"Time management is a misnomer, the challenge is to manage ourselves." 
                                                                                                                        - Stephen Covey

Hello to all...

There was a time I used to think, "I have so much to do in so little time". I didn't know where to start and how to finish all my work and this continued for years.

Whereas now I finish all my chores and also get time to spend with myself or my loved ones.

Believe me, it's quite simple. It is the small efforts that make life simple and easier.

What we need to do is keep our thoughts organized and act accordingly. I do prefer to make a list and check all the points once it is done. But with time it automatically became a nature or habit per say.

Plan Ahead

First thing in the morning:  When I wake up in the morning while having tea I try remembering all the things needs to be done throughout the day. If anything very important pop ups in my mind, I save it in my smartphone checklist as a reminder. Or I take a notepad and list everything done and stick it on the refrigerator. By doing so I make sure my day is moving as planned and nothing is missing out. This is the first step to organize and plan your whole day.
You can also plan the night before going to sleep: Planning the next day before also helps you sleep stress-free.

Once we get a list of task needs to be done, we need to prioritize. Yes, this step is very important. There are people who complain, "I stay so busy the whole day, I am always working. Its either at the office or when I come home, I feel like I am always working and it drains me out. I am too exhausted to spend time with anyone else."

Remember saying so ever? I did.

So prioritizing is very important.

There are basically four Categories to put the task into :

1. Important and Urgent.

2. Important but Not urgent.

3. Urgent but Not important.

4. Not urgent and Not important.

So we need to put our task into these above-mentioned buckets. Accordingly, we need to plan our day. This tip works in both professional as well as in personal life.

It's important to make time for yourself and for your family and friends.

Like for example in our work life sometimes suddenly we are loaded with a huge amount of work. It may have happened that we have been avoiding a certain task to do for a long time even though we knew that eventually, we have to do it. Like making a presentation or data report. We keep it in the not urgent and not important bucket and one day comes when the same task becomes very important and urgent and at the same time we have other important and urgent tasks as well.

To avoid such circumstances, it is better to be prepared beforehand. If any day there is less work to do, then prepare for the upcoming tasks. In this way, we don't need to stress out much.

Same way at home, from waking up in the morning to going sleep, we have many household chores to do. And at the end of the day, we say, "Life is so exhausting".

Right!!

For example, We keep cooking and eating the whole day, and keep piling the plates and dishes in the sink and when the day ends we just look at the sink and become upset and angry. Well, the better way to handle this is, while cooking if you are standing idle for some time then clean those side plates or dishes which you used while cooking. Suppose you are done with your breakfast or lunch or even snack, then wash the plate at the same time. It hardly takes 2minutes to do so. Whereas when the sink is completely full it takes a minimum of 30minutes to clean and by the time your back will start aching.

One more important tip is saying "No".

Yes saying No is difficult but quite effective. Suppose at the workplace you are already busy doing your own work and suddenly a colleague comes to you and asks for help with his/her work. At the time you just say Yes even though you have your own pile of the task. And it's you who gets frustrated. Well, it is a good thing to help others, believe me, I tend to say yes many times just cause it difficult to deny someone in the time of need.

But eventually I learned to prioritize myself, and now I help others and I finish my own work on time as well. At times you can just say that you will try to help once your own task is completed. Or you can postpone it by saying, "Can I help later once my work is done?". By doing so you are not being rude or not even upsetting your colleague or friend. If it is important for the person to finish his/her task sooner, he/she will find another person to take help from.

At times when we are at home and have a lot of work to finish which might be pending from a long time and suddenly a friend/relative calls and asks to meet or plan to go out, and even though we know we have work to do we say YES.

This again leads to the piling of work. If it is not much important to go, then once in a while it's better to say No instead of saying a denial Yes.

I hope my tips are helpful to you. If you have any queries or comments please write me in the comment section and if you liked my page then please hit the like button and follow my page for further updates.

Have a great week!

sayonara!

Pratha Nayak