10 Effective Time Management Techniques, According to Psychology

Do you sometimes feel that a day is too short and that 24 hours is not enough? Are you stressed over not getting enough done? Don’t worry, it is natural to feel apprehensive about time as human beings are only on the earth for such a limited time with so much we want to do. Whether you are a student or are working time is something we cannot afford to waste. There is so much we want to do, so much we want to accomplish within this lifespan that it can get extremely overwhelming. This overwhelm often serves as the biggest barrier against doing anything.

That internship you didn’t apply to, the research paper you are dreading, or even that project at work that could lead to a promotion. Such events or work are something we often really want to take up or at least when given perform well at. However, the fear of not getting enough time for this prevents us from even trying to take on a new challenge.

After a long day of work, it can be hard to sit at your desk again. So many people take up going to the gym every new year, but after half a month the gym becomes empty again. Many interns quit halfway through. Students don’t like joining college clubs anymore. Why do so many people give up halfway through? Struggling with managing time effectively might be the cause you were looking for. Time is always running, even when we aren’t. Life feels like a giant race where all humans are running throughout their lifespan. The 21st century is without a doubt fast-paced. For many, time is just slipping through their fingers. It is slipping away almost like sand, but all they can do is watch petrified and overwhelmed about what to do. Others willingly let time slip away, not regarding it as important. After a long day of college or work, just thinking about doing anything that uses active concentration can make one nauseous. Some laugh when asked what hobbies they enjoy after work.

Using time effectively was never easy, but now it is more difficult than ever. With the entire world in a device we call a phone, how could we not focus on it? Those mind-numbing 10-second videos are too entertaining to tear our eyes away. We can scroll for hours to hours without having to use our brains. When we get bored with one app, we can just switch to another. A five-minute break turns to ten, then fifty, and eventually, the entire day is wasted. It is time we get back our control over time and live life to our fullest.

What Is Time Management?

So, a new day dawns, a fresh month begins, or maybe even a whole new year to take control over your life unfolds. You’ve made up your mind that it’s time to stop wasting time. With this determination, you start your day brimming with confidence about being productive. However, by the evening, the idea was thrown away somewhere in the middle of the day. Has this ever happened to you before? There is nothing to be embarrassed about admitting that yes, it has become a problem. Accepting your shortcomings is the first step towards solving them. But how do we truly make the most of our time? There is so much we want to accomplish, but we don’t want to miss out on things we like as well.

The answer is time management skills. Time management is a form of self-management with a clear emphasis on time – the targets we want to achieve, the time we want to allocate to each activity, and how these activities can be completed effectively when the time is right (Eerde, 2024). When we talk about time management, what we mean is organizing our activities to meet deadlines. It focuses on increasing efficiency, eventually leading to gain in time. It is the act of consciously choosing activities that will help us achieve long-term goals and ensure we get the time for them.

Why Do We Need Time Management Skills?

We only have a limited amount of time on this planet, so why not make the best use of it? In the end, when we look back and reflect on our lives, we won’t be recalling the reels we watched but what we accomplished in our lives. Some important benefits of managing your time effectively include:

A. Goodbye Stress:

Well, completely erasing stress would be an over-exaggeration and probably counterproductive. Managing time effectively has a drastic effect on reducing the burden of stress. Managing time isn’t all about fitting work in every slot of time you have. Instead, it helps you find balance in a way that you can do your work when energized and rest your mind when not.

B. Achieving the Work-life Balance Dream:

Everybody dreams of getting a job that provides them enough time to party or sleep away at the weekends if that is what they prefer. What if I were to tell you that the key to achieving balance lies not in the place you work, but in your ability to manage your time effectively? Time management allows you to allocate time to both work and fun. It can serve as a great tool, assisting you in managing your priorities, and bringing peace and balance into your life.

C. Control Over Time:

Human beings are without a doubt control freaks by nature. Apart from jokes, it is undeniable that we find comfort in being in control. Time management allows individuals to control the wheel of time instead of it controlling them. It gives the freedom to reflect and choose which activities truly matter when we look at the bigger picture.

D. Increased Concentration:

When our plates are full to the brim, it can be hard to determine what to eat first. Similarly, when we have an overwhelming amount of tasks, just looking at the list feels like an incoming burnout. At such times, concentration feels like a concept far away from us. Through time management, a person can figure out when and how they can focus, allowing our goldfish brains the ease to focus when it is free from burden.

E. Achieve Your Dreams Of Productivity:

We all dream about living that perfect productive life where we wake up with a cup of morning coffee in our hands, enjoying peace before having that perfect manageable schedule and that self-care hour every night. With time management, this dream can be yours. Managing your activities effectively allows you to determine when your energy is at peak and what task you should accomplish during them.

Read more: How to Increase your Productivity when you are Depressed?

F. Bid Farewell To Procrastination:

Procrastination or we can also call it the antagonist against time. Managing activities effectively can help you say goodbye to procrastination. The true core of procrastination when opened is found filled with fear, overwhelm, and perfectionism. Allocating time to tasks and following a schedule works on eliminating the root of procrastination, helping you become the person you aspire to be.

Effective Time Management Strategies, According To Psychology:

Unfortunately, time management is no walk in the park. If it was, you would probably not be here reading this article. However, time management is a skill that can be learned and enhanced with the right strategies. Here are some effective strategies according to psychology that can help you manage time better:

1. Eliminate Distractions:

This is a pretty common and obvious one that we often hear as advice from our parents and maybe friends as well. Temptations are hard to control when they are right in front of us. Imagine having a task you dread on one hand, and on the other, a new video game sitting enticingly on your desk calling out to you. The instinctive and tempting choice might be, “I’ll just get through the prologue of the game, and then I’ll start the work.”

Then the chances are that an achievement notice of completing ten hours would be the only one waking you up from your daze. Before deciding to get to work, take ten minutes to clear your desk and unclutter your mind along with it. Communicate with your family and friends to not disturb you until you are done and lock your phone in a cupboard or, better, hand it to your parents for a while. While this is not a foolproof strategy, it will help you concentrate more easily once you begin your work.

2. Steer Clear Of Perfectionism:

We all want our work to be the best there is out there. Nobody enjoys mistakes and the regret that comes with it. Unfortunately, just as how nobody can be completely perfect, no work can be without flaws either. Perfectionism is a destructive habit marked by excessive criticism towards oneself, self-doubt and unrealistic and unattainable expectations (Rice et al., 2012).

Perfectionists find little pleasure in their work and become overly obsessed with the outcome, forgetting to enjoy the journey towards it. Over time, they find themselves trapped in a cycle of burnout, procrastination and loss of pleasure in activities that they used to find fun. Perfectionism is often caused by a binary thought pattern of needing to be perfect. Simply regularly reminding yourself that everyone makes mistakes can help you be kinder towards yourself.

3. Reject Extra Work:

We prefer living in harmony and not burdening others. Asking for help feels embarrassing while saying no to the person wanting help feels mean. We reinforce a vicious pattern of taking on too much work every time we hesitate to say no. We don’t want to seem lazy or rude even though we are already practically drowning in our work. However, till you refuse and reject another kind of extra work, especially when you already have a lot on your plate, you will never be able to get any task done.

Eventually, you will pile up a mountain of tasks while not getting anything done. Help your co-worker or boss understand the tasks and deadlines you already have and how accepting others means you can’t complete your work first. We don’t always take on extra work in the form of favour. Sometimes we put too many tasks on our list that we know we can’t achieve at once. Taking on another course when already balancing college or internship. Adopting one more project with already three pending projects in the hope of promotion. It might seem ambitious until it’s not. With too many tasks at hand, no task can be finished. Try avoiding putting too much work on your plate, taking tasks one step at a time (Nortje, 2024).

4. Deep Focus Sessions: Deep Work Session:

Your concentration can make or break a work/study session. You can sit at your desk for hours and still not get any work done due to your mind wandering off. One reason this phenomenon happens is because we try to push our attention more than its limit. Create a schedule that includes deep work sessions ranging between 25 to 50 minutes, followed by a short break or try having a deep work session for a small easy to complete task and take a break after you cross it off your list. Deep work sessions can transform the quality of your work and drastically reduce the time taken to complete it. Ensure that you get plenty of rest as well to start your day refreshed and energized.

Read More: How to Boost Your Productivity with Pomodoro Technique

5. Use The Eisenhower Matrix:

Some tasks are more important than others. While one task may need urgent attention, another can be postponed a bit without a problem. The Eisenhower Matrix, developed by Stephen Covey (1991), was inspired by an iconic speech given by the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. In his speech, he declared a simple sentence where he explained that he only has two tasks: urgent tasks and important tasks. Both tasks need to be done, but not at the same priority.

This speech inspired the creation of the Eisenhower Matrix, which has since helped thousands of people manage their to-do lists. Start by classifying urgent and non-urgent tasks. Urgent tasks are those that require your immediate attention and have tight deadlines. Next, evaluate and determine the importance of your tasks and categorize both urgent and non-urgent tasks into important and not important groups. By the end, you will have 4 boxes, including:

• Do: These are the most important tasks under urgent and should be prioritized immediately. This is your priority list that needs to be completed urgently.
• Schedule: These tasks are important to complete, but do not have tight deadlines. These tasks should be your priority after the do list.
• Delegate: These tasks are urgent but not that important for you. Try shifting this workload onto a trustable co-worker or a friend.
• Delete: These tasks are neither urgent nor important. They need to be discarded until all tasks on the earlier lists are completed.

6. The 80/20 Method:

The 80/20 principle, also known as the Pareto Principle, is a productivity game changer. It suggests that most of our effort does not equal the actual output (Vaccaro, 2000). It suggests that 80% of the results come from just 20% of the effort. The 80/20 rule emphasizes that most of the important and comprehensive work is done in less than half of the time. The remaining time spent doesn’t contribute much to the task at hand. It serves as a reminder to concentrate on the main 20% of the work to boost productivity and save time. The key is to give more time for corrections and revision than during the process of developing the draft. Before you start any work, divide it into 80 and 20, focusing more on 20.

7. Use Productivity Apps:

Our phones and digital devices are usually considered the enemy of time management. However, in today’s world, getting a total digital detox might be a bit too hard to enforce. When you cannot defeat your foe, befriend them. Technological advancement did not overlook productivity problems faced by individuals. Both our phones and desktops offer several helpful productivity apps that can help you keep on track. There are organizing apps like Notion or Evernote to have all important information in one place.

The list doesn’t stop here apps like RoutineFlow or Routinery help individuals struggling to make their schedule by including a few basic morning and evening routine templates to colour the blank canvas a bit, making it a bit easier to start. For people who struggle to break down tasks, some websites and tasks also offer tools to automatically break a big task into smaller ones, along with approximate time. When in doubt, start with a productivity app to provide you with a map with directions to kick-start your productivity journey.

8. Eating The Frog:

We all have that one project/assignment that we want to avoid like the plague. However, no matter how much you try to avoid it, you’ll have to do it someday. Mark Twain once suggested that starting your day by eating one live frog every day ensures that nothing worse can happen to you throughout the rest of the day.

So how does this work? Start by compiling a list according to your priorities for the day. These goals are your frogs. Set a deadline for important frogs, making sure tight deadlines are on the top. Now it is finally time to take action. Start by eating the worst frog first, slowly going through all of them, and repeat this process the next day. This ensures that you get the hardest task out of your way at the start of the day to set your pace and increase motivation for the rest of your work.

9. Time Blocking:

Inspired and created by Elon Musk, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world right now, time blocking is a surefire way to get your life back in order. It is a simple scheduling method where you assign time to every task in your day, from brushing to working (Mozafaripour, 2019). Every morning, start your day by making two columns on a blank sheet of paper. Now, write every waking hour of the day on the left to create blocks. Assign combine or chunk your task, filling up every hour of the day.

Make sure to not only add tasks but also buffers, such as breaks or time, to allow you to switch from one task to another. For example, if you have to switch from meditation to a deep focus session, then give a buffer period to set up your desk to steer clear of distractions. To make this easier, try setting a timer at the start of the day to get constant reminders about your schedule.

10. Pickle Jar Theory:

When it comes to tasks for a day, we have too many on our lists for our good. Seeing a huge list at the start of the day can be exhausting and discouraging for people who get overwhelmed easily. Pickle Jar theory aims to solve this problem. It works on discarding not-so-important tasks, helping you utilize your hours for what is useful. It consists of three elements with rock on the top and sand on the bottom with pebbles lying sandwiched between them.

The rocks are the key tasks you need to complete within a tight deadline. The pebbles also include important tasks that don’t need to be finished within the day. Sand includes distractions that are well important to give your brain a rest but can be avoided to finish your tasks. Begin your day by categorizing tasks into rocks, pebbles, or sand. Write an honest estimation of how long each task will take. Try not to put in more work than 5 to 7 hours a day. Give yourselves short breaks and enjoy a little bit of sand throughout the day but always give priority to rock first.

We all live busy and stressful lives. So why make it even more hard on ourselves by setting unrealistic schedules with poor time management? Time management allows you to complete your work but also to have a little bit of fun throughout the day. Being too harsh on ourselves in a path straight to burnout where you eventually become unable to do anything. By applying good time management practices you can live a fulfilled life full of meaning and productivity without giving up on things you like. Work on a method that truly works for you and slowly watch your goals fall into the palm of your hands.

FAQs

1. What are some tips to manage time effectively?

Time management can be made easier by creating a daily planner that is well-organized and consists of all your deadlines by priority. Set reminders for all of your tasks throughout the day including buffer periods. Give each task a time limit and block out any distractions during work sessions.

2. What are the 5 P’s of time management?

Time management is a practical skill desired by all to get on the right track using the 5 P’s can help. It includes prioritizing your tasks, and then planning them appropriately, followed by preparing necessary sources for that task. The fourth P is pacing yourself to find a balance between work and rest to avoid burnout. The last one includes persisting which is extremely essential for reaching long-term goals.

3. What is the 3-3-3 method of time management?

Introduced by Oliver Burkeman the method involves spending three hours on an important current project, three hours on smaller tasks and three hours on maintenance activities every normal working day.

4. What are the four key stages of effective time management?

While the perfect routine may vary from individual to individual creating a daily master list, planning out the tasks for the day before beginning your routine and scheduling time for each task is a good routine to start with.