Make me a favour: google “time management and productivity”.

There are thousands of tips and methods to help you organise your time, and new Artificial Intelligence solutions promise to take all of the hustle away from managing your time effectively so you can have - as the last marketing effort we saw today - two companies, a social life, presence in your children’s life, a book club and always look fabulous while going to the gym!

Ever noticed how these campaigns tend to be focused on women’s insecurities?

Anyhow, learning how to manage your time effectively so that you do not feel overwhelmed and can see your to-do list reduce and evolve is an art that is honed in a lifetime, and a one-solution-for-all will not work.

At Achievist Solutions, we have a thing for learning new and improved productivity tools to trial out, so that when we teach clients to use them we know how does it feel to implement them, what are the struggles and how to circumvent them.

From Chore to Flow™

We noticed how time management can become a chore when it is seen itself as a task: “Sunday evening is dedicated to writing your to do list for the following week”, you announce to your friends for accountability. The intention is now in a post it on your fridge and a motivational poster so visualisation can do its magic.

“So go and karaoke when doing the laundry, have a chat with your bin when you’re taking it out, prepare yourself for a business trip like you’re a secret agent preparing for a mission.

Make your completing tasks memorable, so that next time you need to do them, you can look forward to it”

For some time, it works. Then, you forget about it, because it is just part of another list, “Things to do every week”. You have now a “To do” list of “To do lists”: a prefect, ideal day and month all planned out in a pretty journal we share on Instagram to show everybody else how put together we are. Is any of this being completed? Who cares! It looks good.

We time manage instinctively, we know when we’re hungry or tired and unless we are neurodiverse and need different stimuli; or our nervous system is dysregulated, we use these signs to organise the rest of our life around them.

So what can you do to make your time management feel as natural as waking up on your day off without the alarm?

1. Make it low pressure

You will not be able to complete all tasks you are thinking about, so let’s tackle one at the time. Focus on those that are more important and need to be completed now, and then reward completion: give yourself points for finishing things ahead of schedule or starting the task, or prepare your favourite treat so you can’t see how close you are to it.

2. Two minutes in, two minutes out

Variance of “Eat that Frog”: if a task takes two or less minutes, do it now. Yes, even if it is calling your dentist. After you complete your task, have free time for at least two minutes and then think: is there something else I am putting off that takes two minutes? And on you go.

3. Make it fun

Science tells us how we remember and forget based on how we feel when something happens. Usually people remember the smell of their favourite dish because it is associated with positive experiences, and forget meaningless details like driving home because it means little to them. So to make a task memorable, we need to associate positive emotions not only to its completion, but also to its execution.

So go and karaoke when doing the laundry, have a chat with your bin when you’re taking it out, prepare yourself for a business trip like you’re a secret agent preparing for a mission.

If you accept not all tasks can be completed, you choose only those that are more urgent and important to you (not to Ollie at the post office). If some tasks are so small that can be completed two minutes in and two out, you can smash a lot of them any day. And if you make your execution memorable and fun, it will be easier for you to include them in your routine because you are looking forward to repeat the experience.

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