Top tips for decluttering your time management tools
The world is full of excellent resources to help you to harness your productivity. Whether you prefer the humble Post-it note (Andrea would not agree with this!), an app or a good, old-fashioned notebook, there are plenty of ways to keep track of what you want to achieve. However, as everything else, you can have too much of a good thing.
To be truly efficient, you need to choose your preferred medium and stick with it. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all key to being productive, there is a perfect answer for you, your requirements and your working style. Of course, you may feel like you have it all under control with your arsenal of productivity boosters, but how much time do you spend checking, cross-checking and updating your collection?
We are huge fans of decluttering, both at home and in the office, and time management tools are not exempt.
Here’s how to decide which time management resource is working best for you and adopt it as your sole, trusty sidekick.
What you need
You need no more than one of each of these. One tool that does it all is even better.
- Contact information
- Calendar
- To-do list
- Notes
Think about how many of these you are doubling-up (or tripling-up…) on. Do any of the apps you use have functions you could make use of to streamline your process? If so, ditch the alternatives and get into the habit of using one-for-all, or as close as you can get.
How you can achieve it.
Moving from multiple time management tools to one or two may seem like a big ask at the start but, once you get into the habit, you’ll wonder why you ever made life harder for yourself.
Try following these steps to help make the change:
- Decide what tools you need and stick with your decision. No more “just one quick note” or “I’ll add that in here too, just in case”. Be strong!
- Don’t be tricked into constantly adding the latest app, device, notebook, coloured Post-its and so on. If it works for you, stick with it. New doesn’t always mean best.
- Have one tool for each type of information and you will never waste time thinking about where it is. If you use Evernote for notes and Google for contacts, that’s fine, as long as you always use only these resources for that specific information.
- Cull your collection now. Delete apps you no longer use. Shred/recycle/dispose of the notebooks you won’t be writing in. There is no “just in case”, just temptation to fall back into your old habits.
Having said all this, if you haven’t tried a particular time management, productivity medium before, it’s ok to give it a trial period and then change your mind. Make sure you set a deadline by which to make your decision. One week should be enough to determine whether or not a system is working for you.
Help is at hand
If you find yourself struggling with any aspect of the changeover, whether it’s transferring all your data, finding a new method to try or getting your head around how it all works or general or specific time management training, we are always here to help. Get in touch today or visit our website for more information.
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