3 Time Management Strategies you haven’t tried…yet

Posted on by J.J. Hamilton

Productivity has been geared towards one thing: time. It’s the one thing that we don’t have enough of, and also the one thing you can’t make more of. And yet, in my quest to become Productivity Guru #1, I’ve tried my very best to conjure up more time out of thin air.

To limited success.

I’ve read books like The Four-Hour Work Week* and took away so many insights from it in my professional life, but it’s been nearly twenty years since that book first came out. The strategies that you’ll read in there, while insightful (and incredibly useful), are tried, tested, used and reused. You will have heard it all before, in some way, shape or form. These strategies and habits may well work for you – they certainly have for me – but I think that just about every productivity expert has espoused about it in every corner of the internet by now. The same can be said for James Clear’s Atomic Habits.* An absolutely essential read – but you’ve probably heard it all before.

If you haven’t, where have you been?

I’m going to do something slightly different – something you’ve probably not seen or heard of before. Here are 3 time management strategies you haven’t tried…yet. All in the quest to get us more of that elusive thing: time.

Time management strategy 1: Eisenhower Matrix – with a twist

You may have heard of the Eisenhower Matrix before (or not; I don’t know you). For the uninitiated, read my post about the Matrix here. Short of time? The long and short of it is that the Matrix will give you a 2×2 table, allowing you to sort your tasks into one of four boxes: urgent and important; urgent but not important; important but not urgent; neither urgent nor important.

In doing this, you can work out what you need to prioritise, ignore or delegate.

We’re taking this Matrix one step further, and focusing on the fourth quadrant: neither urgent nor important. Instead of simply delegating or deferring, start to introduce the concept of a dedicated “elimination” session. Take 15 minutes, once a week, and review all of the tasks that you’ve shoved into this quadrant. Permanently remove any that aren’t actively contributing to your goals, or furthering you along in your life quests. This isn’t about rescheduling; it’s about intentional de-prioritisation and ruthless simplification.

Time management strategy 2: The Reverse Time Audit

Last week, I took you through how to conduct a Mid-Year Audit. Not read it yet? Well, there’s no better time like the present – click here if you’re ready to get out of your productivity slump.

Traditional time audits like that usually involve tracking where your time goes. We’re not going to do that, though. Instead, in a Reverse Time Audit, we’re starting with your ideal perfect week. Block out time for your top priorities each week, including deep work, creative projects, personal development (like learning new skills, such as a new language) and time for family or friends. Only after those things are set in stone can you factor in meetings, emails and any other reactive task.

A Reverse Time Audit forces you to be proactive in protecting your most valuable time from being hijacked by urgent, less important, activities.

A crucial part of this to bear in mind, though, is that your ideal perfect week is just that – an idealised version of your perfect week. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t always stick to it; the critical thing is that you’ve visualised what you’d like to do, every week, if everything goes according to plan. Next up is actually taking steps to action that plan.

Click here for more on setting up your Ideal Perfect Week.

Image showing 4 clocks with different time zones on, to suggest the value of time
Time is probably our most valuable, finite, commodity.

Time management strategy 3: Add a Boss Battle to your to-do list

I’ve been playing video games since before I could walk. There’s this excellent photo somewhere of me, sat in an armchair next to my brother, back when we were both really young, playing Pokémon with each other. More recently, I’ve got back into gaming in a big way, and have figured out how to turn my iPad into a remote gaming mega machine, with remote PlayStation access on-the-go.

One of the most thrilling, compelling parts of any video game is how enthralling a game developer can make it. To me, that means one thing: ensuring that your boss battles are suitably epic. Boss battles are the ultimate part of any level, so you’ve got to ensure that they’re tough to take on, challenging to beat, but a blast to complete.

It’s time to do the same to real life: add a Boss Battle to your to-do list. This is going to be your most difficult or most procrastinated task. Whenever you beat a boss in a video game, there’s usually a pretty substantial loot drop, so add the same to real life: treat yourself to a reward for completing your real-life Boss Battle, such as a special coffee, a new episode of whatever on Netflix, or 15 minutes of guilt-free Doom Scrolling. This will reframe a daunting task as a challenge to be conquered, providing a psychological boost and a sense of accomplishment when it’s done. Better yet: listen to video game music while you take on this mammoth task, since these soundtracks are purpose-built to get you fired up and focused.

There’s a reason that apps, like Duolingo, have found so much success with gamifying their user experience.

What do you think? Which new time management strategies are you going to start to use in your life? If you’re really interested in maximising your productivity, let me know in the comments and I will tell you 4 more strategies to better manage your time.

*Anything marked with an asterisk is an affiliate link, meaning that using it may generate a small kickback for me at no extra cost to you.

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