The 9 Ultimate Tips for Practical Time Management

More than just another time management thinkpiece!

Time management – and its cousin “productivity” – have articles published Medium about them every day. It’s easy to understand why: We’re all busier than we want to be. We all want more of something; time to ourselves, time to grow our businesses, time to learn to cook or play the ukulele… 

Plus, we know our time is finite. You can’t manufacture more time. It can feel like a game of tetris to get those blocks of time to fit just right. To eke a little bit more out of every minute, of every day. And to reach the end of the day without constantly feeling haunted by what remains on your to-do list.

We have some ultimate tips for managing your time effectively, and they’re surprisingly down-to-earth.

Time Management Tip #1: Manage Oneself

You’re basically useless to everyone and everything if you’re not healthy, mentally, physically and emotionally. You already know this.

But odds are you’re still prioritizing self-care after everything else on your to do list. If you have a hectic week, that’s when you’ll skip the gym or meditation. It feels like a pragmatic choice but it quickly becomes a slippery slope. 

Before long, you start to feel tired, heavy, agitated, restless. It doesn’t matter what self-care means for you (gym, yoga, time with friends, meditation, reading, doing nothing). Keep doing it. It impacts everything else. 

Time Management Tip #2: Think in Terms of Big Rocks

A conventional piece of advice is to bucket similar tasks together to better manage your time. This makes absolute sense.

But let’s layer another idea over that. When you look at a set of activities, is there an approach that allows you to do something once in a way that serves many other tasks?

Some examples:

• Approach photo shoot for your website that also gives you collateral for PR, social media, blog posts and beyond
• Build slide decks that can be broken into smaller parts to use as onboarding materials, client presentations, speaking engagements and more
• Build templates that can be used and reused  instead of one-off executions of things

Taking a step back and thinking about when and how to take a “big rock” approach to work means an extra investment of time upfront that will pay dividends over and over. 

Time Management Tip #3: Rethink How You Prioritize Your Work

I’ve read enough time management books and articles to know the conventional wisdom is to do the Most Important thing on your list first. This is utterly sensible. Presumably then, the things you don’t get to don’t matter as much.

But in reality this doesn’t work for me. Some days I need to ease into some easy tasks to give myself a foundation of accomplishment and momentum before I can tackle the big important thing.

My approach is to prioritize the thing I least want to do first. That might also be the most important thing but it might not be. Generally, if the rest of my to-do list is attractive, I’ll keep going. But if I keep putting off that one thing I don’t want to do, I’ll fuss around doing anything but the work for as long as possible. 

In different moods and with different to-do lists, I might prioritize differently. Staying elastic with how I prioritize my time allows me to judge the work on any given day.

Time Management Tip #4: It’s Only a Good Time Management Technique If it Works

If you research time management principles and techniques, you’ll probably come across the Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule, and the ABCDE Method. In quick summary:

• The Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule suggests that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results. This insight becomes a guiding tool for prioritization
• The ABCDE method is another prioritization tool. The idea is you identify whether tasks are:
  • A = Very important – there will be serious negative consequences if you don’t do
  • B = Important, but less so that “A” tasks
  • C = Nice to do
  • D = Delegate
  • E = Eliminate, wherever possible

… and then you act accordingly.

If these excite methods you, by all means given them a try. Time management theories are a bit like diets… they only work if you can stick to them. If a diet helps you lose weight but feels like a punishment that constantly competes with your lifestyle and desires, odds are you won’t stick to it.

The same goes for time management. The more it feels like adopting a counter-intuitive technique the less likely you’ll be to hold the course. 

Let me share one method of managing my time that works for me. I use this in my personal as well as professional life. It’s basically a very simplified Kanban approach:

Step 1: Make a To Do List

• This is a brain dump exercise. You capture every single thing you need to do here, big or small, urgent or non-urgent. 
• This exercise itself is very liberating: All those niggling things that might creep up when you’re trying to relax or do something else get captured.

Step 2: Decide Which 3 Things You’ll to Work On

• Now you assess that monster list of things and decide which 3 you’re going to work on 
• It’s up to you which 3 (see the prioritization section). It could be:
  • Most urgent
  • Most important
  • Easiest to get out of the way
  • Least exciting aka “eat your vegetables first”
• It’s important to keep this to 3 to help you focus. If something urgent comes up that must be worked on right away, something has to move back to “to do” out of “doing.”

Step 3: When a Task is Complete, Move it to “Done”

• The satisfying moment when you see things move from doing to done!

You’ll notice the shape of this board is narrow in the middle. This is where it helps build focus, which is key for time management. Although this isn’t a prioritization tool, it necessitates prioritizing in choosing the 3 things to work on.

Time Management Tip #5: You Can’t Manage What You Can’t See

Have you ever tried to change your diet? Most lifestyle changes start with a period of tracking. It helps to become more self-aware about what you’re eating before you try to make changes.

That’s why experts advise keeping a food diary for a few weeks before you make any changes. This includes tracking what and when you eat, as well as how it makes you feel. 

The idea is that you’ll start to see patterns and behaviours that you weren’t fully aware of. For example, that you reach for sugary drinks in the afternoon. Or that you feel more energized when your breakfast includes some protein. And it might turn out that these are easy areas to affect immediate change.

The same principle applies to money management. And to time management: It’s hard to improve something you’re not really able to see. That’s why tracking your time helps. 

You might see patterns emerge like:

• What times of day you’re most productive
• How much time you’re spending on tasks that don’t generate income
• How much of your time is spent in meetings

Having an accurate picture of how you spend your time can help you identify areas where your productivity is slumping.

Time Management Tip #6: Say “No”

We’re often told about the power of saying “yes”, but “no” is an equally powerful word and it’s very important to learn how and when to use it.

Saying “yes” at the wrong time can lead to:

• Scope-creeping clients taking advantage of you
• Taking on work that doesn’t excite you
• Not having the time you need to excel at the work you love
• Falling behind on other important items
• Compromising your work/life balance
• …and much more.

Finding the firm but kind way of saying “no” to opportunities that you deem less exciting is an important life skill. And it’s an essential skill when running a small business. You need to be able to say “no” without burning bridges.

Here are some ways you can soften your “no”:

• Make your “no” a “not now” not a “not ever”
• Outline in clear detail the cost of taking on this ask and showing budget is better spent elsewhere
• Suggest alternative vendors / freelancers, i.e. “I can’t do this for you, but I think X,Y,Z would be wonderful for it!”

Time Management Tip #7: Don’t Build a Ferrari When a Toyota Would Do

One of the biggest ways I mismanage my time is by building a Ferrari when a Toyota would do. By this, I mean thinking about the right car for the job. 

The main reason small business owners fall into traps of “building Ferraris” is because we love our craft. We have high standards for our work and want to knock it out of the park every single time — even if the job doesn’t require it and the client isn’t paying for it.

Of course, you want to take on clients and projects that ask you to build Ferrraris. But you also want to be able to recognize when that isn’t the scope of a project and adjust your output to match the budget and timelines.

It might be worth saying that Toyotas are very often the absolute best car for the job. This isn’t about producing crap. It’s about creating a healthy range of quality output and judging accurately what is required for each project.

Time Management Tip #8: Throw Money at the Problem 

Speaking of Toyota v Ferrari work. It’s also liberating to give yourself the option to outsource work when it’s not the best use of your time. This tip also covers investing in tools that automate and save time on workflows.

Investing in software to automate your invoicing and billing processes is a classic example. These tasks are essential for your business. But they’re certainly not making the most of your talent:

When thinking about what problems to throw money at, ask yourself:

• Is this the best use of my time?
• Does this require me to do, or could somebody else do a good job?
• Are there tools or technology that can do this for me?

A note on outsourcing: When you get other people to do things, understand that it won’t be exactly the way you’d do it. You have to let go of the reins a bit to work effectively with others. If you control freak the process, it will end up costing more time than it saves you.

Time Management Tip #9: Shake It Up

Most time management advice comes from a place of habit-forming. They advise you to adopt daily habits that will maximize your time management.

I don’t wholly disagree with this. But I also think habits need to be shaken up every once in awhile. The time management techniques that worked for you in your 20’s may not work in your 30’s.

Your priorities will change over time. The structure of your days will change too. I believe it’s important to step back every so often and review whether your approach is still working.

If it’s not, give yourself permission to try something else. Just because something worked in the past does not mean it will continue to work indefinitely. I think a lot of “shoulding” comes from this mindset.

Sometimes I shake up how I manage my time just to give myself a fresh feeling about my days. 

In spring and summer, I like to get up earlier and get more done in the mornings. But in winter, those dark mornings make it hard for me. That’s okay, as long as I understand this about myself and adjust my behaviours and expectations. 

Conclusion

Time management can feel like a race you’re constantly losing. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Let go of the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed. Stop romanticizing the “always busy” mentality.

Instead, make some practical changes to how you manage your time and priorities. Find something that works for you personally. And then give yourself permission to change when it’s no longer working.

Remember the goal here: To do mostly the work you love, to live your definition of a balanced life and to enjoy every day. Good luck!

Next: Read Cash Flow: What it Is, How to Measure it, How to Fix it…