4 More Time Management Strategies you haven’t tried…yet

Posted on by J.J. Hamilton

I am constantly in search of more time. Whether it’s in my personal or professional life, I just feel as if I want to be doing, well, just about everything. And yet, that’s impossible, isn’t it? We know it’s impossible but, if you’re even remotely interested in the world of productivity, it’s probably something that you’ve chased again, and again, and again.

At what point do we say ‘enough is enough’, and settle with the time that we’ve been given?

Never – that’s my answer. That’s the whole reason why people, myself included, are constantly exploring ways to get more time – to give you more time to do what really matters to you. Last week, I explored 3 time management strategies that you probably hadn’t tried before. We tried out the Eisenhower Matrix with a twist, the Reverse Time Audit and, my personal favourite, the Boss Battles. Get caught up on those strategies if you haven’t already, and then join me back over here.

Those aren’t the only tricks up my sleeve. Here are 4 more time management strategies you haven’t tried…yet.

Time management strategy 1: Themed days

You know what one of my favourite days is?

Taco Tuesday.

It means that, regardless of how exhilarating your Tuesday has been, you’re guaranteed a good helping of tacos for dinner. It becomes something to look forward to. You might even experience these themed days at work – like Marketing Monday. If you do, you’re probably groaning at the thought of introducing the idea to your personal life.

But why the heck not?

In my Ideal Perfect Week, which we talked about last week and in this post, linked here, I might opt for a Creative Tuesday (not everything needs to be alliterative), where I dedicate time to writing on my blog, or working on my fictional stories. I could also spend Creative Tuesday playing my ukulele or cooking a new recipe. Financial Friday is pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? This day would be for paying bills, reviewing budgets and planning investments.

Theming the days of the week trains your brain to context-switch less often. Context-switching has been shown to have a massive impact on productivity, so you need to reduce the amount of times you’re doing this as a priority. As a result, your focus and efficiency should improve across all aspects of your life, not just professionally. Plus, theming your days might make them feel even more fun than usual.

Time management strategy 2: The Micro-Productivity Sprint

I’ve spent a lot of my adult life inadvertently using the Pomodoro Technique without realising it. I’ve spoken about this strategy a lot in the past, but it simply involves setting a 25-minute timer, working for that amount of time, and then taking a 5-minute break away from your work. Whether that involves a short walk or doing star jumps is up to you, but it must be away from your work to get the full benefits. When combined with the idea of just spending 2 minutes on a task to get started, which I’ve talked about over here, it does wonders for your productivity.

However, sometimes 25-minutes is too long, making Pomodoro quite restrictive. The Micro-Productivity Sprint is for those moments where you have only a few minutes of downtime. It involves identifying tiny tasks (like sending that one short email, tidying your desk or watering a plan), which you wouldn’t otherwise have time for, and knocking them out immediately. Over the course of a week, these small bursts of action can significantly reduce the mental clutter of your to-do list.

A man checking his watch, suggesting the importance of time management
I will do almost anything to claim back more time for myself each day.

Time management strategy 3: Time blocking, but with buffer time

Traditional time blocking can offer an invaluable workflow for getting things done. This is where you pin tasks into a Calendar or scheduling app to block out time for specific activities. For instance, your Monday might look like this:

  • 9-10am: Meet Gavin
  • 10-11am: Deep work
  • 11am-12pm: Write up notes from yesterday’s brainstorm session
  • 12pm-1pm: lunch

And so on. Great for knowing what you’re doing and when; not great for flexibility. Time blocking can feel incredibly rigid, which only leads to frustration when things don’t go as planned. Start to play around with the concept of ‘buffer time’ in between every block. For example, that 9-10am meeting with Gavin could lead to 15 minutes buffer time, between 10-10:15am. You could use this to wrap up the previous task, take a quick break, or mentally prepare for the next one.

Buffer time acknowledges the unpredictable nature of life and builds flexibility directly into your schedule, reducing the risk that you might run over and be late to your next meeting or project. Or, you might not actually need those extra 15 minutes, giving you the scope to start your next project early.

Whatever works for you.

Time management strategy 4: The Project pre-mortem

Picture this: everything has just gone horribly wrong. Your project failed, your relationship suffered, you’ve lost your house and you’re living out of your car.

Or maybe something a little less chaotic.

But that’s the purpose of a project pre-mortem: what could possibly go wrong with the thing that you’re about to start? Imagine that the project has failed spectacularly – what do you anticipate was the cause of this? Did you run out of time? Did you get distracted? Did a colleague underestimate its complexities and therefore not contribute sufficiently? 

By identifying potential pitfalls in advance of them happening, you’re proactively building strategies to avoid them. You’re not being pessimistic by doing this; it’s the opposite, actually. It’s all about having the foresight to predict what could go wrong before it does, saving you a major time sink further down the road, when you’ve dedicated half of your waking hours to a seemingly unsolvable issue.

Those are the strategies that I use to best manage my time – which one are you going to try? Already tried one? Let me know how much time you saved in the comments below. Got a strategy you’d like to see me trial? Then set me the challenge in the comments – and I’ll report back on how it goes!

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