This is how you can improve your TIME Management skills !

Time is the most precious asset we all have; An asset that nobody can buy or sell, no matter how rich or poor we are; An asset that we all obtain by birth; An asset so powerful that it can create a thing in seconds and destroy the same thing in seconds. I see TIME as a super-power that's also a double edged sword.

Learning everything to do everything on our own is a crystal clear way to become an inefficient human. You end up spending a lot of time as you have to manage everything. You might have a great plan that's time-bounded down to the seconds on the clock, but has it ever worked ? Were you able to keep up with your "great" plan ? The outcome of all this is a poorly executed task.

This is why "Time management" skills are crucial for anyone when they have a lot of things on their plate. Nobody in this world controls time. As the saying goes

"Time and Tide waits for none !"

We all have 24 hours (not considering the daylight savings and other phenomenons) and we have to use it effectively and efficiently to complete our day-to-day tasks because the clock keeps ticking without a break. Time lost is lost. And yet, we waste so much time on a daily basis. This affects our productivity.

Give all the reason that you want, but deep down, you and I know that it was not that we did not have time for that task, it was because we were exhausted of completing some other task in the day. Having been a culprit of this, here are a few things that I've learnt about time management and have adopted them in my life.

1. The most common thing I've observed is that we waste so much of our time thinking about why we are wasting so much time. It's funny and sad at the same time. The problem here is that you think there's so much to do and you just don't plan to start somewhere.

⏳ : Start immediately from the small things and move up to big ones. How this works you ask ? Say you have 10 tasks ranging from '5-minutes-done' to 'OMG, this is will take so much time'. Assume its 9 a.m. Now start from the easy ones. Within the next 2-3 hours, you will have completed at least 4 tasks ! Isn't that great ? Now, you have 6 tasks left and its just 12pm. Even if you take like 45-50 minutes on average to complete the remaining tasks, you will finish all your tasks before dinner time.

2. A lot of people say " I got not time for this. I need more than 24hrs in a day". These are the people who have no proper priorities set. Right now, I'm writing this article because that's my top priority at the moment. The other day, I was feeling bored so I ended up playing games on my PC the whole day. That was my priority that day. Maybe in your case, you have an important task at the moment but you decide to push it for an hour and maybe go for a walk. That was a priority that you chose at that moment.

⏳ : We work on a particular thing based on the priority and how badly we want it to be done. Yep, that's the truth. I want to point out that even though we cannot control the time, we still own all of it. What I mean by that is, you only spend time on what you really want to do that the particular moment. Choose the right priorities at any given moment.

3. You want to complete 20 tasks but you just can't remember them at once. We all have been in that situation where we remember something, get up to go do that and then on the way, we see something and remember a task related to what we saw and we end up doing either that or this. Later in the night, we suddenly remember what we didn't complete today !

⏳ : Say hello to TO-DO LIST. It helps you keep track of things that you want to complete. Here's something I also want you to know. Most people who use to-do lists don't follow an important thing when they are creating their to-do list. And that is -> KEEP YOUR TO-DO LIST PRACTICAL ! Do you really need to do all 20 tasks on the same day ? Do they all fall under the category of 'Important' and 'Urgent' ? Think about it and exclude things that you can do tomorrow. This will narrow down on things that you really need to get done today.

4. Okay. You got your tasks listed, sorted them into what you really need to do today and noted it down on your To-Do list. Great ! But have you decided on how much time you would dedicate for a particular task ? Take a look at my first point. You might find the answer to this.

⏳ : Have you come across 'Parkinson's law' ? If not, continue reading. So, what this law says is that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". In layman terms, if you dedicate a fixed amount of time for a task, it will take that exact amount of time to complete that task. I came across this from one of Elon Musk's podcasts (hosted by someone, obviously). If you decide to get that task done in 5 minutes, you will do it in 5 minutes. If you decide to complete the same task in 20 minutes, you will take 20 minutes to complete it. Now don't be like, " Imma gonna complete this 10 hour course in 2 hours". That's unrealistic. Estimate your time in a realistic manner !

5. This is the most important tip I would like to give you and its very simple yet extremely powerful.

⏳ : HAVE BREAKS IN BETWEEN YOUR TASKS. Yes, taking breaks every now and then keeps you productive. And when you are productive, you complete your tasks within the time blocks that you have set for yourself. I would recommend you to follow the Pomodoro technique. It's a 25 minute work and a 5 minute short break. Its repeated several times throughout the day. In my case, I can sit for 40-45 minutes at once, with full focus and then take a 5 minutes break. It might not workout for you, so tweak the work time of the Pomodoro technique like I did, to what suits you and follow that.

That's pretty much it. If you liked it, share with your friends and family. Thankyou for reading.