You Don’t Need More Time

Ever hear people ask for an extension for a deadline? Ever hear the excuse, “I’m too busy, sorry.”? What you need instead is more time management and prioritization skills. Now I do know there are a lot of articles and even TED talks out there talking about time management. And I’m just here part of the echo chamber. But recently even I’ve encountered that problem and it sucks. It sucks because the important things in our lives aren’t being prioritized more than our urgent stuff. Which is why I’ve found some tips that I’ve tried and still trying to organize my life more. Here are some of them.

1. To-do lists

Making a to-do list at the start of the day can help you not fall into the void of laziness and distractions. Make it a habit to default back to your to-do list when you have some free time and you’ll hopefully start to see things get done, even just a little bit. Another important thing to note here is the arrangement. For me I arrange mine by Urgent, Important, and Not to do.

Urgent being things that have to get done because of their due dates, like assignments or bills. Important being something you actually value doing, like meeting up with friends or reading a book. The not to do is there so that you can add there the things that eat most of your time that you’re not proud of doing, maybe watching YouTube far longer than you need to (which I do often).

2. 80/20 rule

Think about the 20% of things that’s causing 80% of your stress and vice versa. The things I put there are usually our Extended Essay assignments or Internal assessments in IB. It’s a huge pain in the ass and I kept waking up in the middle of the night because of it. Now, set aside around 2–3 hours completely focusing on the 20% of tasks that is causing you most stress. The rule can be used differently like, 90/10 or 60/40 so adjust accordingly. And remember that if you can’t identify those 20% tasks, you’re not doing it right.