4 methods on how to plan your time
In this article on how to plan your time, I share with you different ways to schedule and organize your time in order to improve your productivity at work and the quality of your private life.
By following these principles, you will be able to achieve your goals in a satisfactory time while protecting your health and well-being.
Discover my tips to better plan your time now!
1 – Plan in a way that is consistent with your values and goals
The best way to plan long-term is to organize your time according to your values.
Values represent what is important to you in your life. Each individual has different values. Therefore, each person chooses what is “right” for them.
This method of scheduling time requires clarity about the order of priority of your individual values.
If you don’t know your values or if you have doubts about their order of importance, you can hire a life coach to help you find the clarity you need to make important decisions in your life.
If you already know your values and their order of priority very well, I invite you to take time before making important choices.
This is essential because in order to be satisfied and to have a good self-esteem, it is essential to verify the coherence between your values and your choices.
If you do not do this, you will be dissatisfied and you will have a lower self-esteem and consequently a lower self-confidence.
If you are going through a difficult time and you feel a drop in confidence, I suggest you read my tips on how to boost your self-confidence.
One of the most important choices you can make is to choose the company you want to work for.
If the industry or values of your company are completely at odds with your personal values, you will not be able to thrive in that organization.
You can stick with it for short periods of time if you need to work, but you won’t be able to feel good without experiencing consequences.
My advice is to be more mindful of the important decisions you make in your life and not to make decisions without first checking the consistency between your values and those of the other people you connect with.
Once you have done this, I suggest that you plan about 80% of your time for important activities, i.e. those that will allow you to reach goals that are consistent with your values.
2 – Plan according to your chronotype
The best way to manage your time on a daily basis is to plan your time according to your chronotype.
This is your genetic predisposition to perform better at specific times of the day.
Each person has a different chronotype and is most effective in the morning, afternoon, evening or a combination of these time periods.
To improve your productivity, it is a good idea to start your day early if you have a morning chronotype but this is not a good idea if you are more productive in the afternoon or in the evening.
If you don’t know your chronotype, I invite you to take this on-line test.
My experience as a time management coach has shown me on several occasions that people often have difficulty evaluating their chronotype.
However, as soon as they identify and plan their time in a way that is consistent with their inborn predisposition, they become more productive at work and in general in their lives.
In summary, plan your most important tasks each day according to your chronotype.
Also be aware of your moments of contradiction when you decide to focus on less important activities when your chronotype is favorable.
The important thing is just to be aware of them without judging yourself and forgiving yourself so that you don’t procrastinate.
Then, it is important to understand what motivates you to not respect your commitments.
This can depend on several factors such as lack of sleep.
If you don’t get enough sleep or don’t have a restful sleep, you will have difficulties to stay focused throughout the day.
3 – Plan according to what is urgent
There are times when you don’t have time to think about the long term and you have to respond to the emergencies of the moment almost immediately.
In this case, it is wise to plan your time over a week in order to schedule in your to-do list and in your agenda the most pressing activities that should be prioritized.
My advice is to prioritize your urgent tasks according to the level of negative impact they are likely to cause if you don’t deal with them quickly.
Estimate the potential impact pessimistically to avoid any optimism bias.
Then draw a table. In the first column note the urgent task, in the second the negative consequence(s) if you don’t act in the current week and in the third a number between 1 and 3 to indicate the impact. 1 corresponds to a weak impact, 2 to a medium impact and 3 to a strong impact.
Then, schedule 90% of your urgent tasks in your agenda and leave the remaining 10% of time for important tasks.
Do not move on to the important tasks if you have not finished your urgent tasks and if you do not have enough time, postpone your important tasks.
If you can’t manage all your emergencies in one week, plan for the next week by spending 80% of your time on urgent tasks and 20% of your time on important tasks.
In order to decrease those urgent moments, I suggest you identify the tasks you tend to put off in order to understand why you procrastinate.
Doing this is important in order to find tailored behavioral strategies to reduce your procrastination habit as much as possible.
4 – Plan for what is important in the short term
There are times in life when there are opportunities that are important to seize.
In these moments, it is better to adapt your time management by focusing on what is important during the week and put aside everything else.
I suggest that you eliminate for one week all the unimportant, not very urgent, and important tasks in the medium and long term.
Focus all your time and resources on the opportunity you want to seize but remember to prioritize your tasks and execute them as quickly as possible without taking into account your chronotype.
Don’t be a perfectionist, the important thing is to complete your tasks with an acceptable level of quality. If you procrastinate too much because of your perfectionism, you will lose great opportunities.
Conclusion on how to plan your time
In this article, I have shown you how time scheduling should be flexible to adapt to your needs.
You then understand that you cannot plan your time, in the same way, to keep good productivity and reach your goals.
Long-term planning is important to manage important life projects, but not when you have emergencies to deal with or opportunities to seize.
On the other hand, taking into account your chronotype and your habits remains essential most of the time.
If you are interested in the topic of productivity, I invite you to discover all my articles on productivity.
If you are looking for tools to improve your time management skills, I recommend you read my article on the best time management apps.
If you want to take advantage of the expertise of a time management coach, write to us now using our contact form or call us by phone or on WhatsApp at +33 6 69 46 03 79.
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Read this article in other languages
Français : Comment planifier son temps : 4 méthodes adaptées à votre situation
Italiano: Come organizzare il tempo: 4 metodi adatti alla vostra situazione