24-hours Not Enough to Accomplish Your Goals? Try These 4 Strategies to Change That.
It has been an exhausting day, your head is practically punching your skull, and when is the last time that your lips touched food? You sit down staring at the ceiling for what seems like 10 minutes, check Instagram for another 30 minutes, then your phone rings and your best-friend wants to talk to you for another 20 minutes. Before you know it, an hour has gone by and you are in the same position you were in sixty-minutes ago. And don’t forget about the assignment you just realized at 11:50 PM is due tomorrow. Now, multiply this idle time across the entire day, and you have hours of unproductive time.
Not only does poor time management withhold you from achieving your goals, but this behavior also causes high levels of anxiety or stress. According to The American Institute of Stress, chronic stress can cause a variety of symptoms and negative health effects on the body including: anxiety, headaches, increased depression, irritability, weakened immune system and insomnia. In addition, chronic stress can rollover into your performance at school or work, decreasing your productivity rate and happiness. You are a fighter, right? Good because you cannot allow daunting obstacles to overcome your desire to succeed. So, if you feel 24 hours is not enough time to accomplish your goals, then try these four strategies to change that.
Wake up 1 hour early to achieve morning sprints
I always set my alarm to wake me up an hour before I need to start the day. Before I go to sleep the night before, I write down 3 tasks on post it notes that need to be completed and I spend no more than 20-minutes on each task. Doing this action allows me to finish any easy to-do’s and check off 3 items before my day even begins. On the other hand, this strategy can show you what else you may need to add to your to-do list for the day or what you need to circle back to later on. Example tasks can include: meditating, finishing small assignments, quick workouts, reading a book or the news, and reflecting on what else you want to accomplish that day.
Block scheduling
This is a strategy I have found to be highly effective to increase overall productivity. Take your calendar and block out your schedule in 30-minute increments, from the time you open your eyes to the time you will close them again. Take CEO of Tesla and Space X, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates for example. They both operate on highly rigid schedules, each organizing their days in 5-minute intervals. This is helpful when you’re running some of the most renowned brands in the world. When you are blocking your schedule, make sure to include tasks such as: eating breakfast, exercising, all meetings/gatherings, study time, personal time, lunch, calling family/friends, social media and make empty time to use in case of emergencies or if you need to circle back to a morning sprint.
Avoid mundane distractions
According to Statista, more than half of respondents, representing everyday smartphone usage worldwide, spent 5 hours or more on their smartphones daily. In addition, the average person spends about two hours (116 minutes) a day on social media. However, picking up your smartphone is such an unconscious task that you may not even notice you do regularly. I always turn off my social media notifications during the day, so any messages popping up on the screen are not distracting. Also, when I am in a meeting or in class my phone stays on silent and the “do not disturb” feature is always activated. If you absolutely cannot do without your phone and you constantly grab it for quick entertainment, try leaving it in your bookbag or in your car. When you practice putting your phone away, you are able to focus on the critical tasks at hand, thus getting more goals accomplished.
Set S.M.A.R.T. objectives, strategies and tactics
This method of planning is a key strategy for most business executives. Start by creating S.M.A.R.T. goals. According to Forbes, A goal is a broad primary outcome, a strategy is the approach you take to achieve a goal, an objective is a measurable step you take to achieve a strategy and a tactic is a tool you use in pursuing an objective associated with a strategy. The goal should be specific, measurable, attainable within a set timeframe, realistic with what you are actually able to accomplish and time-bound with an end date established. Let’s take a 10-story building, for example, with you starting on the ground floor. The goal would be getting to the 10th floor, the strategy is your plan for how you will navigate each floor, the objective is actually reaching each floor and the tactics are the individual steps that you take to get to the floors.
Try one of these four strategies and evaluate if any of them are effective for you. Comment your thoughts on these strategies or any other strategies you have to increase productivity below. Let me know what worked or what did not work for you too! Need help building a strategy that works for you? Reach out to me. My email is jthomp04@syr.edu. I would be happy to help!