5 Best Time Management Rules to Get More Productive

Feel like you don’t have time on anything? Or feel jealous because others manage to do both work and relax watching movies, playing online slot machines, and reading books? Then use these 5 rules to get more time for your favorite activities.

Eat the Frog

We begin with a rule called “eat the frog.” A frog is something you don’t like. And you have to eat it. Today.

If you don’t have a particularly pleasant thing planned for that day, start there. If you postpone until the evening, you’ll still be spinning in your head possible scenarios and generate negative emotions. Don’t do that.

Leave One Source for Tasks

There is a well-known rule of seven plus or minus two. A person’s short-term memory can hold seven and plus or minus two items. That’s it. So one of the rules of time management that comes from this principle recommends reducing the number of sources of task storage to one. So make plans in one source rather than your phone, notepad, and whiteboard.

Rank Tasks According to Pareto

The Pareto principle in the context of time management is explained as follows. There are 3 categories of tasks: essential, important, and non-essential.

The most important tasks are 15% of all tasks, but their importance is high at 65%. Important tasks are 20% of all tasks and 20% of importance. Non-significant tasks are 65% of the total array, but their importance is only 15%.

The first thing to do is to identify the most important tasks. These are your responsibility, give them enough time, don’t delegate them. Delegate the rest, if possible, and check whether you are spending too much time on them.

Put Things in Order on Time

Creative clutter is a well-known theme, but not everyone can live in it. A person who generates mountains of papers around him, spends up to 30% of working time looking for the right document. So regularly throw unnecessary scraps in the trash and clear space for exploits.

Curl Your Fingers

The “Five Finger Method” is an algorithm for daily time management monitoring. Each finger is assigned to one facet of the human personality:

• Little finger – Thoughts. What new things have you learned today?
• Ring finger – Getting close to a goal. What have you done to achieve your goal?
• Middle finger – State of mind. How are you doing with motivation?
• Index finger – Service. Have you helped anyone today and in what way?
• Thumb – Cheerfulness. What have you done for your health?

After the day is over, look at your palm and “run through” your fingers. It’s a great way to take stock.