Do you often put off work until the last second? If yes, you are not alone. It feels like almost everyone has put off their work, whether it’s because of laziness or something else. The habit of procrastinating is not a part of your personality, but a neglect of how to manage your time.
It’s normal to procrastinate once or twice, but it’s your career that will suffer if this habit continues or gets worse. It’s not too late for you to fix this procrastinating work pattern. Here are ways to manage your time easily, whether you’re working in an office or at home.
Must have a to-do list
Too often postponing work will usually make you forget about tasks that are actually approaching deadlines. This will further worsen your performance. Make a to-do list with checkboxes to record all the work you need to complete. From there, you can see exactly what needs to be done that day.
How to manage time using a to-do list is quite effective because it eliminates the feeling of laziness that always comes your way. When you have finished a job, immediately check your to-do list. Seeing how many tasks have been ticked off will make you even more excited to work, it doesn’t feel like you have completed all the work that day.
This to-do list is not only used for work matters, you can also use it to detail homework.
Implement a priority system
Once you’ve created a to-do list, it’s easier to create a priority system. Take a look at all the jobs waiting to be completed, some of which must have a high priority level. Prioritize work with short deadlines or heavy work. Doing the tough jobs first will be easier if done at the start of the day, the most productive time of your day.
After completing the prioritized work, then you start other jobs sequentially. Another way to manage time that you can try is to break down a complex job into smaller jobs. That way, you will no longer feel overwhelmed.
Set work time
The way to manage time that you must do, of course, is to set work time. It seems trivial, but actually it is very influential on your efforts not to procrastinate anymore. Even though the working hours have been set by the office, you need to make working time to help you become even more disciplined.
Every time you finish a piece of work, take 5 to 10 minutes to rest. Whether you’re brewing tea, closing your eyes, or just taking a walk, avoid staring at the monitor or smartphone screen as much as possible. Your mind will be fresh again and ready to continue work.
Setting work time also means setting the duration for completing each job. This could be a challenge in itself for you. Set a time of 1 hour to complete a job. If you find that you need more than 1 hour, then do a self-evaluation to further optimize your performance.
Use a reminder app
Currently, there are many reminder applications that are equipped with notes. You can use it as a way to manage time while working. Record all the work that you have to complete per week into the reminder application. Examples include meeting schedules, briefings, and so on.
How to set this one time will work because it uses the peer pressure technique. You will think twice about postponing work that has been reminded by the application. So, you will consciously put more effort into getting the job done.
Fishing with rewards
There are various reasons for delaying work, it could be because you don’t have enough motivation to finish it. An easy way to manage time is to give yourself a “reward” if you manage to complete work on time.
Instead of focusing on work for fear of being scolded by your boss, change your focus to getting a year-end bonus or a raise. Apart from that, you can also give yourself small “gifts”, such as buying your favorite food, watching box office movies, or going on vacation with your family.