Organization and time management

Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am always looking for ways to improve my life. Whether this is regarding mental health, physical health, achieving better work-life balance or improving the way I work.

To this end, I just completed the Time Management Mastery class on Udemy led by Alexis Haselberger. In this course, she touches on several topics with which I seriously need help 😀 I particularly struggle with using a task management system consistently and in a meaningful way and managing my time effectively. I also need to manage distractions while not alienating my family and co-workers.

In this course, Alexis provides a lot of helpful information regarding all of these topics and more. In addition, the lecture is well put together, with ample opportunities to implement the lessons learned. The last point is crucial to me as I need to see how the techniques fit into my daily life. I do not just want to know about these topics from a theoretical perspective.

There is no one size fits all productivity solution, and so you must play to your innate strengths. To do that, you need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. So one of the first topics covered is getting to know yourself better.

The process involves identifying your type in four areas; chronotype, learning style, integrator vs. segmentor, and introvert vs. extrovert. Alexis provides links to the following online tests you can take:

1. Early Bird or Night Owl?
2. Find your learning style
3. Introvert, extrovert, or ambivert?
4. She does offer a quiz in PDF format for integrator vs. segmentor but, in essence: An integrator does not make a clear distinction between work and personal life whereas, a segmentor maintains a hard line between the two.

With all of these, the line is not always cut and dry. For example, some people might discover that they are integrators but really would rather be a segmentor. The result of your investigation then provides an opportunity to investigate how you can implement and maintain a distinction between the two. For example, my results for the above was as follows:

• I scored a 49, which is right in the middle
• 50% Auditory, 40% visual, 10% tactile
• A very clear introvert :)
• Integrator

None of these was a surprise but, the first two do open up some room for experimentation. For several years now, I have attempted the lark lifestyle to various success levels. Still, it never really felt like a fit. The above results suggest that I am pretty flexible when it comes to my chronotype. Looking back, the owl lifestyle is more of a fit for me personally. Time to experiment!

Over the next two weeks, I will transition to staying up later and getting up later in the morning. I have various systems such as Exist, WakaTime, and Todoist to track whether I become more or less productive. I also want to keep tabs on sleep quality using Fitbit and my general mood via check-ins.

With my learning style being a 50/40/10 split, I will ensure I have a clean and quiet workspace. Use headphones to listen to music or white noise(Noisli) to assist with focus, and listen to rather than read new material I wish to learn.

Alexis then moves onto task management, covering topics such as creating one true system for all your tasks, projects, and to-dos. For me, this will be Todoist, but there are a wide array of tools out there. The next critical step is to do a brain dump into the system you just set up. Then, with everything in place, you move onto prioritization.

Here she touches on some of the prioritization frameworks, such as the Eisenhower matrix to prioritize your tasks. Maintaining your system is critical to its success and usefulness. To this end, Alexis suggests scheduling end-of-day and end-of-week planning sessions. The other interesting idea here is to banish the overdue task list completely. The end-of-day planning session will help here. This is something I am going to adopt. The mental anguish of seeing all those outstanding tasks is just not an excellent way to start a day. 😀

Alexis also touches on longer-term planning and goals. She here introduces a goal system that I have heard about before but have not used. The system is known as SMART goals.

• Specific: Make your goals as specific as possible.
• Measurable: Can you measure the progress and success of the goal?
• Attainable: Is the goal even achievable?
• Relevant: Is the goal relevant to your overall business or personal purposes?
• Time-based: Set a realistic but ambitious end-date for the goal.

The course concludes with a look at ways to minimize distraction and improve focus.

I recommend this course to anyone who wants to manage their time and reach their goals. Do you have any recommendations? Please let me know in the comments.