Whether you’re new to a job role, or you’ve been in position a while, the overwhelm of your constant to-do-lists and the never-ending email inbox, can soon become too much. A big skill productive people have, is being organised with your time. It doesn’t come naturally to most of us, so here’s 3 top tips from DigiEnable on how to get more savvy with your time.
Gain Control of Your Inbox
The biggest drain on our time, is usually our emails. On average we spend 13 hours per week in our emails, so finding ways to reduce this time, means we can spend more time focusing on our ultimate tasks to achieve our goals. Take a good look at your inbox and analyse what type of emails you get, what you can archive off, what you can delete, and crucially, what you can unsubscribe from.
With our ZenForInbox method we suggest only touching an email once – so if you’re not ready to read it, or action on it, don’t open your inbox in the first place. Then when you’re ready to read it, action it straight away. If the reply or action takes less than 5 minutes DO IT NOW! (You’ll save so much time in procrastination!) If the action will take you more than 5 minutes or you have to wait on a stage in the process before actioning, add it to a new “Actions Needed” folder. Then check this new folder, before your inbox next time.
Working for Chunks of Time, Single-Focused
Multi-tasking was a myth, now research says (and we say) that single-tasking is the future! When people are distracted we take 23 minutes to refocus and get back on track, so limiting your distractions is key!
For this, we suggest a Productivity Process called Pomodoro. The concept is working single-focused on a task for 25 minutes, using a timer or a Pomodoro app to remind you when your time is up. Then giving yourself a 5 minute break, before repeating the process. Once you’ve done 4 rounds, you take a longer break. This is great tool to help manage your time and track how long undistracted, your to-do list actually takes.
To-Do List Strategies
Is your to-do list organised by importance and urgency, or is it just a brain dump of things-to-do? We can easily become distracted by the easier non-essential tasks, so we feel like we’ve ticked something off the list, so by using a process for your to-do items, you can really up your game.
Different strategies include separating your lists based on work/personal, types of calls/emails/actions, location based (imagine a shopping list reminder pop up when you reach the market), an Eisenhower Matrix with Urgent/Important/Not-Urgent/
Also, don’t forget if it’s a big task, break it down into manageable smaller tasks – this will also help your focus on your Pomodoros.
If you want to learn more about what other productivity processes and mobile apps are out there, check out our blog at https://www.digienable.co.uk/
Liz Hardwick and her team at DigiEnable, deliver high quality digital training and search engine optimisation services. Based in Lancashire, covering across the UK, they have helped numerous businesses increase leads and generate business, through a more purposeful and productive online presence. Find out more at www.DigiEnable.co.uk and ww
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