Why unitasking helps manage your time
I get a lot of requests from people wanting to write posts on time management. But I included this one because of Vinil’s first tip – doing on task at a time, or ‘unitasking’. When I had my concussion last year, the doctors told me to do one thing at a time. Working that way was hard but guess what – you get more done! Don’t want to steal Vinil’s thunder…read on and enjoy. B.
For many working people especially self-employed entrepreneurs, their entire day is chaos. The kids, clients, emails, phone calls, deadlines, bills to pay, meetings to attend and family obligations all this can get really overwhelming. There are people who seem to manage all this and seem like they have all the time in the world. All of us only have 24 hours a day. Some of us manage this time well, many of us don’t. Here are a few tips to help make your time last longer.
#1 Focus on one task at a time
Corporate America seems to appreciate and even consider multi-tasking an adorable skill. Multi-tasking is actually one of the worst things you can do.
Time to give multi-tasking the boot and focus on one task at a time. If you are checking emails, you only check emails and that’s it. If you are interacting on social media you only interact on social media and that’s it. If you are spending time with family or kids, you only spend time with family. That’s it! No work related phone calls. For many people this may look like a new habit and may feel strange at first. But eventually you will get used to it and start enjoying the additional time and focus you achieve from this habit. When this new habit got instilled in me for the first time, I was so used to chaos that I felt I wasn’t doing any work. But the truth was I was doing more work than I previously did in much lesser time.
#2 Don’t go to bed without making a schedule
I always make a schedule the night or the evening before I go to bed. When you make a schedule, assign a block of time for each task. One block of time for one task only. If you are checking emails, you assign say 30 minutes for checking emails and you only check emails during that time. If you assign 30 minutes for social media, you do your social media tasks in those 30 minutes only.
Social media is taking up so much of people’s time because of unnecessary chit chatting, so you schedule let’s say 30 minutes a day for social media and stop once that 30 minutes is done. Use a timer if you think it helps. Most cell phones nowadays have a timer in them.
#3 Delegate or eliminate tasks
Almost every person has some task or the other that isn’t getting him towards his goals. Eliminate that task or if it is a task that has to be done try to delegate it to somebody. You don’t even need a full time employee to delegate your tasks to. There are several freelance websites where you can hire a freelancer for less than $ 10 an hour. Consider using one. I recently hired someone to transcribe an audio recording on elance for $ 5 an hour.
#4 Write down your goals
This is another very crucial part of being productive. Most people have no idea what they want out of their lives. So they just keep jumping from one thing to the other without knowing why they are doing what they are doing. So write down your goals and make sure that every task you do takes you towards your goal.
A famous Guru once said “If you want to go to Mount Everest, make sure every step you take is towards Mount Everest.”
Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, author and business coach who helps business owners increase revenues and maximize profits. He is founder of StartUpGrowthExpert.com – a consulting firm that helps businesses increase revenues through focused strategies.
Tags: startupgrowthexperts.com, time management, time management for small business
July 30th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Schedule should be first on our list if we want to manage our time effectively. Multitasking for me though is quite effective and it makes me more productive. There would be times when you have to wait for something to finish a task. So for me its a good opportunity to do the other task.
I must admit though that I can only multitask one aspect of my daily routines at a time – I cannot do the household chores and my job at the same time.
July 30th, 2010 at 11:18 am
well, nobody’s perfect LOL. I think I’ve actually cleaned my stove and done a conference call at the same time. but it was a really boring call.
July 30th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
That’s beyond what I could do. I’m best at multitasking in the office with two computer screens. Once something involves physical attention, like a dirty stove, my productivity is shot.
July 30th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Seriously, the ad guys on this call went on..and on… I had to do something. Besides it was just that Easy Off stuff you spray on and wait.
July 30th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
I agree that unitasking or multitasking can manage your time. Especially if your schedule is way to complicated that you have to do some list for the whole day alone. But sometimes unitasking do mess up. It’s because your mind is occupied that somehow you forget important things. But according to you, # 1 is Focus. Nice. Thanks for sharing your blog.
August 1st, 2010 at 4:35 am
I totally agree with this post. I always end up freaking out when i try and tackle too many things at once and end up getting nothing done (procrastination kicks in). Focusing on one thing at once definitely makes a big difference to my work output!
August 2nd, 2010 at 6:33 am
I always consider myself as a person who know how to well-organise her time. As you suggested, I do have my ‘next day tasks list’, but I have never thought to estimate, how much time I should spend per one task a day! Probably, that’s why some of the tasks I have to move from Monday to Tuesday, and so on, ending up with weeks of delays. From now on, I will carefully keep my time spend on particular task. Thank you for your valuable tips!
August 2nd, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Great post, thanks for the tips! I personally use my outlook calendar and schedule time to work on each project/each client’s work as if they were appointments. Since I work from home, I’ll even include a break for vacuuming/walking the dogs etc to make sure it’s done. I use colour-coding for each client and grey for completed projects. There’s nothing better than seeing my calendar go monotone and that happens faster with unitasking for sure!
August 3rd, 2010 at 4:55 am
I usually organize my time by scheduling a to-do list the night before. I’m guilty of multi-tasking most of the time and it’s a good thing to read your post because somehow I realized that doing one thing at a time can really make things much easier for me, and I don’t have to worry about doing things half-done. There are times I even push other things to do the next day and the next day until the next week comes. Your post sure made me realize that uni-tasking can be easier than multi-tasking. Thanks for sharing!
August 6th, 2010 at 4:20 am
Thanks, Stephan Miller! You found some excellent tips on “Why unitasking helps manage your time”.
August 6th, 2010 at 4:34 am
I agree that unitasking or multitasking can manage your time & I now know that what I need is a Write down my daily goals.
August 6th, 2010 at 5:57 am
This is another very crucial part of being productive. Wow !!! I like “Why unitasking helps manage your time”. I really Thankful you.
August 6th, 2010 at 7:18 am
My advice learn from colleagues and web sites to see how others have successfully managed their time.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
I also agree that unitasking or multitasking can manage your time. Especially if your schedule is way to complicated that you have to do some list for the whole day alone. Thanks
August 7th, 2010 at 2:37 am
great post.thanks for your sharing.a reasonable schedule can make you better work.
August 10th, 2010 at 1:39 am
Don’t go to bed without making a schedule. Its definitely good idea.
August 10th, 2010 at 1:49 am
I also agree that Focus on one task at a time. Especially if your schedule is way to complicated that you have to do some list for the whole day alone. Thanks
August 10th, 2010 at 2:18 am
oh cool, this information is really useful and definately is comment worthy! here I’ll see if I can try to use some of this information for my own blog. Thanks!
August 10th, 2010 at 2:22 am
I just wanted to comment your blog and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog post here. Interesting post, and great advice!
August 12th, 2010 at 4:53 am
the doctor is quite right..but i think it really depend of the tasks that you want to accomplish..because some time..multitasking saves you a lot of time and energy. Anyway.. nice post!
August 13th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Very good ips here! I always write my goals of the week on a paper that i stick on the wall so i could see them every time! I also write all tasks even the smallest ones in my calendar.
August 18th, 2010 at 12:00 am
This one is really helpful in organizing ourselves. It’s the right thing to do: “unitasking”, in order to have more focus on a certain task that will be done and also it will give importance to the quality of our work.Unitasking can really make a difference in the work done.Time and quality of work is important, therefore as you have said in a task their must be an allotted time and also a goal that will be achieve.
August 24th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I have to make lists. I hate lists, but that’s the only way I keep everything in my head!
September 18th, 2010 at 3:29 am
I agree that unitasking could help in managing time because you could focus a lot with your work and this could result to good quality of work. We should manage our time in the tasks we are working in order to achieve our goal. Nice post.
October 8th, 2010 at 4:06 am
Great post! Unitasking is a great way to produce a good quality of work. By doing unitasking you could focus and give your best shot on what you are doing since you concentrate on one task only. This could also help in saving your precious time by achieving your target goal. Thanks for sharing!
November 17th, 2010 at 2:15 am
Great post!Most of us are actually good in terms of multi-tasking. We want to make the most of every hour.However, there are only 24 hours a day and we can truly focus on one task at a time.Uni-tasking allows us to just focus on one task at a time with no other distractions for us to be able to work quicker and more efficiently.Thanks for these tips!
November 17th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I prefer to do “multitasking” most of the time and I love doing it. But then as I read your blog, It gives me an option of using also the “unitasking” for some changes and I think you were right. Thanks top your post and have a great day!
December 20th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Some great tips here, especially the bit on multitasking! So easy to lose track of projects when you’ve got a bunch on the go.
Thanks,
Steve
subs@smcmedia.ca
January 7th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
K.I.S.S. … old technique, keep it simple, stupid
January 7th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
@Florida computer services
Especially in our industry, when working on a computer you’ve got a million distractions per second anyways… keep thing simplified and eliminate a few!
January 21st, 2011 at 6:36 am
Thanks for such a great blog and blog post. I appreciate you taking about An open letter to companies planning online communities.
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Vielen Dank für eine so große Blog und Blog-Post. Ich schätze Sie unter über Ein offener Brief an Unternehmen, die planen Online-Communities.
March 11th, 2011 at 9:26 am
i have found having a boss who asks me “how effective is your time” helps me lol.
April 15th, 2011 at 2:11 am
Hey! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I genuinely enjoy reading through your posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same subjects? Appreciate it!
May 14th, 2011 at 4:13 am
I think it’s most important to empty your head by writing down a “Things to do today” list. When you write down a list and you look at the list at the end of the day and check-off the things on the list that you did, it gives you a level of satisfaction that you got something done through the day.
August 28th, 2011 at 10:25 am
You got a very great website, Gladiolus I found it through yahoo.
September 10th, 2011 at 12:26 am
Writing down you goals, and making small specific goals are some of the keys to success when working on a project. Alot of times we will put off a chore when we are not sure exactly how to start. Just start and you will figure it out!
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:39 pm
This is an awesome blog, keep up the great work!
October 12th, 2011 at 3:52 am
True, we should never go to sleep without planning a schedule for the next day otherwise the next day is a complete havoc. Its important to plan for anything that we do and it very well includes a schedule for the next day as well.