5 ways to be more efficient

Do you feel like you‘re not efficient with your time, or that you waste a lot of time every day. I know I do. So I have started searching for ways to be more efficient and get more done every day.

#1. Pre-plan your day.

-When you get up in the morning, think about everything you want to accomplish that day and write it down. Then make a schedule of what you have to do that day and work in everything you want to accomplish so that you have almost your entire day planned out. By sticking to a schedule, you won’t waste time by trying to think what you need to do and by doing stuff that doesn’t need done.

#2. Schedule in time for yourself during the day.

-Take a break from your work, do something you enjoy for a few minutes. Read a book, take a walk, call your mom, meditate, do something besides work.

#3. Reward yourself.

-If you have something big to do like an essay for a class or a project at work, don’t try to tackle it all at one time. Plan out different steps that you can do to work towards finishing the project, like making an outline for an essay, research, etc. Then start early on these, and reward yourself after each step by taking some time for yourself. By doing this you won’t get stressed trying to do it all at once, and you’ll finish it without being under pressure.

#4. Recap your day.

-At the end of the day, think back over your day and what you can improve upon for the next day. Write down mistakes you made, such as checking your email 500 times, and write it down and what you will do to correct it. Review this in the morning when you make your plan for the day. By doing this, you will be constantly developing into a more efficient person.

#5. Eliminate time-wasters.

-Figure out what you do that wastes time every day. For me, it’s checking my email too often and reading message boards. Once you figure out what you do to waste time, fix it. Instead of checking email every few minutes, schedule times into your day to check it. I recommend replying to all the email 2 or 3 times per day, and if you are worried about not replying soon enough, make an auto-response for your email that says something like, “I check my email at 4:30. If there is something that needs dealt with before then, please call ….”. By doing this the person sending the email knows when to expect a response, and you don’t have to waste time checking your email non stop. If you waste time doing other things like reading message boards, use reading message boards as one of your rewards. When you complete a task, reward yourself by reading the message board. Or during your break do it. But don’t constantly be reading them, because they can be very time consuming. Whatever you waste time on, fix it, and you will be more efficient with your time.

 

1 comments:

  1. This is an awesome post . . . I'm writing all of these down right now . . . Thank you

    on October 29, 2009 at 12:26 AM