How To Organise Your Day In Ten Minutes
It only takes 10 minutes to organise your day. When you sit down at your desk ready to have a productive day, how many tasks are running through your mind? Do you feel like you just don’t know where to start? Successful people are known to be great at time management and if you want to be successful too then you should also learn how to organise your day.
A productive day starts with the perfect plan, and you can make yours in only 10 minutes.
Step 1: Do a brain dump
The first step to organising your day is to do a brain dump. Start by writing down all of the tasks running through your mind on paper. The idea of a brain dump is to write down all of the thoughts and tasks taking up space in your mind. Keep adding tasks to your brain dump until you can’t think of anything else you want or need to do.
If you have tasks for multiple areas of your life, such as your business and personal life, then it can be a good idea to add a heading to the top of your brain dump, such as “business” and “family”.
Step 2: Make a to-do list
The second step to organising your day is to make a to-do list from your brain dump. Write down the tasks which you plan on getting done or starting today. Keeping in mind how much time you have to do each task. If you have a full-time job and limited spare time, think about how you could use your lunch break or the daily commute to get things done. Do you have a morning routine or an evening routine? Having one in place can help tick things off your list and give you more time every day.
Step 3: Add a time duration
The third step to organise your day is to add a time duration next to each task. Write down how long each task will take you to do. Try to keep it simple by either choosing 15, 30, 45, 60 minutes and so on, as this will make it easier to add each task to your calendar. Even if you haven’t done the task before and you’re not 100% sure how long the task will take, you should be able to have a good guess. You can also overestimate the duration of the task, that way you won’t feel rushed when it comes to doing the task.
Step 4: Update your calendar
The final step to organising your day is to add your tasks to your calendar. I love this part because it means I can schedule my time and see clearly how my day looks. Before adding your tasks from your list to your calendar, it can sometimes be a good idea to first add in your other commitments, such as work, exercise, downtime and seeing friends and family. Doing this first means you won’t pack too much work into your day giving you a good work-life balance. This is especially helpful if you work different hours during the week.
Tip 1: Schedule for interruptions
Get interruptions out of the picture by setting scheduling them into your plan. Expect that not everything will go as planned and add a little bit of extra time to your tasks. By doing this you will only be able to organise your day successfully and you may even have time left at the end of the day.
Tip 2: Know when you’re most productive
When are you the most productive? Is it during the morning or do you work best after lunch or maybe in the evening? Knowing when you’re the most productive will help you organise your day and schedule your tasks at the best time.
Tip 3: Remove distractions
To stay organised you may need to remove distractions. I have a brilliant little app on my phone called Forest, on the app you can set a timer for how long you want to be distraction-free for. During this time a seed is planted which eventually grows into a tree, if you look at your phone during the set time, then the tree dies! It’s a good way to stay focused and keep you away from your phone.
Tip 4: Tune out new ideas
Stay on track with your tasks by tuning out new ideas. Do you ever start a new project and then find yourself getting distracted by new ideas? It doesn’t even need to be a better idea, but one which distracts you enough to stop you in your tracks. When this happens, simply make a note of your idea and then continue with what you’re currently working on. Ideas are perfect during the brainstorming phase but once you’ve already committed to something, they can slow down your productivity.
