The Best Time Management Tips to Boost Your Quality of Work

Learn these six essential tips to increase your productivity and improve your time management skills.

Life is a lot of things, and everyone experiences it differently. There is one thing, however, that we think almost everyone would agree on—Life is busy. Whether you’re trying to start a homestead like us, trying to finish school, working, or just doing chores, you’ve probably found yourself saying, “I wish I had more time.” And honestly? We don’t blame you. Every person we talk to mentions how busy they are and how their schedule is only getting more packed.

The nonstop grind that has taken over modern society is largely what led to our wanting to start a homestead; to get away from the rush and live a little more simply. Little did we know, it is actually just as hard to maintain a homestead and manage our time so that we still have a personal life at the end of the day. To rediscover a healthy balance, we had to completely restructure how we utilize our time. While we can’t magically make all the items on your to-do list disappear, we can offer some advice that has helped us manage our time a little more efficiently.

What is time management?

According to Britannica, the definition of “time management” reads, “self-management with an explicit focus on time in deciding what to do; on how much time to allocate to activities; on how activities can be done more efficiently; and on when the time is right for particular activities.” Time management, if done well, is you becoming time’s boss and ordering it around. If done inefficiently, it’s more like trying to boss around a cat. The cat will mostly just stare at you and cause chaos for fun. We know how hard it is to balance your work life with your home and social life. Read on for some of the tips and practices that we incorporated into our schedule to better use our time every day.

1. Set goals

With any project, you have to know what you want before you can get started. It’s like trying to read a map. You won’t know what road to start on if you don’t know where you want to go. But once you know where your destination is, you can plan nearly every step. Time management is no different. For us, we wanted to make some more time for personal and household projects outside of the weekly chores, such as writing a novel, learning how to crochet, spinning yarn, etc.

But what about when you achieve one of your bigger goals? It can be hard to keep your motivation once you finish that big task you’ve been working on. Setting up daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals is super important to continue to feel motivated once you cross off that monumental goal. Smaller goals can help you prioritize your time and energy so you don’t burn yourself out on the bigger items. I find it best to do 3-4 smaller daily goals, 2-3 medium sized weekly goals, 1-2 larger monthly goals, and about 4 largest yearly goals. However, feel free to adjust these amounts to what works for you. You might only be able to fit 1-2 daily goals in, and that’s okay. It’s also a great idea to have your goals be in sync with the moon cycles and the seasonal cycles. It is believed by some that the moon’s phase can affect your mood and the success of certain tasks.

2. Brainstorm tasks

Once you have your goals figured out, start brainstorming how you can actually achieve them. After deciding how to achieve your goal, it might help to note each task, or each step, you will need to take. This will help you clarify where to start with your goal. However, don’t go too overboard into your tasks. Going overboard can cause a kind of task paralysis, where you become too overwhelmed to even get started. Writing down three to four tasks per goal is usually a good start.

3. Prioritize: What is most important to you?

I know this might not sound like a time management strategy, but trust me, prioritizing your list is one of the first steps to success. In the thick of your stress, everything you need to do will feel urgent. And if everything is urgent, you might try to do thirteen things at once. In theory, it seems like the best thing you could do is work on as many tasks as possible. However, it is pretty much the opposite in practice. Multitasking isn’t so much focusing on two things at once but rather swapping one’s attention back and forth between the two. This lack of undivided attention to either task tends to lead to more mistakes and both tasks taking way longer than either would take if you focused one at a time.

Below is a bit of the process we use to prioritize our tasks when we feel ourselves drowning trying to figure out what to do next.

Prioritizing your list

1.) Make a list of everything you need/want to do. Remember, wants are just as important as needs.

2.) Once you have your list, organize the items by level of importance. We use letters for ours, with the “A” items being the highest priority, the things that needed to be done as soon as possible. The “B” items are the next most important. They’re still high-priority items but can be pushed back as needed until the A’s get done.

3.) Continue this process until you have everything in order. Don’t worry about making each section equal. Sometimes, you’ll have a bunch of urgent things, and other times, you’ll have tasks that aren’t as time sensitive. We know how it can feel when everything seems like it needs to be done right that second. If you find yourself struggling to prioritize anything outside of A, you may want to review each item in more depth. Look for which things have the earliest deadlines or the most effect on other items in the list.

4. Making a Schedule

Once you have your list and know what your highest priorities are, you can start working on your schedule. Something to keep in mind when starting your work is what tasks will be the hardest to complete and what tasks will be the easiest. Surprisingly, the tasks you like or dislike the most also make a big difference. Sometimes, I need to start my hardest task first so I don’t run out of energy before I can finish it. Other times, I need to start with something easier in order to build my momentum for the harder projects.

Like everything here, what you start first is entirely up to you. Keep in mind that both of us here are pretty detail-oriented, so our advice here might not resonate with everyone. We encourage you to take what does resonate and adapt it in a way that works best for you.

Scheduling with time blocks

We’ve found that, as you get older, time starts moving faster and faster. Before you realize it, the days can start blurring together. You finish a lunch meeting on Monday only to wake up on Thursday without having done any of the things you wanted to that week. When remote work became the norm, we found ourselves struggling to make the time to do any of our chores, let alone personal projects. After months of not being able to start (and finish) anything outside of work, we forced ourselves to clear some time and write out a daily schedule. Write out your tasks in half-hour to hour blocks and try to alternate between difficult and easier tasks.

Finding a planner for time management

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After you have written down and brainstormed all of your goals, tasks, and times, you can either stop there or transfer it to a planner. I absolutely love this planner on Amazon since it has sections for goal setting, habit tracking, and budget tracking. However, you should choose your planner based on personal preference. Feel free to browse your local office supply stores, Amazon, get a digital download, or start a bullet journal. Notion is also a fantastic free option if you prefer your planner to be on your computer. If you prefer a phone app, I highly recommend Sectograph especially if you track tasks easier by being able to visually see your time blocks.

5. Taking breaks to increase your productivity

Remember to take breaks! Taking a short break per task is a good idea to prevent burnout. After three or so tasks, take a longer break to do something entirely different. For example, if you’re working on a computer to write a novel, take a 15 min break to go outside and get away from a screen. I highly recommend getting a Pomodoro timer app to help track your breaks if possible. It’s also important to listen to your body. I know all too well that overworking can lead to serious mental issues. If you need a break, take one.

I, for one, cannot be productive if I feel too cluttered. And this isn’t just about your workspace. This can also include any mental clutter you may have and any tasks that are no longer serving you. Before my day, I love to clear my work areas so I can come into my tasks with better mental clarity. I also try to find some time to meditate for at least 10 minutes a day to help improve my focus.

As for decluttering your tasks, find a time at the end of each week and/or month to reflect on the tasks you have created for accomplishing your goals. Do any of them no longer serve you? Cut them out! There’s no reason to keep any tasks that no longer bring you joy or don’t fit within your schedule.

I hope our advice has helped you learn some new techniques that aid in your understanding and implementation of time management strategies. Time management is incredibly important to factor into your everyday life, regardless of what your day-to-day looks like. And remember, taking care of yourself will lend to better quantity and quality of work. Never stress if you can’t get everything done each day either, nobody’s perfect. This doesn’t mean that you’re a failure, only that you overbooked yourself for your energy levels that day. There’s always tomorrow to get that task done.

Hopefully after applying these techniques, you can take a step away from the grind and discover more free time as you continue to check off goal after goal.