Own Your Time

Hola Amigos

Do YOU spend your day or your day spend you o_o? If you keep worrying about not being able to fit even minute tasks in your day and always pondering over where the time go, then yes your day is spending you….You gotta own it, man!

So, let's do this common topic today, common among all generations, all age groups, and all types of professions - Time Management. sound cliche duh? but isn’t it literally one of the most urgent things we’ve got to do? Of course, it is. Well, let’s do this together.

Okay be honest with yourself in answering this question- “Am I spending my time wisely?” (My answer is no as well o_o). We all are on the same page buddy. The only difference between getting everything done and shifting most of the things to another day lies in the openness of experimenting with yourself and your routines and trying consistently to make them even better. Lemme guide you on this as I love to experiment with my productivity routines.

First and foremost is the fixed routine allowing a natural flow of work. In this fixed time, you will be doing only one thing undistractedly- your work. Spending fully focused 1 hour on a task is 100 times better and more fruitful than spending distracted 5 hours on it.

Well, with the routine, I will not focus on a morning routine that much, because everyone's flexible working hours are different some people are just more productive in the morning while some are in the afternoon, and others are in the night. ‘Which time’ isn’t an issue, the issue is ‘How much time’. How much time should you spend on being productive and doing what you are supposed to do? To know and follow this, you must have a fixed schedule that you gotta follow each day with as minor exceptions as possible.

Well yeah, that’s not an ‘ez-pz lemon squeezy thingy’ for everyone. Some of us, yes, won’t know how much time should we be spending productively. Well, we’ll find it together soon. I'm explaining how to make a perfectly suiting routine for yourself in the following newsletter. But before reading that, you should go through all the points of effective time management first. Be patient mi amigo.

Now, you know where to start- from a routine. Come to the second most essential component you need to know to manage your time like a pro - Have a to-do list. It sounds cliche, yeah but trust me it's a game-changer. (Give it a try if you don't believe;) Prepare your todo before sleeping or just before starting your daily work routine so that you know beforehand what and how much you have to fit in your day. It allows a smooth workflow and kudos if you can mark appropriate priorities for all the tasks. For example, you can mention H for high priority and L for low priority before a task so that you complete the prime concerned ones first.

Okay, the third and the most necessary one- Take Breaks. It’s the most underrated but the most important part of a productive routine. If you want to be consistent and do each task with proper concentration and undistracted focus, you need to introduce break intervals. To start with, you can use the famous Pomodoro method- 25 minutes of work and a 5-10 minute break. Break to check your friend’s message👀. No way! It should be a physical break from work, completely away from the screen, you can do some stretching, go out to breathe some fresh air, drink water, talk to your pet, or do anything that rejuvenates you for the next working interval.

And finally, we are on the last step- Have time for yourself. Okay, you’ve got to do a lot of school/office work and also you’ve to reply to everyone’s emails and messages and yes you have to do some daily chores as well. It’s too stressful ugh…..and that’s exactly why you need to spend some time with yourself. It helped relieve the work tension and the whole day’s stress. Stress management is a necessity when it comes to being productive. (Check out my story on stress management here- https://shopping-feedback.today/motivation/managing-stress-8mjz02mc)

You can find at least 20 minutes for yourself ...right? Just 20 minutes from your 24 hours is enough time for the person who is hardworking the whole day for a better future, to make his ‘present’ better as well. Won’t you?

“We would just focus on the future so much that we forget to live and enjoy the beautiful present”- Great Writer Varnika Agarwal.

(just joking lol)

In this 20-minute time, do something you really want to do, something that you love to do, or something you are willing to learn (maybe constructing a book reading habit or a quote reading habit or podcasts listening), or an effective self-talk or journalling reflecting on your whole day. This will work magic, you know it only if you try it✨

Free tip:- Remember to have some ‘family time’, ‘friends time’, and ‘me time’ in your day. These are some of the things that can make your present better, your struggles easier, your life simpler and your heart happier.

Extreme last point, you should have plenty of free time blocks as well, where you can fit any new or urgent thing you have got to do. This way, you will not be pushed to remove one thing to introduce a new thing to your to-do.

(oh did I just make 5 points and say only 4? Bear my forgetfulness please(✿◠‿◠))

Time management is not something that can be explained or learned in a single go, it’s a long process, involving a lot of experimentation, advice, and hard work. I will try to cover all related topics to time management in the upcoming newsletters.

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See ya next Monday on- ‘A Perfect Routine’.

If you guys have a suggestion or a topic I should write on, let me know in the comments. The person, whose topic I’ll choose to write, will get a free shoutout right in the story, hope to see your names here💜. Stay Tuned.