Do you
ever get the feeling that there aren't enough hours in the day?
You wake
up first thing in the morning, motivated to cross some important items off your
to-do list, and then you make the mistake of checking Facebook or Twitter. All
you plan to do is take a little peek and see what's going on, maybe spend five
or ten minutes while you drink your coffee…
Next thing
you know, half the day is gone and you haven't gotten anything important
accomplished. It's a total disaster, and you're not even sure how it happened.
Most of us
have faced this scenario a few times, and some of us struggle with it almost
every single day. It can be frustrating to accidentally waste your precious
time, and it's easy to get angry at yourself for lacking discipline, but the
21st century is full of distractions that are custom-engineered to draw your
attention away from the things you really need to focus on.
Those of
us who work at home are especially vulnerable to this because we don't have
managers peering over our shoulders every few minutes to make sure we get our
work done.
If
you set your own schedule, it's very easy to find
some reason to put things off till the last minute. Before you know it, you've
got huge deadlines looming, and you're not sure how you're going to get
everything accomplished in time.
What you
really need is some kind of system to make sure you stay on task; a way of
approaching each day that keeps your priorities front and center.
There are
dozens of popular methods out there that work well for different people, and
for some of the more popular approaches, there are even custom-designed
computer apps that help you integrate them into your life.
In this
article we're going to look at a few different websites and apps that can
assist you in making the best use of your day.
Some of
them are designed around specific time management methods, while others are
highly customizable, and can be adapted to work with several different
approaches.
Keep in
mind that the apps won't automatically make you productive – you'll still have
to change some habits and approach your life in a different way if you want to
succeed – but they can greatly simplify the processes of daily planning,
organizing, staying on schedule, and managing your focus.
Todoist
A lot of
popular time management methods rely primarily on creating lists of tasks,
sometimes categorized or prioritized, and then processing them in a systematic
way.
David
Allen's Getting Things Done comes
to mind, along with Mark Forster's wonderfully simple and organic Autofocus family of systems.
Both of
these methods can be implemented in a low-tech way with notebooks, folders, and
the like, but in some cases a high-tech solution can be a big help. After all,
most people these days are more likely to carry smart phones around in their
pockets than notepads.
One of the
best and most popular electronic solutions out there for managing task lists is
Todoist. It's available as an app for all major platforms, or you can use it
through the website. The free version of Todoist is absolutely packed with
every kind of feature imaginable, and the paid option gives you even more.
With
Todoist, you can set deadlines or reminders, flag and sort tasks based on
priority levels, and manage all your big projects with separate custom-made
lists.
There's
also a really nifty natural language processing feature that lets you set due
dates for tasks, or trigger them to recur at specific intervals without having
to go through a menu.
Go
here to sign up for Todoist.
Focus
Booster
The Pomodoro Method is one of the most
popular approaches to time management, and it works well partly because it's so
simple.
Just set a
timer for 25 minutes, work continually on one task until the bell rings, and
then take a five minute break before continuing the task or starting a new one.
Repeat
this process four times, and then take a longer break. The frequent rest
periods keep your mind fresh, and the timer helps you stay focused. Many people
find that following this simple rhythm over the course of an entire day
drastically improves their productivity.
There are
dozens of apps and websites out there that can help you put the Pomodoro method
into practice, and one of the best is Focus Booster. In addition to an elegant
and simple Pomodoro timer, the app also has awesome time tracking features that
let you see how you spent your day, and it has a built in to-do list.
The free
version will let you get a sense for what the app has to offer, but the paid
version ($5.00) is well worth the price for people who want to really get
serious about managing their time.
Go here to read more about Focus Booster.
Trello
The Kanban method of project management was
developed by Toyota, and has become extremely popular in the software design
world, but it's also easily adapted to any sort of personal productivity
challenge.
The
low-tech way of doing Kanban is to create a bulletin board with columns and
fill the columns with sticky notes representing tasks.
In the
most basic kind of Kanban board, you'd have a column for your back-list of
to-dos, another for tasks you're currently working on, and a third for things
you've completed. Kanban improves your productivity by helping you avoid
over-commitment, and gives you a visual sense of what needs to be done.
If you
want to implement Kanban in a more high-tech way, you can't really do much
better than the Trello service.
With
Trello, you can set up dozens of virtual bulletin boards for all your projects,
with customized columns that you fill with little cards representing your
tasks. You can drag the cards around from column to column, and order them
however you like.
Trello is
available for all devices, or you can use it through the website. The interface
is incredibly user-friendly, and the free version has all the features most
people would ever need.
Go
here to sign up for Trello.
SkedPal
Time blocking is an approach to time
management that involves scheduling everything in your life down to the date
and time, and allotting a certain number of hours or minutes to each activity.
This level of micro-management doesn't work well for everyone, but some folks
get a lot more accomplished if they plan everything out all the way down to the
smallest detail.
The best
tools for Time blocking are calendar apps, and one of the most feature rich and
user friendly digital calendars available is SkedPal. It's especially useful
for Time-Management because it integrates many popular features commonly found
in to-do list applications, with much more robust scheduling features, and it's
built from the ground up for time blocking.
SkedPal's
biggest selling point is the automatic AI scheduler, which analyzes your
priorities, your commitments, and your preferred work times to automatically
schedule tasks. You are free to tweak the schedule to your liking, but the
suggestions are apparently really good, and it's very easy to use them as a
starting point for a comprehensive time blocking approach.
Skedpal is
available for all your devices, and has a handy web app. All versions sync up
so you can access your data wherever you are.
There's a
14 day free trial that will let you see what the app has to offer and test
everything out. The paid version is fairly pricey ($9.95 per month for the
yearly plan) but time blocking is a pretty complex approach to time management,
and the advanced features of SkedPal should help make everything much simpler.
If the
price is too hefty for you, and you want to try Time Blocking on a lower
budget, Google Calendar has all the basic
features you need to get started, and it won't cost you a penny.
Go
here to learn more about SkedPal.
TimeCamp
One of the
best ways to handle time management is just to keep track of how you spend the
hours of each day.
Having an
awareness of time, and a realistic sense for how long it takes you to get
things done, can totally change your outlook and lead to better decisions. It
will also help you identify all those pesky little time-wasters that creep up
and steal away your most productive hours.
There are
dozens of excellent time tracking tools online, but TimeCamp is absolutely free
for a single user, and has tons of useful features, with a great interface
that's simple and easy on the eyes.
There's an
excellent web-version available that works with all major browsers, and there
are dedicated apps for all portable devices.
Go
here to learn more about how TimeCamp works.
We hope
you found some of the above suggestions useful. If you know of any other great
time management apps we might've missed, or if you have any time management
advice to offer, please give us a shout in the comments section below. We'd
love to hear from you.
Do you
need more time management help and tips?
I recently
read Time Management in 20 Minutes a Day by
fellow work at home blogger, Holly Hanna. I highly recommend this if you are
really struggling with getting enough done or wondering where the time went by
the end of each day.
After
implementing some of the advice I got from this book (which goes well beyond
the basic tips I've listed above), I've found that my to-do list is almost
always checked off.
And not
only that, but there is somehow time in the evenings for me to relax and have
“me” time or do things with my family without feeling guilty about it because I
didn't get “fill in the blank” task done.
So if you're
looking to seriously get a handle on your days, get
the book! It's a quick, no-fluff read that gets right down to
business so you can start taking immediate action to gain back control over
your time.
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