Learn effective time management strategies if you're in the rat race with Meri Sehat. Explore tips, tools, and mindful practices for a balanced life.

How To Make Time If You’re In The Rat Race

The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.

Overview

In today&rsquo;s fiercely competitive world, every second of our day is somehow accounted for. In turn, most of us find ourselves trapped in the &lsquo;rat race&rsquo; of life. 
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When we do get some respite from our heavily packed routine, we end up wasting it on mindless activities. 

We grow up listening to the value of time management but often, life takes us by surprise and before we can plan and attack it, we are already stuck in unhealthy loops and habits. 
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How do we then get a grip on time and ensure it&rsquo;s being spent productively? 

Know and acknowledge that you own all of your time. At any given moment you&rsquo;re doing exactly what you want to be doing and fundamentally it&rsquo;s a choice you make even if you&rsquo;re stuck scrolling through the same <a href="https://merisehat.pk/article/how-social-media-affects-our-attention-span">social media</a> timeline.

Time-Management Strategies

Trace your motivations behind such activities in order to better get rid of this behaviour once and for all. Mostly we do this as an escape from a routine that doesn&rsquo;t let us breathe. This is why the following time-management strategies can help you get rid of this habit:&nbsp; 
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<ul>
	<li>Pay attention to how you manage or mismanage your time. Analyse where you&rsquo;re wasting the most time and when you are most productive during the day. Keep a log of this in a journal. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Based on your findings, slowly start making changes. For example, if you have noticed that you&rsquo;re most productive in the morning then make sure you&rsquo;re waking up early and limiting every distraction until you achieve the day&rsquo;s target. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Another important step in managing time is to only do things you feel deeply passionate about. For a majority of people, saying &lsquo;no&rsquo; is very difficult. This means they sign up for things they aren&rsquo;t even interested in. One way to eliminate this mistake is to assess how you feel about an activity. If you feel even a little &lsquo;kind of&rsquo; about it, this means you can pass on it and spend that time doing things you actually like. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Similarly, if there&rsquo;s one task you find the toughest to carry out, do that one first before getting on with your day. Getting this out of the way frees up mental space so you can focus better on your daily work. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>While planning your day add a &lsquo;daily highlight&rsquo;. A daily highlight is when you choose one thing you&rsquo;d like to get done on a given day. This helps you design the rest of your day around your daily highlight and overtime, simply getting your daily highlight completed can add up to bigger results. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>While making a to-do list, don&rsquo;t add too many things. Limit it to five tasks per list and don&rsquo;t spend too much time trying to perfectly plan your day. Cross things off your list as they get done to give yourself much needed motivation and drive.&nbsp; </li>
	<li>Weekly planning is another tool you can employ to manage your time better. Write down any tasks you&rsquo;d like to get done in a given week and see what the best days to perform them are. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>The Eisenhower Matrix is a great decision-making technique to understand what&rsquo;s urgent vs what&rsquo;s important. It can help you become more productive and efficient. </li>
</ul>

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Stephen R. Covey also talks about in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It looks something like this: 

<table cellspacing="0" class="Table" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:none; margin-left:83px; width:404px">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td style="border-bottom:none; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:none; width:78px">
			&nbsp;
			</td>
			<td colspan="2" style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:none; width:168px">
			Urgent
			</td>
			<td style="border-bottom:none; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:none; width:158px">
			Not urgent
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td style="border-bottom:none; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; height:.8in; width:78px">
			Important
			</td>
			<td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; height:.8in; width:163px">
			Do it first
			</td>
			<td colspan="2" style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:1px solid black; height:.8in; width:163px">
			Schedule it
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td style="border-bottom:none; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; height:.8in; width:78px">
			Not important
			</td>
			<td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; height:.8in; width:163px">
			Delegate it
			</td>
			<td colspan="2" style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; height:.8in; width:163px">
			Delete it
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td style="border-bottom:none; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:none; width:78px">&nbsp;</td>
			<td style="border-bottom:none; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:none; width:163px">&nbsp;</td>
			<td style="border-bottom:none; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:none; width:5px">&nbsp;</td>
			<td style="border-bottom:none; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:none; width:158px">&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

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<ul>
	<li>Time blocking is another great way you can manage your time better. Assigning blocks of time for similar activities can eradicate any time wasting. </li>
</ul>

 
For example, if your goal for the day is to clean up your house then only do activities related to that in the assigned block of time. 
 
Similarly, allotting one time of the day replying to emails and getting back to people means you won&rsquo;t be checking your inbox every few seconds throughout the day. 
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<ul>
	<li>Avoid multitasking as it confuses your brain. It takes your brain a few minutes to adjust to the context shift and can slow down your overall productivity. Research has shown that it can take 23 minutes to refocus after any interruption. This is where the above-mentioned strategy of time blocking comes in handy. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Work expands to fill the time you allocate to it. If you have four months to finish your thesis and you suffer from perfectionism and procrastination then you know that not only are you going to waste a large chunk of that time but will also feel terrible about it. This is why leveraging artificial deadlines can help you finish your goals better. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Having protected time can also help you stop wasting so much of your day. This is just for you and you alone so you don&rsquo;t build up resentment for your circumstances or even your goals and ambitions. During this time, allow yourself to do anything you want and try to schedule it right before bedtime. However, ensure that it doesn&rsquo;t erode into your sleeping hours since you would want to be sufficiently refreshed for the next day as well. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>While you&rsquo;re working, put your phone on DND (Do Not Disturb) and eliminate all distractions. Another thing that helps is to put your phone in another room so you&rsquo;re less inclined to pick it up every few seconds. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>And last but not the least, learn to ask for help. Yes, you can do anything but you don&rsquo;t have to do everything. Delegating tasks that you think are not worth your time can free up a lot of time for you to do more productive things. 
	&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

Conclusion

Without time management you may have the illusion that you don&rsquo;t have enough time. If you start incorporating tiny habits such as the ones mentioned here, you can feel much more in control of your time and consequently your life. And last but not the least, don&rsquo;t forget to reward yourself at the end of the day for sticking through your schedule. 
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