Prioritise your time better
Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash
If there was an award for world’s worst procrastinator, I swear most days I would win it. But in the last year there’s been a few really simple pieces of advice that have kept me focused, productive and above all else, efficient with my time!
01: The Four Ds
A really simple model to get started with is the Four Ds - Do, Ditch, Delegate, Defer. In that order you can break down your daily or weekly tasks to make the most of your time.
Do. This one is easy, these are the things you must do within your set time frame. They’re essential.
Ditch. The things on your to do list that frankly just do not need to be done, they can be ditched completely (e.g something that won’t benefit you in the long term).
Delegate. Anything that doesn’t need to be done by you. If you’re overwhelmed by your task list but any of it can be sorted by someone else, delegate it. There’s no shame in asking for help.
Defer. Something that does need to be done by you, but doesn’t need to be done immediately. You can revisit this later down the line.
02: Learning to say “no”
Another great mantra to keep front of mind is “How is what I'm doing today helping me to reach my goals”. Setting yourself 1 year, 3 year and 5 year goals is a super effective way to stay motivated and it becomes a great filtering system for your daily activities.
If for instance your mum’s friend has asked you to design them a logo for their new dog walking service, you may well want to do them a favour, but if this could topple your workload or in the long-run you have no intention of going into branding and you’re far more interested in editorial, then you might want to give it a pass. It is 100% reasonable to say no and you shouldn’t feel bad about that (as long as you let them know politely).
Top tips here - How to: Say no without feeling guilty
03: “I have no free time”
Now I wanted to dive into this in a bit more detail. We’re not going to sit here and tell you that Netflix is the devil or that socialising with your mates on a Friday night is a waste of time, because it’s not. Zoning out and watching an hour of trash TV after a long day is actually to be encouraged.
We all need downtime to recharge our batteries and maintain motivation, because the reality is, if you spend every spare waking moment working on your side hustle, freelance work or on job applications for example, you will burn out and you won’t be creating at your best.
“We all need downtime to recharge our batteries and maintain motivation”
The key to successfully prioritising your time is everything in moderation, like chocolate. If for example, you’re trying to launch your new blog on time... 👀 you don’t want to binge a new TV series every night. But instead you can bargain with yourself, one episode per night so you can spend an hour on your side hustle too. Seems fair right?
You do have free time, just review how you’re spending it. If you’ve got an hour’s commute everyday, how can you be making the most of that? Is scrolling through TikTok for half an hour a day before you go to sleep helping you reach your goals? If you’re building a brand on TikTok then maybe! But if not, time to reassess.
04: Find when you work best
Finally, experimenting with when you work best is also really going to help you prioritise your time better. If you’re an early bird but you currently spend your mornings working out, could you switch to an evening workout or lunchtime session so you can use that hour first thing to be productive?
Similarly, if you’re spending your evenings out for dinner with friends but you’re super productive in the evenings, can you make it a lunch time thing?
Your life doesn't have to be one long compromise but just having an awareness of when you work best will help you hugely.
So to conclude...
Do, Ditch, Delegate, Defer, learn to say “no”, prioritise your free time in line with your goals and learn when you work best. Now you’re a time management ninja, ready to kill it. Good luck! Please do let us know if you found these pointers useful.
