My Best Time Management And Productivity Tips: 8 Tips To Have A Productive Lifestyle

Best Time Management And Productivity Tips

Tried-and-true tips that always work for getting things done

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Since you are here, i know that you’re looking for ways to get things done because things as they are are not working for you.

This post will give 8 tips and ideas that you might know but never have tried, or tried for a short while despite them working for you

Remember: This is not about adding more tools to your arsenal but helping you look at the tools you have already and reposition them, mix them in a new way, or just start reusing them

What you’ll learn:

• 8 time management and productivity tips to have a productive life:

• for each point, you’ll learn: what they are, their importance, and how to apply them

8 best time management and productivity tips

Before you continue:

As you read through this, think of what has worked in the past, and what you forgot 

What you knew and never tried; then choose one or two to try 

1-use a timer

i know that everyone must know it but knowing something doesn’t mean you are doing it. 

why this tip is helpful:

this is one of the best tools for focusing and setting limits that your brain will tangibly experience about time

How to do it:

seta timer for 30min-1h with 10min-20min break deppeanding on your choice

You can use the one on your phone and set it for a certain amount for the task you’re about to start

Or use some websites that provide that, like this Pomodoro timer that you can customize and reach up to 60min

Or use a kitchen timer that will help you lose the phone and

the web and stay clear from any distractions and triggers. You can find them on Amazon here [paid link]

2-only have 3 priorities per day and 5 per week  

the idea here is that you create a list of the important tasks for the week and day separately that are based on the monthly goals

why this tip is helpful:

there are many tasks we all need and want to do for our goals and life, and we can’t do them all at once,

so we divide them and prioritize which one to do at a given time period based on what is important to us now

How to do it:

Each week i write what i am going to focus on,my priorities and a list of all the to-dos of the week in my weekly planner

(this is similar to the weekly planner I use for weekly prioritizing and planning [paid link])

Then each day i write 3-5 things that i will get done in Google Tasks, taken from my weekly plan,

which all take from my monthly plan

i use a mix of digital and physical for planning and that’s working for me right now

3-3 blocks of work daily

the idea is that you set only 3 blocks of time for work a day that ranges from deep work, light work, and planning 

why this tip is helpful:

it’s realistic with my life and my energy, and that’s the goal is to find what’s realistic for you.

It’s not about working for 6-8h a day or more; it’s about focusing on what matters in the time you have

If you find that you don’t have enough time, have low energy most f the time, try it

How to do it:

Set 3 blocks a day with these themes: deep work30-60min,light work20-30min, planning and review for the next day 10min

In deep work, put the tasks that need super focus and a lot of mental energy

In light work, put tasks that don’t require a lot of mental energy and focus

In planning and review, prepare the next day’s tasks 

And schedule them on your calendar based on your energy;

where you’ll have high energy and focus, that’s where deep work goes and so on

4-work on one task at a time

This tip is simple and you know it, but the question is do you do it?!

if you don’t, this is your and my reminder to close everything,

put your phone away and don’t multitask because that happens sometimes by default (i know it does to me)

why this tip is helpful:

Doing this provides you with focus and accomplishment at the end since you’ll get to finish the task or at least a good portion of it

How to do it:

Close all tabs, put away everything unrelated, and only open the task tab or software

5-don’t get attached to the way, method, tool that you use for getting things done and organisation; instead, change things as you change and the season you are in changes

Picture this: you get attached to a certain way of planning, a certain tool for organizing your things,

and you try so hard to work it out, which can only frustrate you and increase your suffering

i got attached to using time blocking as the only way to plan And it has not been working; it felt heavy, which led me to try to avoid it.

then I switched to a simple priority to-do list, which i was convinced that it doesn’t work for me

but i was surprised it did work if I tweaked things a bit by limiting it to 3-5 tasks a day,

choosing needle-mover tasks and life-admin tasks

why this tip is helpful:

we change, and what worked once might not be working now because circumstances changed,

the season of life you are in changed {e.g., employed to unemployed, single to married, normal to bruendout..}

It’s about focusing on the principles and the main objective, not the tool or method you use

How to do it: rotate tools, methods, and ways when things aren’t working for you

Ask yourself what would help me get things done now, in the season i am in?

6-emotional journaling when you feel overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, scared, indifferent

The goal is to not push through despite how you feel

but to address and process your feelings and states and support yourself

It is one of the best things to do to get things done 

Why this tip is helpful:

Because most of the time what stops us is our emotions and how we feel in the moment; any feeling can stop you, even good feelings.

That’s why it’s important to process your emotions and become aware of your thoughts around them

to be able to get things done and live not based on the whims of your emotions

How to do it:

When you find yourself stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, apathetic, not feeling like doing the task or whatever you want to do

Bring your journal and have a conversation with yourself

Here are questions I use to process my emotions:

What are you feeling?

Why are you feeling this way?

What caused this feeling?

What thoughts and triggers lead me to this feeling?

What are the consequences of this (keep feeling and thinking this way)?

Learn more about how to process your emotions in the post below

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Related post:5 Functional Journal Prompts For Emotional Processing And Regulation

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7-set deadlines and limits

Creating constraints is important to get things done and not have things drag on for no reason

Because I know from experience that if you don’t, a simple task would take days instead of hours

This is something I need to do more, especially for projects, because I hesitate to do it because i am afraid i won’t stick to it

Why this tip is helpful:

If things are left open, it would take longer than necessary

That would be wasteful to your time and energy, which both are limited

How to do it:

set time limits on what you do, from projects to small tasks

examples: 1 hour to finish this task, 2 weeks from 26 of June to the 9th of July 2026 to finish this project,..

8-match your schedule to your energy

don’t chase the clock; chase your energy

what makes the difference in getting things done is your energy. It doesn’t matter if you have 10 hours a day to work;

you’ll only be able to work and use them if you have energy

Why this tip is helpful:

the time you have won’t matter if you’re not able to use it, and your state/energy determines if you can or can’t use it.

it is much more realistic and better for productivity and mental peace to focus on this rather than any other tip or tool

Especially if you’re multipassionate and you have a lot of things you want to do

You could do more in 3 hours than 10 hours if you are focused and energised 

How to do it:

Determine when you are energetic and focused and have high, medium, and low energy during the day, week, and month

1-Print a timetable; on it:

2-Mark when you wake up and sleep, then

3-Take 3 different color markers; you assign one for high energy, one for medium energy, low energy

4-After that, highlight when you have high energy with the assigned colored marker;

highlight when you have medium energy and low energy with their respective colored markers

Now, you know when to work on mentally demanding tasks,

moderately demanding tasks, and tasks that don’t require much mental energy 

Here is a weekly timetable you can use for this exercise

Final thoughts:

what i want to leave you with is if something you’re doing right now isn’t working for you, don’t try to force it.

It’s time to let go and try something else, a different way of doing things, something you knew but stopped doing or never tried

For example, switching from time blocking to using a priority to-do list for each day

Comment: What is your best productivity and time management tip?

You’ve read My Best Time Management And Productivity Tips: 8 Tips To Have A Productive Lifestyle.

Wishing you the best

wafaa