How to take control of your time

Time management has been a topic of discussion among many personal development experts. While some of these experts claim that time is an illusion, there are still various methods for taking control over time and getting better hours. In this blog post, we introduce you to the most important time management principles and share with you different ways in which you can take control of your time.

The article discusses the importance of planning long-term goals for yourself and breaks down each step involved in setting these goals so that they become reality.

1. What does it mean to control your time?

What is time management?
Time management is the process of taking control of the time you spend. It involves planning and prioritizing time, the ability to focus on one thing at a time, and managing your energy levels. These are key principles of time management that can be applied in real life.

Time management has been discussed by various experts in different contexts. Some of these experts claim that time is an illusion, while others suggest that we need to manage our entire lives with regard to time. According to them, we should learn to use every second of our existence and every minute of our day efficiently. These experts also believe that there is no such thing as wasted time, because every moment spent with family or friends is a moment spent doing something meaningful for someone else.

While the way of thinking varies among these experts, their goal is the same: to teach you how to spend time wisely and plan goals for all your time. In this way, you can be sure that no moment of your life will be wasted.

2. Taking control of your time equals taking control of your life

What happens when you take control of your life

In today’s society, it seems like we are constantly running out of time. We are always busy and there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done. However, by learning to control our time, we can take back control of our lives.

How you spend your time is how you spend your life. When you take control of your time, you take control of your life. You can choose how to use your time and what to focus on. This allows you to better manage your day and accomplish what’s important to you.

When you take control of your time, you can start by creating a schedule for yourself. This will help to organize your day and ensure that you are using your time effectively.

By learning how to manage your time effectively, you can create a more productive and meaningful life, you can achieve more and live a happier life.

3. Time management tips

Time management tips are varied and numerous, but you should always follow these important principles if you want to take control of your time:

3.1. First things first

On a daily level, prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. You should always start with the task or event that has the highest priority, then do whatever comes next in the list of tasks sorted by priority.

3.2. Make a schedule

Once you’ve finished prioritizing everything, make sure to follow a schedule. It might be difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, it will become easier and more convenient to manage your time.

3.3. Start small and work your way up

Even though this process can be a bit difficult at first, it is so worth it in the long run because you will start to identify the things that are important to you and take steps toward fulfilling those things (e.g., asking for a raise or promotion).

3.4 . Prioritize activities based on their urgency and importance

It is not necessary to accomplish everything at once. Instead, we should focus on what matters the most and do it as soon as possible.

3.5. Plan your day in advance

Weekends are the best days for planning ahead because there are fewer distractions and you can work on your plans more easily on a weekend.

3.6 . Stop multi-tasking

Managing time effectively requires that you learn how to focus, but multi-tasking is a distraction that makes it hard for us to do this (our brains switch between tasks without us even realizing it). Therefore, one of the best ways to manage time is to stop multi-tasking.

3.7 . Focus on one thing at a time

There are many things we need to do in a day, but it is important to prioritize these things based on the amount of energy they require. For example, if we need to do an easy task that requires minimal energy and focus, we should do it first—before taking on something more difficult that requires more time and effort.

3.8 . Understand the difference between urgency and importance

Urgency doesn’t always have to mean high-priority tasks or events. Sometimes an urgent task can be done tomorrow, or even later in the week; however, if it’s something you really don’t want to deal with later then you should take care of it now.

3.9. Put everything in perspective

Sometimes we focus on one thing at the expense of another thing, as a result of which we understand that there are other problems in our lives that need to be dealt with first (even if they aren’t as urgent). For example, we might neglect telling our loved ones about something important or forgetting to deal with bills. You can avoid this problem by putting everything in a perspective—you should know what you can do and what you can’t do, which will help you prioritize everything.

3.10 .  Plan your time to get stuff done

It’s not enough to have an exit strategy if you don’t have a step-by-step plan for how you will implement it.

4. How do you take control of your time?

There are two ways in which you can take control of your time:

a- How to plan goals and priorities

You will first need to identify what you want to accomplish by utilizing time management principles. However, before we can use these principles, we should consider the following:  Some people have a narrow vision of what they want from life, while others go after the most ambitious things in their lives. This is usually a consequence of our upbringing—we are all born with certain ideas about who we are and where we should go. But we should remember that these ideas are not necessarily correct, so we need to open our minds and think of what’s really important to us.
For example, if you have a dream job in mind but it requires a lot of effort to achieve, you might be better off choosing something more comfortable and enjoyable than the job you’ve always wanted. There is no right or wrong here—it’s just important to think about what’s worth sacrificing for your goals. Once you know what you want from life, you must define the things that are important to you. For example, do you want a successful career, or is it more important for you to spend time with family? You should then prioritize everything based on the order of importance and urgency. In this way, your goals will become much more manageable.
The next step would be to sort out everything else that’s important to you by writing down a list of all the things in your life—family, friends, hobbies, etc. Then rate each item on a scale of 1-10 based on its importance and urgency. The items that require the most attention will be at the top of your list, while those that are less urgent are below. You should repeat this process until you have a complete list of everything you want to do and accomplish. Once you’ve identified what’s important to do and what isn’t, you can start planning time based on these priorities.

b- How to structure time

Once you have defined your goals, it’s time to plan how you will make them reality. The most important part is to schedule things in such a way that they fit into your schedule. Therefore, it’s not enough to create an exit strategy and then neglect all other responsibilities because they just don’t fit into the plan.
Instead, you should learn how to structure time so that you can fit everything you want to do in it. For example, if your life is already defined by a routine that’s dictated by your work, there’s no way you will be able to take care of all the things that are important and urgent:  If you need a break from your routine, there’s no way you will be able to take care of everything at once. Therefore, it would be better if you could plan in such a way the routine needs to change at some point and fit into your current schedule.

Keep in mind that life is similar to a puzzle and it won’t work unless we place the pieces together. Instead of trying to understand how a puzzle would fit together, you should try to figure out your own puzzle and then use your knowledge to get everything you want from life.

5. How do you get more things done?

There are a few things you should avoid when it comes to getting things done:

5.1 . Do not procrastinate

Our minds are very powerful, but they will try to push us into doing something else instead of what we have planned. Therefore, we need to be aware that this is going to happen and then remember our priorities and goals. For example, if there’s something else we want to accomplish rather than what we have planned, then we should define it just as well as the things that are important to us. This is the best way to get things done because we won’t waste time on something less important or urgent than our current task.

5.2 . Do not multitask

It can be tempting to try to accomplish as many tasks as possible while we are doing something else. For example, we might think that we can cook dinner while watching TV or talk on the phone while working online. The problem here is that you will most likely be less productive than if you were focusing on just one thing. Multitasking is OK if you are very aware of what you are doing and how it affects your productivity; however, usually the opposite happens—we get distracted by everything and our minds wander from one thing to another, which significantly affects our ability to complete tasks and accomplish goals.

5.3 . Do not neglect your physical health

If you don’t exercise or eat right, you are thus decreasing your chances of succeeding in life. Most people spend too much time on work and things that don’t really matter, which results in a poor diet or physical inactivity. For example, if you spend most of the day at the office and then go home to watch TV because there’s nothing to do, rather than going out with your friends or doing something more productive and fun, then chances are you will have a more unhealthy lifestyle and it will most likely affect you physically.

5.4 Track time

How to track time and be mindful of the time we spend?
Since we are not often aware of the time we spend on anything, we should track our activities using some sort of timer that will alert us when we get distracted. Try to figure out at what point you tend to get distracted and then use a timer to stay focused on the task at hand. For example, if you know you will tend to read an article online every time you use your computer, then avoid using it when working on important tasks. There are many applications and timers you can use for this purpose, but the most popular one is called ” Interval Timer “.

Conclusion

I believe you will be able to use many of the above tips and tricks in your every day life. It’s not always easy to stay focused and mindful of the things we want to achieve, but once you manage to dedicate yourself to a specific goal or task, you will most likely enjoy it more than if you were doing something else.
If you don’t already do so, I strongly recommend that you start tracking your time and stay focused on the goals that are important to you. This may be difficult at first, but I have no doubt that it will be worth it in the end.