9 Life-changing Productivity Time Management Habits
If you feel you lack focus, productivity or never have enough time to get everything done, try these time management habits.
Are you struggling to manage your priorities in the time you have available? Perhaps you're procrastinating when you need to find your focus? After over a decade of research and experimenting, I’m sharing the time management techniques I've found most valuable.
Michael Hyatt in his book, Free to Focus, says:
“Productivity is not about getting more things done; it’s about getting the right things done…achieve more by doing less.”
These next nine techniques will help you get things done, get the right things done, avoid burn-out and free up time for you to enjoy your life too.
They helped me work full-time in management and another job on the weekends, while also studying and maintaining an active social life. It also helped me in jobs where I’ve had on average of between 5-9 meetings per day, while also having hands-on work of my own. And now, it helps me stay focused while I work from home and for myself.
Time Management Habit #1: Pareto’s Principle
Focus your productivity with Pareto’s Principle. Also known as the ’80/20 principle’, it says that 80% of results come from 20% of causes.
It was first developed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1896. He observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. And in his own garden, 20% of his plants were bearing 80% of his fruit.
How is Pareto’s Principle at play in your work life? Perhaps, 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers. Does 80% of your engagement online come from 20% of a particular content type? Take a look at your skill set - perhaps, 80% of your career success has come from 20% of your most sought-after skills?
The Pareto Principle shifts your focus from working efficiently to working effectively. Not just working productively, but doing the right work.
In Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Work Week, he says:
“Less is not laziness. Doing less meaningless things so you can focus on things of greater personal importance is NOT laziness. This is hard to accept, as our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity.”
To help keep me focused on what’s most important, I write myself a daily ‘Top Three Things” to-do list. This isn’t a daily task list - but, things that will move the needle.
Time Management Habit #2: Parkinson’s Law
The secret to your productivity could lie in how much time you allocate to each task. And you could be allocating not too little, but too much time.
‘Parkison’s Law’ was first coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson and was based on a light-hearted article he wrote for The Economist in 1985. The law suggests that a task will swell in perceived importance and complexity to the amount of time you have allotted for its completion. Lessen the amount of time you have for something, and you’ll achieve what you have to in the same timeframe.
Personally, when creating content, I stick to the time limits I’ve created for myself at all stages of the process. I even time my finished YouTube videos, podcasts and blog for how quickly I want you to be able to consume them and go about your life. My goal is to share everything you need to know in as short a time as possible.
I’m always assessing how long repeated tasks take me. Without being careless, challenge yourself to do something in 10% less time, then 25%, maybe even up to 50%. Every time ask yourself, is there a better way to do this?
Time Management Habit #3: Pomodoro Method
The popular Pomodoro technique is a productivity habit designed for focused work and planned breaks.
“Pomodoro”, meaning tomato in Italian, was first coined by Francesco Cirillo - a then-university student. It was named after the shape of his timer.
The method involves:
Deciding on the work to be done
Setting a timer for 25 minutes
Doing focused work until the timer stops
Taking a five-minute break
After four sessions of focused work, taking a longer 15-30 minute break
It’s designed to ease cognitive boredom and distraction your brain is wired for during long periods of focus.
I practise individual Pomodoro methods at least daily. I don’t personally as often apply the four sequential sessions. Depending on the task, I prefer different time blocks (which I’ll get to later).
My personal Pomodoro timer is a Spotify playlist I’ve created. It plays approximately 25 minutes of classical music which as I shared in my previous blog also helps improve divergent thinking. It finishes with a five-minute song, noticeably different from the rest.
I drink tea all day and use my stove-top kettle as another Pomodoro alternative. While it’s not exactly 25 minutes, when it whistles loudly I know I have to stop what I’m doing. It puts productivity pressure on my focus.
Time Management Habit #4: Automate
I share a weekly blog, YouTube, podcast and newsletter. The majority of this is published automatically while I’m either reading, drinking my morning tea or taking my morning walk.
Last year, I spent a month in Europe. During this time, I didn’t miss any of my usual blog or LinkedIn posts despite being in a completely different time zone to Australia. There were a few odd hours here and there to make sure everything was working. But, otherwise, this was all possible thanks to the power of automation.
Yes, consistent productivity habits go into creating a system of scheduling. But, it meant I could be wandering the Santorini streets while my personal brand was still working for me.
How can you automate everything you can in your processes? Perhaps you can use the scheduling feature on LinkedIn or other social media to stay consistent.
Go through your phone and automate as many features as possible. If you have an iPhone, use all the sections of the ‘Focus Time’ feature. You can set customised schedules for your notifications. You can even automate different wallpapers for different times of the day.
Time Management Habit #5: Time Block
Automate your decision-making and possible decision fatigue by scheduling your time for planned productivity.
This was one of the biggest life-changers for me personally. I’ve always been in both very meeting-heavy, yet hands-on roles. I’d stress over how I’d ever get anything done with a schedule of anywhere from 5-9 meetings a day.
In his book, Getting Things Done, productivity icon David Allen says that stress comes from what’s in your head - and not yet in an actionable system.
Allen says:
“The big secret to efficient creative and productive thinking and actions is to put the right things in your focus at the right time.”
After understanding this, I started time-blocking every task in my diary. I’d use a colour-coded system as well. It would take the task out of my head and off my (otherwise meaningless) to-do list, and into a system of action.
If you haven’t already, spend some time adding all your ongoing tasks (using the re-occurring event features) into your diary. As once-off tasks come up, add these as a new event into your diary. I personally also write myself mini to-do lists or notes within these calendar events.
Time Management Habit #6: Batch
Having pre-determined times for which certain tasks accumulate improves productivity. As Ferris proposed in a 4-Hour Work Week, this could even include checking emails just twice a day. If there’s any emergency outside of this, you’ll likely hear about it in other ways.
The key to batching is to group similar tasks together. This improves the cognitive strain on your brain created by switching between tasks. Especially tasks that require different sides of your brain.
This is a very popular concept for content creators. I agree with it to an extent. I personally have a lot of blogs, videos and podcasts in the pipeline. But, I do think rigidly planning too far in advance can also be flawed. You want to ensure you’re remaining flexible to new ideas and changes in your environment as well.
Try setting up your ‘ideal week’. Group similar tasks together on certain days. I also have certain themes for the day overall that link back to my personal brand values.
I once read someone say they divide their one physical day into three separate mental days. Viewing each as a completely fresh start. I now see my mornings, afternoons and nights the same way which helps with the necessary mind shifts.
How can you use batching and time blocking to curate your week for optimal productivity?
Time Management Habit #7: Habit Stacking
By now, it’s pretty well understood that multitasking is a productivity myth. Your brain is simply switching quickly between tasks. But, what if there was still a shred of usefulness left in multi-tasking?
In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear popularised the idea of ‘habit stacking’. It proposes that to create a new habit you simply have to attach it to an existing one.
The time blocks in your diary could be habit stacks. Or you can add it to the rest of your day. Perhaps you could listen to helpful podcasts while you’re getting ready or driving? I personally love listening to podcasts while cleaning. I also have Spotify playlists designed for certain parts of my day. Habit stacking can help you make the potentially mundane motivating.
Time Management Habit #8: Filter for Focus
Another life-changer for me was reading Tim Ferris say this in The 4-Hour Work Week:
“Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals and outside of your influence.”
Could your social media use an audit? Spend time unfollowing all accounts that are clouding your focus. If you’re normally a lurker on social media, actively engage with your most useful or inspiring content instead. It will tell the algorithm what you want it to focus on for you.
Time Management Habit #9: Reset
Contrary to popular culture, your brain wasn’t designed to be “always on” and to be part of the non-stop hustle culture that usually leads to burnout. Build time to reset into your routine.
For your every day, this could mean having a shutdown routine. For me, this is putting away my laptop, cleaning my desk and usually playing some piano.
Expanding beyond your everyday, consider ‘mini retirements’.
Tim Ferris calls the ‘deferred-life plan’ waiting for retirement before you enjoy life. Ferris proposes not waiting for your traditional retirement years to retire. Instead, take those 20-30 years and distribute them throughout your life instead. Have ‘mini-retirements’. The highly productive systems you’ve created for yourself will help do the work for you.
So, what productivity hacks are you intentionally implementing for your future self to enjoy?
