Time flies, as they say. And no matter what you do, there just doesn’t seem to be enough of it, particularly during the work day. Wouldn’t it be great there was a way to somehow add more hours to your work day without losing any of your personal time? Wouldn’t it be even better if that was really simple and easy to do?

Well, what if I told you it was. All it really takes is a little planning and focus, and implementing some time management techniques that you probably already know. Sometimes it just helps to have someone else spell them out for you. So here we go!

First thing’s first: block time to get things done. That seems obvious, and perhaps easier said than done, but it’s important. Even if you have to keep changing when exactly that time occurs, having time blocked for an activity dedicates that time to performing that activity. This makes it easier to manage the time it takes to do that activity. Furthermore, don’t just block the time it takes (or you think it takes), overestimate the time by 10-20%. That allows you to account for unexpected complications and unplanned interruptions.

Speaking of interruptions: put your phone away! Don’t just put it on silent, or turn it over, or use the do not disturb feature. Really and truly move it physically away from you, as far as you practically can. It’s just too tempting to reach for that device every now and then, which means less time spent focusing on productive activities. If you’re in the type of work where you truly do need to be reached on demand, consider setting certain alert sounds for certain contacts, or forwarding voicemail to email, so you’ll know when the really important messages come through.

On another related note, stop multi-tasking. This is one of those things you probably pride yourself on being able to do, and you probably think you’re pretty good at it. Guess what; You’re not! It’s nothing personal. Nobody is a good multi-tasker, because nobody can actually multi-task. It has been studied repeatedly. What we’re actually doing when we say we’re multi-tasking is switch-tasking; trying to do two attention-requiring tasks at the same time. Microsoft Research found that most of us do this more than 560 times per day (which is about once a minute during the standard work day). That wreaks havoc on time management.

Whether you realize it or not, you pay a hidden cost for switch-tasking. Every switch means a change in focus, which means a change in effort, which, yes, means spending (unnecessary) extra time on that activity. Focusing on and finishing an activity is always more time efficient than trying to do multiple activities during the same exact timeframe. Time management implications aside, you’re also a lot more likely to make mistakes when switch-tasking, and it creates unnecessary stress in your work environment. So, as much as you might like to pride yourself on the ability, multi-tasking/switch-tasking really isn’t doing you any favors when it comes to managing your time.

Something else to avoid when managing your time is unnecessary clutter. While this can mean actual physical clutter, in today’s work environment, it’s more likely to mean digital clutter. Having gathering points for clutter isn’t a bad practice, and it can actually help you with time management. You just need to be sure that you’re limiting the number of those gathering points to a handful, that you’re using them productively, and that you’re managing them both regularly and effectively.

Your inbox for example, while potentially a location for distracting clutter, is also a tool for time management. Use it to send yourself notes or reminders for activities to be performed later. Send yourself a daily task list. Color code activities based on priority to help you keep track. Think of your inbox almost like a daily diary of your work that will help you manage and prioritize.

The same can be said for your calendar. A well-managed calendar is perhaps the best way to easily understand how you manage your time. For one, it’s visual. You can almost literally see your time on a calendar, so it’s easy to understand how you’re allocating it. Think of your calendar like a time budget. Stick to it like you would (hopefully) stick to a financial budget. Plan your time wisely, but as with a financial budget, remember to allow room for flexibility and to provide for the inevitable unexpected.

However, unlike your financial budget, your calendar budget is, in theory, technically unlimited. A calendar never ends. It always has more room to add to it. Don’t be afraid to go farther out for less important activities, and absolutely give yourself permission to move those activities to later if other more valuable activities need to be added or expanded.

As already noted, you can’t do two activities at once, so plotting activities on your calendar and sticking to that schedule (as best you can) is an easy way to avoid that situation. In addition, you can typically set and control alerts on a calendar. Add alerts to the important activities, but leave them off activities that might be less important. This will help you avoid the interruption of a reminder for a less important activity when trying to focus on a more important or time sensitive one.

Lastly on the subject of calendars, don’t forget to give yourself some buffer time. It can be tempting to schedule everything in neat little blocks of 15, 30, or 60 minutes, and to have them end and begin at perfect, adjacent intervals. There’s no rule that says this has to be the case. It’s not even a best practice. In fact, it’s much more productive and effective to give yourself some down time between those events. This not only allows you to take a break and refocus yourself for the next activity, it also allows for some flexibility should an activity take longer than expected. It also accounts for the inevitable distractions that will undoubtedly arise during the day that will require your attention between those scheduled activities.

Breaks are important, too, scheduled or otherwise. Don’t forget to account for them when managing your time. Everyone performs better when they’re well rested and properly focused. Overloading yourself with scheduled activities, and not allowing for some sort of down time to take care of your basic needs, is a big time management mistake. Much like with switch-tasking, failing to take breaks, even short ones, only undermines your intention to maximize your time management by pulling your focus and creating unnecessary stress.

While it’s always important to manage your time, it’s particularly important to engage time management techniques when performing your Most Valuable Activities (MVAs). Your MVAs are those activities that most directly lead to positive results for your organization, that further its goals or relationships, or that contribute to its overall wellbeing. These are activities that either only you can perform, or that you are best positioned to perform most effectively.

Once you determine your MVAs, focus your time and energy on accomplishing those activities. Guard and protect your time for these most closely. Direct your time management techniques specifically at the time it takes to perform these MVAs.

If you’re having trouble determining your MVAs, consider adopting something like Dave Crenshaw’s Time-Value Prioritization Model. This is a sort of triage to help you determine where to best spend your limited time.

Start by determining activities that are not valuable at all, or worse, are counter-productive. Just eliminate these entirely. If an activity has uncertain value, acknowledge it, consider it a maybe, and park it for later. Even if an activity definitely does have value, but it’s not attached to an imminent deadline, then it’s still ok to park it until later to focus on more pressing activities. Determine also if some of these activities could maybe be automated or delegated. It’s not that they don’t need to be done, it’s just that you perhaps you don’t need to be the one to do them. Eventually by following this model, you’ll start to determine your MVAs, which both need to be done, and can only be done by you (or at least done by you most effectively).

If an MVA won’t take longer than a few minutes, and you have the time, just get it done then and there. If you don’t have the time available immediately, put it on your calendar along with a reminder, scheduling that activity for a specific time when you will be available. If there’s a deadline, schedule backward from that, and as mentioned previously, be sure to overestimate the time it will take to accomplish the activity by about 10-20% while also allowing for buffer time and break time.

It is said that busy plus valuable equals productive. While time management techniques won’t necessarily help you be less busy, but they will definitely help you be more productive.

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