The days rush by and you feel like you haven’t really achieved much, so the work piles up and your work/life balance goes out of the window. It’s time to take control of your week and become more productive and efficient with your time.
Planning ahead is the best way to spend your time more efficiently and achieve your goals. By setting goals, timelines and deadlines, you are less likely to get distracted from what needs to be done, helping you to achieve more. This will give you more time at the end of the day to spend doing what you love, such as spending time with your family, exercising, pursuing a hobby, or simply relaxing.
Goals leads you to a specific destination. So, start off by writing down what is important to you and what you want to achieve. These can be either personal or professional goals, short term or long term. This will give you motivation to stick to your plan each week.
Create a schedule for everything that needs doing that week and allocate a time for working on it. Include work projects, tasks and meetings, as well as personal activities such as chores and working out. Try to schedule some time for yourself and your family as well.
Have a pen and paper handy so that you can make notes about your tasks and assignments to help you complete them.
If you’ve written it out, then pin it up on the wall in your office or at home. If you’ve created it on a computer, you could either print it out and stick it up, or set it as your computer background so that you see it regularly. This will serve as a reminder about the most important things you need to achieve that day, and seeing the things that you have already achieved will help you to feel more accomplished, motivating you to achieve more.
Think about what went well and what didn’t, and see if you can identify where you can improve. Also think about what you enjoyed doing that day and why you enjoyed it, so you can focus more on that in the future.