving them. It’s ok to make adjustments. Plans and goals are there to help you, not stress you. And while it’s good to challenge ourselves, it’s also good to take a break when needed. Every culture with strong undercurrents of toughness or resilience also has a deep respect for rest.
Take the concept of sisu. This is the idea of sustained courage and belongs to the Finnish people. We might also think of this as grit, drive, or perseverance. In Joanna Nylund’s Sisu: The Finnish Art of Courage, one of the things she highlights is that rest is an essential aspect of sisu.
In other words, to have deep reserves of grit, to be determined and to keep pushing necessary, we must have reserves to fall back on, reserves that can only be gained through rest. In Finland, this often happens in the winter and can be clearly seen through sauna traditions and rituals. But that doesn’t mean you can’t bolster your own reserves with a hot bath, candles, or other self-care activities.
So use this time management skill and take the time to set goals. Plan them out. But don’t forget to give your plans and dreams a look over every now and then, and don’t be afraid to take a break.
Time Management Skill 4: Managing Stress and Expectations and How to Make them Work for You
Stress and unrealistic expectations can hinder your ability to manage time effectively and even acquire new time management skills. It’s true that sometimes stress can be a motivator. Think back to when you put off an assignment for school and then used the last evening or even few hours to get it done and it actually turned out ok. This is using stress as an external motivator.
The problem is, this isn’t usually a happy experience. In fact, stress releases cortisol into the brain. Cortisol helps us power through when we need to, but it can have some damaging long-term effects, including hurting our ability to learn and form long-term memories, are ability to regulate our emotions, and even our ability to maintain a healthy weight.
In short, stress is not a motivator you want to rely on, particularly if you’re goal is to live a long happy life. It certainly doesn’t help us manage our time. My biggest piece of advice here is to learn to recognize your own personal signs of stress.
For example, I know I’m stressed when I resist leaving my car when I get wherever I’m going. I’ll just sit and stare at the steering wheel or lose myself in my phone for a few minutes. When I’m not stressed, I bounce out of the car as soon as I can get my seatbelt off. Everyone’s stress signals are a little different, so try to keep an eye out for your own.
When you do identify your stress signals there’s two strategies you can try. First, identify the thing that is stressing you out and remove it. However, there are times where we can’t get rid of the thing that’s stressing us out and that’s when it’s important to identify the stressor and implement stress-management techniques like mindfulness meditation, some time in nature, deep breathing, or other self-care strategies.
All of this adds up to better time management because you won’t lose time drowning in stress. Instead, you’ll manage it and use your time for self-care and personal growth.
A big source of stress can be expectations, so don’t be afraid to adjust expectations by setting realistic goals and deadlines to avoid overwhelming yourself. Small changes make a huge difference, so don’t be afraid to aim for a target that’s reasonable to hit. It’s a lot easier to run a marathon if you start with daily walks than it is if you start with two-a-day runs.
Time Management Skill 5: Stay Flexible and How to Do It
With this in mind, don’t forget that the ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances is equally important. It’s true that planning is essential, but try not to get too attached to the plan. Stay flexible and open to adjusting your plans when unexpected challenges arise. Try to be forgiving of yourself if and when you have to make changes.
I desperately wanted to write a thesis for my Master’s degree, but I happened to have a baby right when I needed to be working on my rough drafts. I had to adjust expectations and do an exam-option instead. This change gave me more time with my son when he was born, reduced my own stress, and still let me achieve my overarching goal of finishing my MA on time.
But it still took some processing. I definitely cried over it a bit and felt ashamed. My parents, husband, and sister were incredibly supportive about the whole situation and worked to give me time to rest both on my own and with my newborn. The rest helped me to be more resilient and bounce back from the disappointment, which meant I could still work toward my goals.
If you struggle with flexibility because you feel like you might let yourself or someone else down, try building contingency time into your plans for unexpected events. Try to anticipate your big concerns about making changes to your plans and envision yourself being successful anyway. The envisioning part is REALLY important. Finally, try to embrace change as an opportunity to grow and learn
Time Management Skill 6: Avoid Multitasking and Distractions-How to Make the Most of Your Time
Finally, try to avoid multitasking. Contrary to popular belief multitasking often leads to decreased productivity, higher rates of stress, and distractibility. In fact, there are several studies dating back to 2010 that indicate our brains aren’t actually capable of performing more than one task at time. So multitasking doesn’t even really exist. Instead, what we’re doing is something called “rapid sequential tasking,” and it’s not great for us and doesn’t help us manage our time.
Instead, try to focus on one task at a time. This helps you maintain quality and efficiency. If you find yourself multitasking, be kind to yourself. Many of us are taught to do this from a very young age. Recognize that it’s happening, take a breath and re-center on a single task.
It might help to minimize distractions. You can do this by creating a designated workspace (mine is a nest on the couch), by using tools to block interruptions during work time (turn off your phone, shut the door, whatever you need to do), and identify the things that help you work. For example, I have to be warm and have something to drink or I absolutely cannot focus on a single task deeply.
Conclusion:
Mastering time management skills is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort and self-awareness. But like any other skill, small steps and low-stress practice will bring you considerable growth. By prioritizing tasks, maintaining boundaries, setting goals, managing stress, staying flexible, and avoiding multitasking, you can enhance your productivity and achieve a healthier work-life balance.
What are some of your favorite time management techniques? Let me know in the comments!