7 simple habits to save time more than 20 hours a week.
In today’s fast-paced world, time is one of the most precious things in our lives. With all of our things to do, responsibilities and the increasing to-do list, finding ways to save time can significantly change our productivity and overall well-being. So implementing some tips and habits might help you save more than 20 hours each week, giving you more freedom to focus on what is important to you and your passion.
Why Time saving and management is Crucial
- The Value of Time
Managing time wisely can help us achieve our goals and focus more on our interests and hobbies. Time is such a non-renewal resource as we can’t get back once we lose it.
- Productivity Growth
To see productivity growth to achieve more, you’ll have to spend your time properly and wisely. If you can manage your time, you’ll have more time to complete tasks that are more priority than others.
- Quality of Life
Once we save more time, we’ll have more opportunities to rest, pursue hobbies, spending more time with our loved ones. This can help us to improve our mental health and quality of life.
Now we have read about why time management is important, let’s discover 7 simple habits to save time more than 20+ hours a week that can help you to see more productivity.
1. Use the Eisenhower Matrix
I use a technique called the Eisenhower Matrix also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix which is a powerful tool in managing our tasks. It helps us to prioritise what is important and urgent, allowing us to focus more on the work that truly matters.
This technique has four quadrants so let’s study this:
Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important –
Check out your task and find out what is more important than others and what has significant consequences if not completed. So do these tasks first.
Quadrant 2: Important but Not Urgent –
And learn to schedule the work that’s needed for long-term success but not have to do it immediately, These tasks should be planned and scheduled for future completion.
Quadrant 3: Urgent but Not Important –
Some tasks might require immediate action but don’t contribute much to long-term goals. These tasks are often distractions and should be delegated to someone if possible.
Quadrant 4: Not Urgent and Not Important-
You’ll see the tasks that are not urgent and not important when you organise them. Most of the time, these tasks are often time wasters so need to be eliminated or minimised. So with this, I can easily categorise my tasks, so that I can focus more on high-priority work and avoid wasting my time on less critical activities. So try this.
2. Implement the Pomodoro Technique
This is a technique that I came across during my college years and helped me prepare for my exams. It is a time management method that breaks our working time into different intervals, usually 25 minutes in length separated by 5 minutes break. This helps in focusing more and productivity.
How to Use it:
- Work or focus on a single task for 25 minutes
- Take a 5-minute break after the work
- Repeat this cycle four times
- After the fourth time, take a longer break usually 15-30 minutes.
This method not only helped me improve my concentration but also prevented burnout from working for a long time by providing a recharge time of a 5-minute break.
3. Learn to use calendar habits.
I use this technique and have brought many significant changes in my workflow. Recently I came across this technique from the famous YouTuber “ Ali Abdal ” that I have been following for the last 2 years.
In the video, he explains how the calendar habit helps us to remember what we are supposed to do and finish the next week. Writing down or putting some effort into arranging your work in the calendar can help us save more time and block out the time wasters. This way we can save time and focus more on the important things.
4. Automate Repetitive Tasks
If you came across some repetitive tasks that don’t require direct involvement like scheduling social media posts. Then you can get help from tools and software. There are some of the best in the market that help automate a variety of tasks from scheduling emails or meetings.
Some tools and apps that I recommend from the market:
- Scheduling Apps: Square Appointments and Calendly are two of the best tools for scheduling meetings.
- Email Automation: Mailchimp and HubSpot are the tools that I recommend from the market as they have some positive reviews.
- Project Management: try using tools like Asana, Monitask, Trello and Slack to create tasks and assign them to your team to track the progress.
5. Use the Two-Minute Rule
It’s a simple yet effective way of saving our time. This mainly focuses on completing small tasks that take less than two minutes so that we can reduce our procrastination.
Productivity Consultant David Allen mentioned this in his book “Getting Things Done.” The rule is very simple if a task can be done in two minutes or less, then we should take action immediately rather than postponing it.
How to Properly Use The Two-Minute Rule:
- Identify the quick tasks: As you go through your to-do-list for the day, identify the tasks that can be completed within 2-minutes or less
- Take action immediately: Take immediate action on the smaller tasks that are in the 2-minute criteria
- Use for small wins: completing smaller tasks on time can give us a sense of accomplishment and motivation, making it easier for us to tackle larger tasks later.
Some benefits are it can reduce procrastination, increase efficiency, promote a clean workspace, boost productivity and more.
6. Combine Related Tasks
Combining tasks involves organising similar tasks together and completing them in a single duration of time. This helps us to reduce the time lost from switching the context and stay focused on the work.
Some examples are setting specific times during the day to check and respond to quick emails rather than spending overtime, scheduling meetings during a certain period or scheduling a certain time for administrative tasks to prevent interrupting other work periods.
7. Set Definite Goals and Deadlines
Keeping clear goals and deadlines gives a proper direction and a sense of urgency and priority. This makes us stay focused and motivated to complete our tasks within a specific time.
Ensure your goals are precise, relevant, achievable, realistic and time-bound. Break down larger goals into completable, smaller tasks with proper deadlines. So that you can feel like being able to complete it fast.
Clear targets create proper roadmaps for our tasks, helping us organise and manage our time effectively.
One more tip: Minimize Distractions
You know clearly that distraction is one of the greatest major time drains so learn to identify and minimise the distraction. This can improve your productivity 10 times.
Ways to minimise distraction:
- Choose a quiet and dedicated place for your work to increase your focus
- Communicate with your dear ones about your workspace so as not to disturb you
- Reduce time on social media by using tools and software like StayFocused to stop and block you from spending too much time on social media
- Turn off the notifications that are not important or urgent to stop distractions.
Minimise your distractions and stay focused to work more effectively and productively.
Conclusion:
So far it’s been good and these 7 simple habits to save time more than 20+ hours a week are the ones that I have been using for the last 6 months. And I can see some changes in my habits and I think you should try it too.
Using the different techniques that I mentioned above like the Pomodoro technique, the two-minute rule, repetitive tasks or having clear goals and deadlines and reducing your time distractions can help you to be more productive and save more time.
Remember time management is all about managing a balanced and healthy life. If you try the habits, you might be able to save some time, improve your health, reduce mental stress and able to spend more time with your loved ones.
So what are you waiting for? Start now and bring some changes in your life.
All the best!
