Time Management Tips

Number One

Parkinson's Law way back in the 1950s an author and historian named **Cyril Parkinson** developed a theory that changed the way we manage time his idea which he called Parkinson's law affected all kinds of administrative operations around the world his law basically states that work expands to fill the amount of time available let's say you have to write a few emails normally this would only take half an hour but what if that's all you have to do today well Parkinson's law tells us that a small amount of work can take far more time than it's supposed to as long as that extra time is available.

Since Parkinson published this idea several other theorists have added to his work one observed that your responsibilities don't just expand they also contract when time is limited another explained that extra time delays productivity by giving you an excuse to fall further behind over the years studies have both validated and invalidated Parkinson's law it's become a sort of controversial subject.

However, this research has revealed some important facts about the nature of efficiency for example you can increase productivity by reducing the total number of hours that you spend working each week when working around **40 hours over five days** people find an efficient balance between time and production but as their hours increase their efficiency starts to plummet the same work will take longer because they have more space to fill by getting in the habit of putting a cap on your work week you can save yourself from wasting hours of your time every day.

Number Two

Forgetful housing how many mornings do you spend frantically looking for your phone or your keys not only is this a frustrating way to start off the day but it's also a surprisingly large waste of time luckily there's an easy fix you just start by creating or setting a site of place in your home you might pick a drawer a countertop or a box on your coffee table it doesn't really matter what it is as long as it's memorable.

So from now on that place will hold all the important items that you need when walking out the door in the morning anytime you want your keys wallet glasses or phone you can find them right there just think of it like a house for your belongings yeah as long as your items are inside their little home you know exactly where to look that means less stress and less wasting time just make sure you're consistently putting your items back in their home at the end of the day otherwise you're going to start losing things even more often but if you can incorporate this trick into your daily routine you can swing by grab everything you need and be on your way in just a few seconds.

Number Three

Tracking your chores the next time you're doing chores or going through your to-do list just track exactly how much time it takes to do each activity this won't actually save you time at first but it's a simple and effective way to win the war against procrastination well let's say you're taking out the trash it's an annoying chore that you have to do pretty regularly even though you know deep down that it doesn't take very long you put it off anyway you stall by watching videos or scrolling through social media you're essentially wasting time just to save yourself from something that you're going to have to do either way so what should you do instead when you take out the trash time yourself it might only take you 90 seconds to remove the bag take it outside and put in a new one that's 90 seconds out of the 16 hours that you spend awake and active every single day by Framing it in this context it becomes a lot harder to justify procrastination what that means is less time spent putting off your responsibilities as an added bonus you'll notice yourself paying more attention to how much time you're wasting on those little things throughout the day.

Number Four

Dissolving clutter clutter isn't just messy to look at it's actually a major distractor when you're trying to be productive it distracts you by creating neural competition which naturally grabs your attention this is especially problematic for people who have trouble focusing the presence of clutter pulls their attention away from their work and it just ruins their concentration it'll take you significantly longer to get the same job done because your brain is distracted by unnecessary stimuli just try spending a few minutes at the end of the day organizing your room or your desk and that way when you sit down to work you can be as productive and efficient as possible.

Number Five

Morning hurdles when's the best time to tackle your most important tasks for the day many successful people overcome that hurdle first thing in the morning this habit was actually popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used to write as soon as he woke up this change to your morning routine will spare you from hours of procrastination later in the day it also increases the pace of your work because you know your most challenging task is already behind you.

Time Management Techniques

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