Introduction
Time is more important than money. We shouldn’t waste it. It’s a non-renewable resource. For this reason, effective time management might just be more important than effective financial management.
One day, my daughter came home from school after learning a life-changing quote that not only inspired her but also inspired me as well.
“Don’t waste time because time is the stuff that life is made of.” ‘Nuff Said!
So today we will talk about the 5 P’s of effective time management. No, we are not talking about whether Peter Piper picked pickled peppers. There’s nothing to do with your success through effective time management.
The five P’s are:
- prioritize
- plan
- procrastination
- productivity
- positivity
There is a connection between mastering these 5 elements and achieving personal and professional success. I want you to hold on to that connection that we made with that awesome quote my daughter shared with me.
When you can master the smallest units of your time, they add up to create a story that you planned from “Once Upon A Time” to “The End.”
1. Prioritize For Effective Time Management:
The key is to make the most out of your day
Prioritization means you are taking your tasks and ordering them based on how important they are. Or as the word suggests, ordering them based on which task should come prior to the others in importance.
The Eisenhower Matrix:
The Eisenhower Matrix is a time management tool to help you sort your tasks by comparing Urgent to Important tasks. We can agree on urgent as things that need to be done quickly. Important tasks are tasks that need to be done first.
The benefit of this effective time management tool is in helping us to sort between important tasks that are not urgent and Urgent tasks that are not important. There are four quadrants to help us come up with four different priority levels for the tasks:
- Important and urgent
- Not important and urgent
- Important and not urgent
- Not important and not urgent
Actionable tip: Use The 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle).This 80/20 rule reminds us that 80% of our task give us about a 20% portion of our overall success. There are, on the other hand, a small set of tasks (20%) that get us the bulk, the 80% of our entire success.
Wisdom will teach us to delegate the 80%, and focus on the 20% that contributes the most to Our Success.
2. Plan For Effective Time Management:
The key is to set clear goals for every day
If you feel to plan you plan to fail. Every project that takes time and money is planned. although your day is only 24 hours of life, I believe it deserves the same level of importance.
You should plan your day from the night before. By developing a, you can create a system of planning for long-term and short-term tasks. This will lead to efficient energy and focus.
Creating S.M.A.R.T.
A SMART goal is:
- Specific – Leave the fuzziness to cute monsters. Make sure your goal is clear and detailed
- Measurable – Make sure your goal has a number. You need to be able to track it
- Achievable – Remember we’re talking goals not dreams here. You have to be able to reach it
- Relevant – They should keep you on track. Focus your goals
- Time-bound – Make them urgent so you don’t meander
Another great way to plan is to use of daily, weekly, and monthly planners. They help us get a visual reference for our schedule.
Double booking is as bad as forgetting to book appointments and important events. Plan properly so you can move from one appointment to the other without stress or anxiety.
Actionable tip: Time-blocking Is it true that helps you to see what your plan for the day or week is. A helpful tip is to not be afraid to plan your brakes as well.
Putting your brakes on your schedule will help you to feel less guilty when you actually take time out for yourself. As was the everything else, setting deadlines helps you to get a final point to end each activity before. starting the next.
3. Procrastination:
The key is to overcome the enemy of progress
We all have a part of us that just wants to delay and drag our feet. We know that life will be painful if we did not get up and do the things that we were supposed to do. So, we get up and do them. Does that mean that we like them? No.
Listening to our emotions is one of the biggest and most subtle causes of procrastination. There is psychology linking procrastination to anxiety and depression. The truth is that it affects our productivity.
Fear not. It’s not all gloom and doom. there are things that we can do to overcome procrastination.
- 2-minute rule – If it takes 2 minutes to do, DO IT RIGHT NOW! Don’t wait. This is from David Allen’s book Getting Things Done
- breaking tasks into smaller chunks – If your tasks are too big then you will be intimidated when it’s time to execute. Don’t be afraid to break them down into Children of the pairing goals.
Actionable tip: Accountability is a powerful tool to help you get going and moving. One of the best ways to be accountable is to get clear and serious on your deadlines.
When you know how much time do you have, you’re able to be more strategic and creative with the remaining time you have left.
4. Productivity For Effective Time Management:
The key is to boost your output without burning out
In my book, Double Your Productivity In 31 Days, I explain that productivity is a measure of how much you can do and what amount of time
It doesn’t matter if you can move 200 apples, if it takes you 200 days to do it.
Now if you can move 180 apples, Which is less than 200 apples, but you can do it in one day, then you are more productive than the person who can move 200 apples. and 200 days.
That is the essence of productivity, doing the most possible in the least amount of time. Understanding productivity helps you to stay away from busyness. There is a difference.
Productivity aligns with your goals busyness is just you spinning your wheels with random useless activities.
There are tools that can help you to increase productivity. One such tool is the Pomodoro Technique:
- Get into an optimal workspace without distractions.
- Choose ONE task to focus on.
- Set your timer for 25 minutes.
- Do your work.
- STOP when the timer ends.
- Take a 5-minute break.
- Repeat 3 times.
- Take a longer break (30 minutes).
Actionable tip: One way to get the biggest win to actually understand the difference between deep work versus shallow work. One deceptive and discouraging mistake is taking too much time to do shallower work when the deep work is what keeps you up at night.
Prioritize the Deep work so that you can take that weight off your shoulders.
5. Positivity:
The key is to use the power of a positive mindset
Sure this “P” might seem unrelated, but you would be mistaken.
I feel like I have to educate you on the role of positivity in time management. I’m not trying to offend anyone. I’m just trying to highlight how easy it is to overlook.
When we are discouraged, we lose enthusiasm in spirit. Our Hope wings and our energy drops. This also affects how we attack our tasks.
Because we don’t feel confident we’re more likely to believe the doubts in our own minds. Positive thinking, on the other hand, influences focus and resilience.
It can do attitude drives us completely to engaging with full Authority every task that stands before us. So if you want to effectively manage your time, take a moment to cultivate a positive attitude towards setbacks and challenges.
Actionable tip: Practicing gratitude isn’t a waste of time. It’s neither a distraction. When you are thankful for the things that you already have, you develop the ability to spot riches that were otherwise overlooked.
Grace and self-compassion allow you to develop and grow from any shortcoming.
Conclusion
We learned that Prioritizing, planning, overcoming procrastination, productivity and positivity are 5 P’s interconnect for better time management. Implement these strategies to boost personal and professional success.
Final thought: Time management is a journey, not a destination – start small. Stay consistent. What is your favorite P for Effective Time Management?
