Don’t be late – three ways to manage your time better

Self help author Dr Dewitt says motivation is his…well – surname. He also believes time management is more than having a really good Filofax app on your phone – it’s about obeying three simple (and free) rules that can help boost productivity.

Dr Dewitt thinks people often overthink the problem of time management and that it’s actually incredibly straight forward – if you heed his rules that is. So what do you think of these?

Rule one: Apply the 80/20 test

The premise of this rule is that some things in your daily life are more important than others. The ’20’ part includes the tasks, relationships and projects that hold the highest value with you. The ’80’ includes less important things that people tend to spend too much time attending to, when they should be focussing on their 20s.

For example – if you gain the most satisfaction from spending time with your family but you have a big project at work that means you often have to work late, perhaps think about reorganising your priorities. Although you may be in the zone at work right now – couldn’t it wait until the morning? Just one hour extra at home with your children could make all the difference to their (and your) happiness. Can one hour of work have the same long-term impact?

Dr Dewitt advises that we limit our ’80s’ to just 50% of our day and focus instead on the things that really matter.

Rule two: Identify your Einstein Window

The Einstein Window is, according to Dr Dewitt, the time in the day when you are the most focussed. For most people this spans two to four hours and it means they have a sharper awareness and a greater enthusiasm for learning. Use this time to get the most challenging tasks out of the way for the day. Once these are done, they’re done and you are then free to think about other things.

When you leave challenging tasks to the end of the day, you simply spend your time stressing which can ultimately affect your happiness and drain you of energy.

Rule three: Protect your Einstein Window

How do you protect this key period of time from intrusions and interruptions from other people? You learn to use the word ‘no’ firmly and confidently. Here are Dr Dewitt’s steps for protecting your Einstein Window:

• shut your door
• turn your phone off
• shut down your email
• aim to work for a set period of time.

To find out how a life coach can help you organise your time better, please visit our Work/Life Balance page.

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