3 Tips On How To Effectively Manage Your Time
By: Karthik Mittal
Tags: Growth, Pomodoro Technique, Time Management, Enjoy Writing, Productivity

Sleep. Study. Eat.

I must have followed the process above hundreds of times, trapped in this endless cycle of forcing myself to repeat the same actions over and over. Honestly, it felt like I could do nothing with my day except these three things because there simply wasn’t the time in the day.

Until I learned about time management. During quarantine, I wanted to break out of this loop and be more productive, exploring other extracurricular activities and hobbies that I was interested in. After researching videos and articles online, I found how much time that I was wasting, whether it be in transit or just looking at my phone aimlessly.

Now, along with balancing school, I’m currently working in three internships, writing two research papers, and working on a startup that combines my passion for artificial intelligence and business. By simply managing my time better, I was able to get things done throughout my day and organize my day more efficiently.

In this article, I’m going to go through some of the main ideas and takeaways that I got through this process so that you can apply it to your own life.

Tip #1: Time Block Your Day

Example of time blocking. Credit: Float

Time blocking is the practice of planning every minute of your day in advance, from the time that you wake up to the time that you sleep. Time blocking not only provides a consolidated list of the things that you need to get done throughout the day but also holds you accountable to finish the things that you put on your list.

Time blocking is also proven to widen your focus so that you only work on the task at hand and are free from distractions. Many individuals fall into a trap on what is often called Parkinson’s Law:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Time blocking provides the perfect remedy for generating a large amount of productivity by allocating specific amounts of time for each specific tasks.

Google Calendar is often the best method to time block throughout your day; through their sound and email notifications, you’ll be sure not to miss when you are supposed to switch to the next task and stay on track.

Before we end off this section, here are some helpful tips to optimize time blocking on your Google Calendar:

Don’t be overoptimistic. We’re often extremely bad at estimating how long tasks will take to complete. Make sure that you plan accordingly and leave around 30 minutes in case miscellaneous activities arise.

We’re often extremely bad at estimating how long tasks will take to complete. Make sure that you plan accordingly and leave around 30 minutes in case miscellaneous activities arise. Schedule the night before. I found that if you schedule the night before, you think about your schedule throughout the night, thinking about the best ways to optimize your time the next day.

I found that if you schedule the night before, you think about your schedule throughout the night, thinking about the best ways to optimize your time the next day. 30 minute blocking is key. Make sure to assign your time blocks into 30 minute sections. No more as it can lead to unproductive sections throughout your day and no less because that can lead to micromanaging.

Tip #2: Free Yourself of Distractions

I know many of you are probably going to hate me for this point, but deep down, we know this is true for many of us. Those ten minute breaks that we say that we’re going to take scrolling through TikTok or Instagram ultimately turn into hour long binges that we can’t pull ourselves out of.

It’s important to keep all personal distractions away especially when you’re completing a personal project or want to get something done on time. Phones and social media trigger dopamine, making us feel pleasure. Notifications on your phone are meant to pull you in and make you stay on those apps so that your dopamine levels remain high. We want to try to inhibit this sense of dopamine as much as we can so that we stay on task.

In many cases, the process of just telling your family member to hide your phone will remove that urge to constantly look at social media. If there is nothing to make us feel that dopamine rush, then we’ll resort to the next best thing, which is working on projects.

Here are some tips to minimize the amount of time spent on distractions:

Set screen time limits on your phone. I’ve tried this method, and it’s held me extremely accountable in making sure that I don’t go overboard on certain apps like Instagram and Twitter.

I’ve tried this method, and it’s held me extremely accountable in making sure that I don’t go overboard on certain apps like Instagram and Twitter. Get rid of distracting apps. I know that it’ll be hard, but removing social media apps will positively impact your lifestyle as you won’t even feel the urge to look at your phone anymore.

I know that it’ll be hard, but removing social media apps will positively impact your lifestyle as you won’t even feel the urge to look at your phone anymore. Ask people to hide your phone. Like I said before, hiding your phone is the best way to minimize the distractions around you. By not knowing where your phone is, you won’t have the urge to constantly check your notifications.

Tip #3: Daily Updates

Daily updates are another way to hold yourself accountable and to check whether you are getting to all of your action items in your list. By simply listing your priorities and your action items (what you want to do throughout the day) in the morning, you can understand what tasks you need to get to immediately and which ones you can hold back off on.

There are three main components to a strong daily update:

Weekly Goals: Before you start out every week, you should have an action plan on what you want to complete this week. In your daily update, you’ll list out the things you completed from these weekly goals and check whether you’re on track to finish all of the items in your list. Daily Goals: These daily goals can consist of weekly goals, but they should be much more specific and task-oriented. While weekly goals can be something like finishing a book, your daily goals should be finishing two chapters of Atomic Habits. (great read by the way!) Daily Reflection: At the ending of the day, you should reflect on what you learned throughout the day and figure out whether you were productive or unproductive. Depending on how you felt, you should list additional action items so that you can be stronger the next day.

With these daily updates, you constantly improve, becoming more and more efficient in the way that you manage your time. I often use Notion in order to consolidate all of my daily updates, but you can use other sources like Google Docs. Here are some tips for maximizing your daily updates every day:

Send to an accountability partner: Every day, I suggest sending these daily updates to a friend or family member that you trust will hold you accountable. Make sure that this person is strict and will make sure that you adhere to what you wrote down in your daily update.

Every day, I suggest sending these daily updates to a friend or family member that you trust will hold you accountable. Make sure that this person is strict and will make sure that you adhere to what you wrote down in your daily update. Integrate this with time blocking: After setting down your priorities with your daily updates, you can use these tasks and goals in your schedule so that the most important tasks in your list get finished first.

After setting down your priorities with your daily updates, you can use these tasks and goals in your schedule so that the most important tasks in your list get finished first. Set emojis to rate your emotion for that day. This can really gauge and help you understand your true emotions for that day and how you can change those emotions to be happy in the long run.

Bonus Tip: Pomodoro Technique

At least for me, the Pomodoro technique has worked wonders in keeping me more productive and managing my time more efficiently. The Pomodoro technique works in three sections.

Set a timer for 25 minutes and focus. During this time, you work hard and make sure that you are the most productive person you can be. Give yourself a small reward for 5 minutes. This reward can be anything from eating a snack to taking a small walk. Whatever puts you in your safe space and makes you feel happy. Rinse and repeat. Repeat this process throughout the day and see how well it boosts your productivity!

Note that the times above can be adjusted to your own specifications. The reason that I put this under bonus tips is because this technique does not work for everyone, so I would playtest this technique to see if it works well for you.

Final Reflection

I hope that you all found these tips helpful! At least for me, adhering to these three simple tenants of time blocking my schedule, ridding myself of distractions, and doing daily updates greatly improved my productivity and allowed me to become a better version of myself.

Comment below on what you think of these tips, and additional comments that you have on the subject itself!

Additional Resources

Hi! I am a 16 year old currently interested in the fields of machine learning and biotechnology. If you are interested in seeing more of my content and what I publish, consider subscribing to my newsletter! Check out my newsletter here! Also, check out my LinkedIn and Github pages. If you’re interested in talking about autonomous vehicles or just technology in general, sign up for a chat using my Calendly.