Increasing Personal Productivity with Time Management

Increasing productivity is something that most people talk about and that few people actually do. Are you overwhelmed with the growing stack of things you must do? Are you so busy you can't even watch the television shows you've recorded to watch later? If so, you might be interested in some of the techniques used by life hacks to cut corners and automate burdensome tasks, freeing up more time to pursue your passions. These tips for improving your personal productivity will allow you to spend more time doing the things you enjoy.

 Automate Wherever Possible
Many personal productivity software programs are open-source programs, meaning they are free. The following are excellent for condensing and conquering tasks that otherwise might drive you batty:

• Try using a time management personal productivity software program. Use it to prioritize tasks, schedule out your calendar and manage personal and work obligations. Some programs come with alarms that let you know when you have a commitment or should be done with a task; others can be shared in an office so you can block out time in your schedule so no one else will schedule conflicting commitments. Other programs manage computer functions, store information in easily accessible files or manage communication, such as sending automatic messages and alerting you of upcoming tasks.
• Use an automatic e-mail sorting software program.
  These programs will sort your e-mail as you specify, so you don't have to wade through spam to get to personal e-mails, or personal e-mails to get to business e-mails. It's like having an assistant who takes messages for you and then sorts your mail into different piles. When you're in the mood to catch up with personal correspondence, you can check into your personal e-mail folders, but you won't get distracted while wading through the work e-mails, meaning you can crank through those faster.
• Track your time with a time-tracking software program. Just like figuring out where your money is going by using a financial software program, try tracking how you spend your time, then plug up the gaps.
• Using online bill pay is a must.
  If you're still paying bills manually, stop! Take advantage of the many automated bill pay options available and save yourself hours of sorting through mail.
• Find niche time-saving software to help you in the area you need most. There's software available to help you with whatever area you desire-personal finance tracking, tax preparation, menu planning, grocery list making, home improvement project planning, landscaping, etc. Search online for software to store your information and simplify whatever is stealing your time from you.

Practical Time Savers

• Get yourself off junk mail and spam lists. Save a few trees and save yourself wasted time sorting through junk mail by removing yourself from junk mail and spam lists. It'll take you 15 minutes to register, and you will save hours in the long run. While you're at it, get your number on the national "Do Not Call" list for telemarketers. You'll save yourself even more time telling telemarketers to leave you alone.
• Plan out your schedule. Pick the most important things that need to be done and write them into your schedule. Give yourself a time schedule and race against yourself to see if you can beat your plan. Cross off items as you get them done. If you keep procrastinating about something week after week, decide if it's really worth doing and conside erasing it from the list.
• Use your partner or a coworker as a human calendar to remember important things. Sometimes it's easier to remember someone else's schedule than it is to keep your own straight. Tell your roommate, partner or coworker about important plans, and then check in with them for reminders.
• Invite someone you want to impress with over for dinner. Spend a frantic but very productive hour cleaning your house. Or you can just pretend you're having someone over for dinner and clean as if they are coming. That hour will be more productive than an entire Saturday spent cleaning.

Condense and Conquer
Many of our unpleasant demands straggle in bit by bit. There's new mail every day, fresh laundry to deal with and errands to run; all these things accumulate through the week. Scrape these related tasks into a pile and plow through them at full speed all at once instead of dribbling through them all week long. Pile the mail up throughout the week and then take 30 minutes on Saturday to quickly recycle the junk mail, weed out bills  and whip through the tasks as quickly as possible. Refuse to linger over the credit card offer you don't need or the book club offer you won't use. Automate as many things as you can, using things like automatic bill pay. Use the same tactic for other burdensome tasks.

Say no to Some of Your Obligations
Some of those "shoulds" in your life are unnecessary, so dump a few of them today. Have you been heading up a PTA committee for the past few years? Maybe it's time to decide your stint is over. Signed up for something you don't really have time or energy for? Eat a little crow and excuse yourself from the commitment.

Declare a Start Over
Sure, it's only polite to respond back to every e-mail you get, and yes, society says you should be on top of all your child's after-school activities plans, but every once in a while you should just declare a reset on your life and start over. Throw out a pile of junk mail without looking through it carefully, and call your daughter's Girl Scout troop leader and get the dates from her instead of sorting through mountains of individual paper announcements. If anyone complains that you didn't get back to them, just apologize and take care of whatever task was you were supposed to do.

Incentivize Yourself
We all have things we want to do-write creatively, hike through the mountains, catch a good movie with a friend-but all those obligations get in the way, holding us back. Schedule one of these very appealing activities for a specific time, such as for noon Saturday, then pile up a few boring tasks you need to accomplish and tell yourself you have to finish them before you can go.