5 Secrets of Mastering Time Management (cont'd)

By Iyanu Adeyemo (IG - @the.iyanuadeyemo)

Continuing from the last post, now that you know why we should plan our days, how can you go about it?

3. Identify your high priority tasks.

Every activity in our lives doesn't have the same implications. Watching a movie on Netflix has little implication when compared to reading for an examination or completing a task from work. Do you see? This secret is to let you find out the activities in your life that have more implications. Thankfully, there's a way you can find out.

Stephen Covey, in the book mentioned above (if you don’t know, you must’ve skipped to this part, and I caught you!)gives the quadrant of our lives.

Quadrant 1: Important and urgent tasks: A project due for submission, a client you need to talk to, your daily work

Quadrant 2: Important but not urgent: Finishing up a task due in one month, renewing your license, sorting a bank problem. Since it isn’t urgent, it’s easy for us to postpone.

Quadrant 3: Urgent to someone else but not us: That last-minute request from your colleague at work, that phone call from a friend you haven't heard from. Think of this as someone needs to get something done. It's someone else's emergency.

Quadrant 4: Not important, not urgent: Tasks that are distractions and merely prevent us from finishing Quadrant 1 and 2 on time. You can guess already! Scrolling through social media aimlessly.

Only you can determine the high impact activities you have. Once they’re clear, ensure you do something about these every day.

4. Know your energy levels and disconnect from online distractions

Energy levels refer to your most active periods in a day. Some people are active very early in the morning, some in the afternoon, and others at night. A very good way to know your energy level is to find out the time you enjoy doing real and productive work. Imagine someone who has an energy level of mornings but takes time to scroll through all social media once he/she wakes up. Once done, that person may feel a bit drained and may not achieve high impact work for that day.

Another way to maintain your energy and maximize your time is to kick negativity out. Let’s be frank, negative people, news, or thoughts can be draining. If you find out that you lack energy after listening to someone or viewing something, just excuse yourself. That way, you’re better energized to perform your daily activities.

Also, online distractions are real! If you’re like me, I may decide to check Instagram for something. By the time I’m there, I forget what I’m looking for in the first place. Why? Distractions abound. The truth is, distractions take us far away from our goals. You don’t have to be the first to know about everything (except that’s your job). So, if your phone is always beeping with notifications, your mind constantly gets distracted and this limits your productivity. You may not know it, but it’s happening.

5. Learn to say no

This is my favourite secret! Have you ever agreed to help a friend run a project or show up for a meeting and later realize that you’d made a mistake? Let me tell you a bit about me. I didn’t like to say no. I didn’t know how to turn people down because I assumed it’ll make them feel bad. But, as I grew up, I realized that I was wearing myself out. So, I began to say no.

James Clear in his bestselling book, “Atomic Habits” writes that whenever you say yes to someone or something, you’re impliedly saying no to many things.

For example, an old friend is in town. You’re not so enthusiastic about meeting her but she is. You’ve got a deadline to meet the following day, and you have a lot on your table, but you’ll feel guilty if you say no to her. So, you say yes. You spend above your budget in entertaining her, discuss issues that didn’t make so much sense to you, and maybe you live in Lagos, (the busiest city in Nigeria), and you get stuck in traffic. You have a headache and you still had to work overnight to meet that deadline. Can you see the implications of a single yes? Let’s imagine you’d just said no. These wouldn’t have happened.

So, how do you learn to say "no" better?

· Evaluate your options: Where would that decision lead you? What happens next? If it’s a decision you’ll regret, just say no. If it’s something you’d love, then say yes.

· Keep saying no to things that don’t matter: Learning to say no may not be easy at first, but trust me, with constant practice, you’ll be good at turning down requests that don’t align with your goals.

Time is a resource we all have equally. The quality of our lives depends on how we spend our time. Why not choose to manage it effectively today?

Please share this article with your friends. There’s so much love in sharing!

Don't forget to leave a comment below on which of the secrets you'll be trying and if you have been doing these, let us know as well below.