You exercise time management habits, whether you realise it or not. The question is, are those habits good or bad? In reality, the clock continues to tick, not caring if you still have 100 tasks on your to-do list to accomplish. It will not stop for you, so you need to learn how to become more productive with the precious commodity of time. In this excerpt from an interview between Dale Beaumont and Andrew May, find out great time management habits you can take on in order to be more productive.
After he founded Good Health Solutions, which is now Australia’s largest corporate health and wellbeing consultancy, Andrew continued to work with professional athletes and is now considered one of Australia’s leading experts on performance.
What are some basic habits that people can adopt to be more productive?
Personal productivity is about taking control and learning how to get more done in less time. This is not about cramming more into a jam-packed schedule, but rather focusing on managing time alone. Personal productivity takes into account energy levels and priorities.
Some habits worth adopting include:
- Working to personal energy rhythms – define the times of the day when your brain works at its peak and undertake high-end cognitive tasks (such as planning and writing complex proposals) at these times. You can then do low-end activities (such as checking emails and organising your diary) when your energy levels plateau or take a dip.
- Chunking – a leading psychologist has shown that switching from one task to another (multitasking) involves time-consuming alterations in brain processing – it takes seven-tenths of a second each time we shift activity. Chunking is about doing similar tasks at the same time. While this is a very simple concept, it can make a massive difference to daily output.
- Prioritise at the start of the day – by allocating five to ten minutes at the start of every day and focusing on the most important tasks at hand, you can make a massive difference to organisation and control. List no more than five major tasks to accomplish each day.
One of the greatest productivity killers is a constantly expanding ‘to do’ list and the overwhelming feeling of never being able to complete a major task. Adopt habits that prevent this from occurring!
For more of this interview between Dale Beaumont and Andrew May check out “Secrets of Top Business Builders Exposed!“.
