Are you having difficulty managing your time? I do. In fact, most people I know has the same problem. I’ve tried so many strategies- downloaded many to-do apps and bought too many planners. So even if I am no expert, (you can read books or watch TED talks for that) let me just share those things that worked for me.

1. No Snoozing

So let me start with the most simple but oh so difficult. Waking up in the morning and stopping yourself from hitting the snooze button. I have not perfected this yet especially on weekends when I have the biggest excuse because I don’t work that day. But when I follow this rule, things get lighter. You can place your mobile phone somewhere not easy for you to reach. Some says it’s best to use a relaxing music as your alarm but so far, I just fell asleep more with that strategy. So what I do is I just wake up, splash water on my face, drink water and put on a Spotify Playlist depending on my mood that day.

2. Establish Routines

I have morning and evening routines. I also have other routines: for commuting to and from work, lunch time , and weekends. Not that you have to create so many routines for yourself but the most important is that you have one. Routines teach us how to build strong habits, on which we can use to stack more positive habit to reach our goals faster and to make our daily lives productive and better. When doing this, you have to consider how long you have in that particular time. For example, if you only have one hour to prepare and go to work, it will not be smart for you to exercise for 30 minutes, cook and eat breakfast, do your morning journal and read your book. Okay, that might be exaggerated but you know what I mean, let’s be realistic and be gentle with ourselves, shall we? With careful planning, you will surely find the balance and do your task and spread it in your daily routines.

3. Calendar

The good old calendar. This tool is something most of us have. The millionaires as well any average person have this in their mobiles or on their walls. But do we use it? For myself, I don’t really use this as a place to put the things I do everyday or on a weekly basis- I put those in my routine checklist – but for important meetings, deadline reminders, events, and conventions. It’s best if you will take advantage of the reminders so you’ll get a notification a month, weeks, days ahead and on the “Day of”. This will allow you to make the necessary preparations so you’re mentally ready on that important appointment.

4. Admin Day

So I do my Admin Day on a Saturday because this is when I have more free time. On this day, I prepare for the coming week by doing the pending chores left from last week, prepare my to-do’s , review the past week and plan ahead and set my mind up for what’s coming ahead. Admin days give you a boost and advantage on how the next week will go so this is really something I try my best not to skip. With how the busy days go, it’s hard to refocus and get mentally prepared while you’re already in the middle of weekday chaos.

5. Weekly Review

Under the umbrella of Admin Day, I do the weekly review. This is the time for reflection and self-check. I would suggest for you to do this with an open mind and self-compassion. I really have to say that because for myself, I mostly see the negative things that happened last week and sometimes, the reflection just switches into me beating myself up for the misses and shortcomings I did. While it’s important to be true to ourselves, we will do better if we will see this misses objectively and create an action plan on how it will not happen again. For example:

Opportunities:

I did the laundry throughout the week but I did not fold the clothes. I just left them lying in the couch and it affected my mood.

Why? Folding clothes is not fun for me and it consumes so much time.

Action Plan: I’ll ask a friend/ partner to fold the clothes with me while listening to some good music. I will fold clothes while listening to my favorite podcast.

Gratitude mindset: This week, I learned that while I cannot avoid folding clothes, there are ways on how I can enjoy it.

By the way, that’s a true story. 😉

6. The Simple To-Do List

So we have arrived to the classic to-do list. This strategy is so overused that we’re now at a point that some people discourages this. Inn my opinion, it’s because people still generally feels that they lack the time for everything despite their to-do list. My simple take on this matter as I admittedly went through the “endless to-do list phase” is that 1. it should not be long and 2. it should be done the night before. 3. it should be reviewed quickly in the morning. This is the most effective for me because it saves me mental energy in the busy morning contemplating on what I should prioritize. When I say it should not be long, it only means that I have pinned tasks that are most important and should be done. This way, I am letting go of the overwhelm I get seeing the things I “should” do for the day. I try my best to make it a maximum of three and when it becomes four, I am mentally prepared that its going to be a specially busy day.

7. Manage the Chores

I am admittedly someone who’s not trained for chores. I don’t look forward to it and I’m one of those that wishes for dusts not to gather up so quickly. But chores are part of life and although I’m still working on having a positive mindset about this, I also hate unorganized things so I have really no choice, do I? I really have a lot to say about hacks I learned to make things easier for chores but I think that deserves another blog entry. For now, let me just say that I schedule for my chores. Most of them I do on Mondays because I take advantage of the energy I still have from the weekend rest and then it gradually becomes more relaxed from there. It also helps for you to set a timer for cleaning the house. I have a strategy I call “Clear and Clean” where I have 30 minutes to clear away trash and other clutters and then I wipe things clean. Sometimes, when we’re bombarded with a lot of stuff to do, we just give up but unbelievably, 30 minutes is more than enough to keep things tidy- keeping us sane from all the clutters we prevent from taking over.

8. Meal Plan

There is no strict rule for meal preparations but it’s best if you have a guideline that adapts to your lifestyle. I’ve tried cooking for the whole week and it’s really time-efficient but I cannot make myself to eat the same food everyday. There was a point that I convinced myself that I can do it but no, it’s hard for me and my appetite. So what worked for me is to plan the meals for the week but not really prepare it for the whole week. This way, I know what to buy in the groceries and that I can cook wholesome foods. What mostly works is cooking dinner which we can still consume until the next day. My husband works from home so I make sure he has meals for the day. This is something I am still working on as I haven’t yet consistently brought packed lunch to work. For now, it saves me time to buy myself food in the office pantry but packed lunch is definitely on my list. 🙂

9. Outfit Plan

When it comes to outfit, I am not like most people. I have few items in my wardrobe and I still feel I have so much. Given that I only have a few, I am guilty of just pulling out clothes that I wear to work everyday. The downside of this is that I am less creative in what I wear and so I am obviously repeating outfits from last week and if there comes a day when I feel like dressing up differently- it takes me so much time and just gives me the unnecessary stress. So the solution is to plan the outfit the week ahead. In fact, I have seen one YouTuber who does uniform-style wardrobe capsule and she only switches accessories and have four items of the same clothes for each week of the month. No matter the strategy, it is definitely recommended for us to plan ahead what we should wear and iron the clothes ahead of time- saves time and money.

10. Plan for Distractions

Important:

If you’re like me, you have goals very dear to you hence you need to read articles about time management. To achieve such goals requires discipline and consistency, we all know that. On the other hand, we are imperfect organic human beings that changes moods, goes through different events, and procrastinates – more than we can admit. This is just to let you know that it is normal. This is a gentle reminder that it is okay. It’s okay if we fall off the wagon and mess up the things we have started doing. What’s not okay is if you give up. You can rest but no- don’t give up. Why? You know the reasons why. I don’t know it but you do. What I’m suggesting here is for you to write them down- write the reasons why you have to wake up early, pass the exam, study or work instead of binge-ing on Netflix, or sleeping the day away. After doing that, list down all the distractions that might stop your progress. I suggest you save it on your notes app just so you can review it every now and then. And please, do your best to avoid such distractions. Do you need an App blocker so you don’t spend 2 hours on Facebook? Do you have to limit meeting a few friends so you can sleep early at night? Read these strategies daily. I’m sure we have time for that. Help yourself to be reminded of your priorities. Your future self will say thanks because hard as it was, you have planned so that the situation gets a lot better.

If you have other productivity hacks, please leave comments below. It’s nice to know other strategies that might work for me and for others. Feel free to share if you think this can help someone you know.

Thanks for reading. 🙂

All my love,

Ada