7 Proven Ways to Manage Your Time and Tasks

 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I'm giving a free webinar on 2021-02-10 titled "7 Proven Ways to Manage  Your Time and Tasks."

In this post I will provide some information related to the subject. Anyone attending the webinar can find more detail here in this post. If you want to attend, register at this link.

The 7 Proven Techniques are:

1. The Pomodoro technique ® – focus and eliminate distractions

2. GTD: getting things done – take big tasks (projects) and break down into pieces. Just start on one piece.
3. Inbox 0 – Manage your email inbox - look at each incoming task once
4. Personal kanban – visualize work, limit work in progress
5. Saying "No"
6. Eisenhower's prioritization technique
7. Margin – Don’t over-commit
8. Bonus: bullet journaling

 You'll find links to more information below:

Here is a very recent article about Time Management:

Fast Company:  02-08-21 SECRETS OF THE MOST PRODUCTIVE PEOPLE
3 time management myths messing with your productivity

 1. Pomodoro Technique ® (Registered Trademark)

• The original Website (gives a good overview and has info about books on the topic) : https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique
• The Free web app:  https://pomodoro.francescocirillo.com/
• Trello blog: https://blog.trello.com/how-to-pomodoro-your-way-to-productivity
• Forbes "The Pomodoro Technique Explained"
  

2. GTD: getting things done – take big tasks (projects) and break down into pieces. Just start on one piece.

• The book is written by David Allen and available in many places
  
•  Explained at the GTD website: https://gettingthingsdone.com/what-is-gtd/
• Wikipedia GTD : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
•  New Yorker article "The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done" (this gives a great history of GTD) https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-rise-and-fall-of-getting-things-done
  

3. Inbox 0 – Manage your email inbox - look at each incoming task once

• 43 Folders: Inbox Zero
  
• The Muse "Your Step-by-Step Guide to Reaching Inbox Zero (Even if You Currently Have 1,000+ Unread Emails)"
  
• Whatis Overview and link to Google Talk: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/inbox-zero
• Lifehack: "What Everyone Is Wrong About Achieving Inbox Zero" 
• FastCompany "The 7-Step Guide To Achieving Inbox Zero—And Staying There—In 2018" and  "The Smart Way to Tame your email in 2021: Embrace a little chaos"
• Medium: "Why Inbox Zero is Ruining Our Lives (Better Email Habits That Will Help You Save Time And Money)"
  
• Read your email only certain times of the day, don't let email determine your priorities
• Think about where your tasks come from. Read "Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?" in Harvard Business Review (one of their top read articles over the years)
  

 4. Personal kanban – principles: visualize work, limit work in progress

• Kanban entry in Wikipedia
• A good tool for keeping your own kanban is trello.com 
  
• Personal Kanban website
• YouTube Video "Introduction to Personal Kanban" By Jim Benson (6 minutes, 36 seconds)
• Modus Institute : Blog
  
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Team Kanban

5. Eisenhower's prioritization technique

•  Monday Project "5 old-school strategies for prioritizing urgent tasks you can try right now" (includes other productivity ideas too)
• Medium "The Eisenhower Method For Taking Action (How to Distinguish Between Urgent and Important Tasks)"  (includes some history of the origin)
• You can also see this used in the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®" by Stephen R. Covey - it is in Habit 3. See also the Wikipedia entry for this book

6. Saying "No"

• Henry Cloud Book "Boundaries: When to Say Yes; How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life"
  
• Michael Hyatt "5 Reasons You Need to Get Better at Saying No"
  
• Inc. "7 Tips for Saying No Effectively"
• Forbes "Three Reasons You Need To Say 'No' More Often"
• From the Agile Manifesto Principles "Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential."
  
• CIO "The art of maximizing work not done"
  

 

7. Margin – Don’t over-commit

• Book "Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives" by Richard Swenson, M.D.
• Sequel book "The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live Within Your Limits"

8. Bonus: Bullet Journaling (aka BuJo)

• BulletJournal website
• Watch the free tutorial (4 minutes and 11 seconds)
• TED talk "How to declutter your mind -- keep a journal | Ryder Carroll | TEDxYale"
  
• Wikipedia entry
  
• New Yorker article "Can Bullet Journaling Save You?"  
• Good Housekeeping:https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a25940356/what-is-a-bullet-journal/

My past two blog posts on this subject are also helpful:

https://henrywill4.blogspot.com/2020/02/productivity-time-and-task-management-5.html

https://henrywill4.blogspot.com/2018/10/is-it-time-management-or-task-management.html

I am available to do webinars and presentations on a wide range of topics.
Subscribe to emails of future presentations by sending an email to:
speaker-henrywill+subscribe @ groups.io
Or visit my speaking list page to see the other subjects I've spoke on and will be speaking on soon!

  Please comment here with your ideas about being more productive!