I am the best person to understand how difficult it is to strike a balance between work, school, and life. I struggled to find time for life because I had to juggle three jobs, a full-time school schedule, and other obligations. In contrast to the proverbial “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” in this case, it made college student Amber very crazy, stressed out, and worn out.
I completely understand the challenges of trying to make ends meet while pursuing your education, which is why I’m here to share some advice on how to balance work, fun, and learning without overworking yourself. These suggestions can still be very helpful for those of you who aren’t in school, because, let’s face it, juggling multiple jobs or working long hours with a family life can be just as challenging.
- Divide large tasks into smaller ones. …
- Prioritize. …
- Monitor your time. …
- Plan your meetings strategically. …
- Set achievable performance expectations. …
- Delegate or outsource some of your tasks. …
- Accept the amount of work you can realistically handle. …
- Keep a central schedule.
Why is it important to manage a busy schedule?
To improve effectiveness and productivity, it’s critical to manage a busy schedule. You can optimize your workday for maximum performance by putting into practice efficient time management and scheduling techniques. The ability to organize your efforts, self-supervise your tasks, and finish both complex and simple responsibilities in a timely and high-quality manner can be demonstrated to prospective employers by successfully managing a busy schedule.
How to manage a busy schedule
You can try the following 13 methods to arrange your hectic schedule:
1. Divide large tasks into smaller ones
Try breaking up the project’s steps if it could take hours, days, weeks, or longer to complete. By doing this, you can enjoy a string of minor victories while gradually advancing toward the main objective. Another way to avoid feeling overburdened is to finish a difficult task in smaller, easier steps. As an illustration, you could divide a 50-page employee manual into chapters and sections within each chapter. As you finish each chapter, you get closer to finishing the whole thing.
2. Prioritize
Setting priorities can help you finish the most important tasks first, which can help reduce stress or uncertainty. There are numerous ways to prioritize tasks, including by the upcoming deadlines, the significance of the client, your own importance, and any unique management requests. Since the most urgent work is already finished, you might find that your workday is less stressful if you finish these high-priority tasks first.
3. Monitor your time
You can more easily identify the parts of your schedule that require attention if you keep track of how long it takes you to complete each task. To keep track of how much time you spend on various tasks, you can keep a written log or use a time tracking tool.
Knowing where you spend your time each day will help you determine whether your routine needs to be altered in any way. Setting deadlines for your tasks will help you more closely manage your time. Occasionally, a deadline can motivate you to finish your work more quickly. To remind yourself to move on to the next task, you can set a timer. Consider aligning your schedule with the times you are typically less productive if you have found that you procrastinate at particular times in order to make the most of that time.
4. Plan your meetings strategically
There are ways to shorten the time you spend in meetings while still achieving your meeting objectives. To cut down on commute time, you can decide whether the subject calls for a face-to-face meeting or if a virtual or phone conversation can be set up.
If a meeting is necessary, you can shorten its duration by sending the agenda in advance, establishing a rigid schedule with end times, reminding attendees of the remaining time, and keeping the attendance level reasonably low. With fewer participants, everyone can contribute in comparatively less time, and it might be simpler to keep the conversation on topic.
5. Set achievable performance expectations
Setting attainable, practical goals may be helpful if you have a busy schedule. Sometimes, attempting to finish everything perfectly or with too many tasks can cause delays. Try to be as truthful and practical as you can about your capabilities when creating your schedule. It’s important to spend some time each morning honestly considering the number of tasks you can reasonably expect to complete because your abilities may change from day to day.
6. Delegate or outsource some of your tasks
You may occasionally be able to find someone to complete all or a portion of your work so that you can concentrate on other obligations. Depending on your position, you might be able to find someone who can assume some of your duties and give them the work.
To free up your working hours, you can also hire a third party to handle some of your tasks. Hiring an assistant to manage your schedule, check your emails, alert you to urgent ones, and reply to others is one example.
7. Accept the amount of work you can realistically handle
There might be pressure on you to accept more work than you can actually handle. When applying for a new job or when you are being considered for a promotion, you might want to impress your managers. In some cases, taking on more work than you can reasonably complete can result in decreased performance, such as missed deadlines and poorer quality work.
To prevent this, look at your schedule and decide if a new task is one you can complete to your standards. If you don’t think you can finish the job, politely decline the assignment by being up front about your concerns. Selecting the jobs you take on carefully can help you guarantee that you can fulfill your commitments and meet all of your deadlines.
8. Keep a central schedule
Making a single schedule with all of your daily, weekly, monthly, and long-term tasks listed out could be helpful. You might find it simpler to quickly check what needs to be done and whether you have time for additional tasks if you have all of your to-do items in one place. Depending on what feels most comfortable to you, this schedule could be digital or written down. By color-coding tasks according to urgency, type, or due date, you can further organize the schedule.
9. Group tasks
By completing related or similar tasks simultaneously, you may increase your productivity and finish your work more quickly. Because it might be simpler to switch between tasks that require the same type of work, batching related tasks together can increase productivity and efficiency. These may entail tasks like responding to emails, planning lectures, marking homework, or creating schedules. You could, for instance, schedule a time on the last Monday of each month to create the budget for all the departments you are in charge of.
10. Utilize unavoidable downtime
There may be times throughout the day when there is nothing specific to do while you wait for the next task to begin. You might commute by train or have a 10- or 15-minute break in between a series of meetings, for instance. You could utilize that time by reading quick articles or responding to emails.
Consider making a list of shorter tasks that you can finish during these free periods of time in advance. These small tasks over time can result in a sizable amount of productive time that you might not otherwise be able to use effectively.
11. Plan every day
Making a daily schedule can be useful for some people to ensure they complete all necessary tasks each day. You can create your next day’s schedule at the end of your current workday, before going to bed, in the morning while drinking coffee, or at any other time when you feel most prepared to consider the tasks for the following day.
There are a number of tactics you can use when creating your schedule to utilize your time as efficiently as possible. Your tasks can be planned to coincide with the period of time when you feel most productive. As an illustration, some individuals are most energised in the morning, others after lunch, and still others in the evening. You could prioritize your tasks so that you finish the more challenging or complex ones first and save the enjoyable ones for the end of the day. Alternately, you could schedule the activity that will require the most time for the day’s first hour.
12. Avoid distractions
Limiting and avoiding distractions is crucial for maximizing your time. Employees entering your office or receiving text or email notifications could interrupt your workday. In these situations, you can try to increase your productivity by putting your phone on silent, pausing your inbox, wearing headphones to show that you are busy, or closing your office door in order to avoid being distracted from your current tasks.
13. Take breaks
Scheduled breaks can be beneficial for many reasons, even though procrastination can be a problem if it lowers your efficiency and productivity. You might discover that you have more energy and focus when it’s time to start working again if you schedule breaks and use them to unwind, eat, take care of personal matters, or think about things other than work. The key to preventing these breaks from serving as a procrastination tool is to schedule them and make them time-limited.
