Time Management is key to any working woman’s lifestyle. Whether you have everything on your phone’s calendar, written in a planner, all in a note, or scattered all over your desk on post-its, there never seems to be enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. However, the most disorganized person can become the most organized (even if it only seems organized to themselves) and accomplish every task with a little time to breathe!
A Sample Bullet Journal Page No matter what type of job you have or what type of school you attend, the good, old fashioned list is your friend. You can clearly set out all the tasks you need to accomplish and their due dates in front of you. It’s a simple matter of reorganizing the items into something you can manage and understand. My preference is to organize first by due date, then by how easy the task is. I always begin with the easier items first to build momentum approaching a bigger deliverable, but guess what? Linear doesn’t work for everybody!
A list is very useful, and is the basis of managing your time, but how you manage your list is where I’d like to take this a step further. If you don’t already know it, I suggest you find out your learning style. Take the quiz here. How you learn will also assist you in getting organized. I happen to be an auditory learner, so when I am planning out my schedule, I tend to repeat it back to myself out loud. If you’re a visual learner and you need to keep your tasks on a list in front of you (maybe on the wall next to your desk) and even color code your tasks into a system you understand. A tactile learner may want to take a more hands-on approach by creating a timetable or planner from scratch.
If having a pre-created planner suits you, you can find one at any office supply store. If you’re into more heavy duty life-planning, Erin Condren makes customizable, intensive planners. I’ve known people to use this for weddings and it’s also a favorite of some business owners I know to help keep themselves organized. On the other hand, if you’d like to try a do-it-yourself planner, a popular concept is the bullet journal, which you can read more about here. It can act as a diary for your appointments, a scheduler, and much more, but because you are the author of the journal, you can customize it based on your needs. All you need is a blank notebook and you can get started! My personal favorite is Momentum, which is an app for Google Chrome where you can create a visual to-do list.
I think what people find most daunting about time planning and management, is the rigidity of following a list of tasks. There seems to be little room for creativity, but there is a wealth of possibilities to make your schedule work for you!
What type of learner are you? What methods have you used in the past?
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