The past couple weeks have been particularly eventful for Team834. Not to say that every week doesn’t bring a new series of events that we tackle head on but these past couple weeks our “frequently heard at 834” consisted of “How is it already 4:30?” and “Wow, tomorrow’s Friday already, this week flew by!” Where has the time gone? And how can we keep track of it when some days it moves just so darn fast.
Prioritize Your To-Do’s
We all have those days where instead of diminishing your to-do list by the end of the day we have crossed one thing off and added six more. Prioritize your to-dos by what needs to be done right now, in the next hour or sometimes even what needed to be done yesterday. Take your top three items for the day and focus on those before you get overwhelmed by looking at a list of 10 and find yourself at a loss of where to start.
Don’t Look at your Email
Yes, you read that correctly. Take an hour or two to completely step away from your email and focus on the task at hand. You’ll be more productive and efficient on the task you are trying to accomplish without moving away from your screen sixteen times to check in and respond to emails that can easily be answered an hour or two from now.
Don’t Get Overwhelmed
Again, yes you read that correctly. This is something that all of us struggle with. We are all more capable than we think we are so try not to get overwhelmed when you look at the time, your to-do list and back at the time. It’s important to keep moving forward through the overwhelming spots so you don’t spin your wheels and get stuck.
Set Calendar Invites / Alarms
If you know you have a hard time remembering what needs to be done when, set a calendar reminder to notify you before it’s due so you avoid the last minute scramble. On the other hand, if you know you usually spend too much time on one task each day set an alarm to notify you when you need to stop and move on to the next task. We all know the dark hole you can fall into when searching for social content for a fitness account and next thing you know it’s an hour later and you’re watching cat videos and have no idea how you got there.
Track Your Time
Every hour or so take a look at the clock and reflect on how you just spent your time. Was it answering emails? Working on your next big presentation? Or were you perusing Facebook? Track your time to figure out how you are spending it and at the end of each week evaluate where you spent the majority of your time and strategize on how you can re-evaluate your priorities for the week to come. Team834 works in quarter hour increments and tracks time for all clients so we know exactly where our time is being spent.
You parents were right when they said time moves faster than you think. Yesterday it was January and today somehow it’s June 9th. It blows our mind every day how quickly the workweek goes and how much (or little) we seem to have accomplished. Manage your time, your tasks and to-do’s the best you can to keep moving forward. Don’t spin your wheels and most importantly don’t stall out.
