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Time management is about more than life hacks

Time management success depends on:

1.

Awareness - thinking realistically about time

2.

Arrangement - designing, organising goals, plans, tasks to effectively use time

3.

Adaptation - monitoring your use of time while performing activities, adjusting to interruptions or changing priorities

How to improve your time management skills

1.

Build accurate self-awareness of your time management skills

2.

Recognise that preferences matter, but not how you think

3.

Identify and prioritise the skills you need to improve

Developing awareness skill

1.

Find your peak performance time

2.

Treat your time like it's money

3.

Try timing-up - record how long you've spent on tasks with clear deadlines, rather than how much time you have left

4.

Evaluate how realistically you assess time

5.

Think about how the tasks you are doing now will help/ hurt you in the future

6.

When you think you're spending too much time on an activity, step back and evaluate its importance

Developing arrangement skills

1.

Prioritise activities and obligations

2.

Urgency and importance are not the same. Tasks that are both urgent and important should be done first

3.

Use a calendar app

4.

Schedule protected time

5.

Reduce underestimation errors

6.

Try half-sized goals

Developing adaptation skills

1.

Tie your time management behaviours to habits you already exhibit

2.

Use short bursts of effort to avoid procrastination

3.

Experiment with time-trackers or checklist apps

4.

When setting reminders, include detailed descriptions and explanations

5.

Create contingency plans

6.

Seek to reduce time-wasters/ distractions

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