How to Plan Your Day

On average adults sleep for 7-8 hours a day and16-17 hours spent being awake. You would think that these 16-17 hours of being awake in the day would be enough time to get what you need to do done and sorted? Well for many of us this isn't the case and in fact is very easy for us to not get what we need to have done. Often we start with the intentions to get a lot of things done, but as the day passes us by and we keep delaying to do what needs doing, at the end of the day it feels as if we have wasted our time. It's having the self-discipline to go through with what needs doing and the sought after skill of being able to manage your time effectively that you will be able to produce productive days.
This is where a daily plan can be of use and of help to you to assist you with your daily-life, and is something that I would strongly recommend.

1. It may seem like a plan is a waste of time but it isn't.

It's no good deciding to make a plan if you think it's a rubbish idea and is a waste of time because you are more than likely not going to be able to properly commit to it and not be so strict upon yourself about sticking to it. If you are wanting to set-up a daily plan then make sure before you start it that you know the reasons why you want to have a plan and how it is going to benefit you - this will help to keep you focused upon sticking to your plan and following it through.

Having a daily plan will mean that you will never forget what needs doing, whether that's get some milk from the shop or to put the rubbish out, you won't forget as it will be laid out for you to see - so you will never have any need to remember what to do either.
You will also be able to sort through your tasks and decide which ones would be more effective to do at certain times and how they would be of better use of your time. Another thing is that you will often get through your daily jobs/chores/commitments etc a lot quicker than you usually would as you have everything laid out for you to see, you know exactly whats needs doing at any given moment.

2. Write your plan the night before

It's no good writing out a plan for your day on the day because you are using up valuable time when you could be being productive. There are people who do do this and can still make good use of there time, but creating a detailed plan taking 30 minutes or so is best done the night before. Evenings are also at the end of a day when more people have some a little extra free-time.
If you are not able to do it the evening before then do it at another part of your day when you are free, as long as it's the day before.

For me personally mornings are when I'm feeling the most productive and so I like to get up and get straight-on with the day and am not wanting to sit down and plan what I have to do for the day during my most productive time. Also if you start the day getting straight onto what needs doing chances are you will be more likely to continue as you are in that frame of mind to get things done.

3. Be strict about what you need to get done

Be strict with yourself about what needs to get done and write down all of the tasks that are a MUST for the day. These become your no.1 priority jobs to get completed. Next write down tasks that need to be done but aren't quite as important as your priority tasks.
Doing your priority tasks is of importance as they are things that you NEED to get done, other less important tasks that need to be done aren't as important to get done but are nice to see completed. Doing what you NEED to do and not what you want to do will lead to more productive days and you will be thankful for it.

4. Set mini plans for individual tasks

Once you have your plan set in place for the next day, try expanding upon it and going into more depth with each task, creating a sort of miniature plan for each one. This will mean staying productive and getting through each task will become all the more easier for you. 
An obvious example is with shopping - creating a shopping list. This will enable you to go through the store at a quicker rate and also helping you to not forget the things that you need to buy. 

Now I'll give you a personal example. I use my phone to help schedule my daily events and plans, on which I put most things. One of the things I put on is 'work' and also 'prepare for work'. I schedule in time to get myself ready for work and also have a further list which tells me exactly what I need to do. So for instance I have listed: get dressed for work, name badges, pen, bottle of water, wallet, etc. I do have more things listed on there that I do but it gives you an idea. I've seen an improvement to the time it takes me to get ready for work since following a list, allowing me to go from one thing to the next with ease and never forgetting to do anything. :)

5. Chunking

This is an effective technique that a lot of schedule-users like to implement as it allows you to make better use of your time. Chunking is where you group tasks into groups where you can then get them all out of the way at once. For example: You may need to go food shopping (with the help of your list) and you may also need to pick up your children from school which is near to the shops. So you could go food shopping and then pick up your children saving you from having to make two journeys. I also put shopping before picking the kids up as I know shopping with children can be a little stressful sometimes. :)
So have a look through your daily plan and see what you could chunk together to get out of the way on one clean swoop.

6. Plan larger tasks over a longer amount of time

Now you may have a large task on your plan that you know is going to take a lot longer to complete. It may be a task that will take over your day and prevent you from being able to complete your other tasks. Something you can do to make these larger tasks more manageable and still enable you to carry on with your other tasks is to split it into more manageable pieces, spread out over maybe a few days, or longer. You will have more energy for when you tackle the task each time and will be easier for you to stay motivated towards the task.  

Is T.V Wasting Your Time?

Often we wonder where all our free time goes to? one minute we seem to have some - the next it's gone. The first thing a lot of us say is that it's work that wastes so much of our time but that's something that we need to do and is something that society needs us to do - it's just part of our daily routine so can't be blamed for wasting our 'free time'. 

One thing that definitely does waste a lot of time would be t.v. Now when I say waste time I mean it's not anything that is productive or beneficial or outside or social, but is just something that causes you to sit and do nothing. Now I'm not saying that t.v isn't fun to watch or nice to have a sit down to but when you think about it - it does consume quite a lot of your life. 

For example: a quick calculation you could do would be to tally up how many minutes or hours of t.v you watch a day, let's say 1 hour which is fairly easy for most of us to accomplish during a day. Now if you watch t.v for 1 hour every day for a whole year that would be 365 hours of t.v watching. To put that into a bit more perspective that's the equivalent to watching t.v 24 hours a day for just over 15 days (just over 2 weeks)! 

That calculation was only with 1 hour of daily t.v watching. The average daily t.v viewing consumption time for British people is 3.5 hours!!! That's the equivalent to over 50 hours of t.v watching a year, which is equivalent to over 7.5 weeks of non-stop t.v watching!!!

Here's a really shocking figure, in the United States the average amount of time watching television daily is a whopping 8 hours!!!!! On average the only thing that consumes as much time or more is sleeping. If we did a calculation to 8 hours of t.v watching a day we could figure out that that would be the equivalent to watching 2,920 hours a year! 2,920 Hours a year is the equivalent of just over 17 weeks or 4 months of non-stop t.v watching! That is a huge waste of time. 1/3 Of the year in fact!

Think about one thing that you would want to do or want to get better at. Maybe that's improving reading ability, learning to play an instrument, exercising, blogging, whatever it is it would be time better spent. 1 Hour a day of that chosen activity would be (like stated above) the equivalent to doing over 2 weeks of that thing relentlessly a year.

Now there was a time in my life when I became a huge t.v watcher and at the start I really enjoyed it. But after a while I noticed that that was all I did and I didn't do anything else. So after a while of doing this and wasting a lot of my time, I managed to get a job and start doing other things rather than watching t.v - and now I don't really watch that much of it at all and can easily turn it off whilst in the middle of something.

A question to ask yourself is if you had a room with a sofa in but no t.v, would you go and sit down on that sofa for an hour or more every day and just do nothing? I'm guessing the answer for most of us would be no, and why? well because that would be a waste of our time as you're doing nothing...well that's essentially what t.v watching is too.

Now if you're reading this post you will probably be under the impression that I think that t.v isn't something that we should do, but actually I don't think there is anything wrong with watching t.v but it's how much you let it rule your life that I think is wrong. I watch t.v myself but I don't let it consume me to the point where I can't turn it off and I can quite happily turn it off and not watch it for extended periods of time, and it's this what I'm trying to get at.

Ask yourself how much your time do you spend watching t.v and if you can honestly go without it. A good experiment you can do would be to not watch t.v for 2 weeks, no exceptions. It may prove a lot harder than you first think.

If however you know you do watch a lot of t.v and you can't really go without watching it here's a previous post of mine: 8 Steps to Reduce T.V Watching.

How to Become more Decisive

"Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant." 

- Tony Robbins

"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." 

- Tony Robbins

"A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided." 

- Tony Robbins

Life is essentially a big decision. We decide how we are going to live it and this shapes our future. No two lives are the same and it's these individual personal decisions that make up our life.

On a daily basis we are faced with decisions, in fact everything we do, we have to decide to do in the first place. 

Decisions are powerful things, and as pointed out by the quotes at the top of this post, they affect our whole lives. We can be on one course, and yet in an instant our whole lives can be changed because of a seemingly simple decision. 

For example, lets pretend that you didn't live where you did at the moment, that before you moved to your house, you decided to move somewhere else. If you take a moment to think about that, you'll realise how much of your life would have been affected. You would probably have different friends, would've gone to different schools or workplaces, maybe your career would have been completely different, maybe you would have been better-off, maybe worse-off, your personality could have been different, etc. 

It would have been from that one decision causing your whole life to have been changed, history rewritten in a sense. 

Now that I've hopefully shown what big things decisions are, I'm going to share with you how you can become more decisive. Life can be overwhelming sometimes, and can be daunting. Making decisions can become tough, but you need to have the clarity to make the right decisions for your own life. It's time you became more decisive. 

1. Every thing has an outcome

Like I mentioned before, every single thing that happens in our life has an outcome. Decisions can greatly alter and affect the outcome, but indecisiveness can also be a factor. There will be an ending result as a cause to indecisiveness, so instead of not deciding, make the decision so you can do the best you can to alter a more favourable outcome. 

2. Trust yourself

Don't always be so hard and negative on yourself. If you believe that you're always going to make a bad decision, then you'll become indecisive. Instead, trust in the decision you make and stick with it. If it is a bad decision, then just make the decision to move on from it, or to change the outcome of the choice. 

Everyone makes mistakes, it's having the ability to learn from them that helps you grow. 

3. Be quick

If you're a person that will make a decision, but takes a long time doing so, then start to speed up the time you make decisions in. A good guideline to go by, is allowing a maximum time limit of 1 minute. In that time, weigh up the pros and cons of the choices, and then decide. As soon as a minute has been reached, just force yourself to make a choice. 

Make sure that you stick with it, and like I mentioned in point#2; if it's a bad decision, just learn from it. 

Doing this simple technique will also allow you to make better decisions in the future, in a shorter amount of time.  

4. Try something new

Decide at the start of a day, that you're going to try and do something that you wouldn't normally do when faced with a choice. 

This may sound like a pointless exercise to help you to become decisive, but actually, trying new things will help you become more open to different things, helping you to not only become slightly more outgoing, but will also help you to become a better decision-maker.

5. Think of the outcome

In your mind plan forward to the expected outcome, granted life has many unexpected outcomes, but when you make a decision, there is a certain outcome you're expecting. 

Try to imagine yourself in that end scenario, thinking about the pros and cons of the choice you could make. Weigh up all the decisions, and go for the one you could see yourself benefiting from the most (unless if it's at the expense of others).

8 Steps to Reduce T.V Watching

T.V is one of the biggest time wasters in the modern world. Now after saying that, I'm not saying that watching T.V is always bad, we all like to watch something, but as far as statistics are concerned, T.V is definitely a time killer. So wanting to reduce t.v watching can't be a bad thing.

After finishing a program, the first thing the majority of us do, is check what else is one. It's almost as if it's automatic, like its been programmed into us.

We just grab the remote and flick through the channels at leisure. 

I suppose with older t.v's you would at least have to get up and change the channel on the actual piece of equipment. Now in our carved out little seat in the sofa, we can just lounge about. 

Once the program you have been watching has finished, you move onto another one, and then another one, until your whole evening has been consumed.

I used to do this during the daytime right through until the evening, and that did not leave me with a satisfying feeling. I no longer do that and watch no-where near the amount of t.v as I used to do.

This is not a rare problem, it's a very common one. One main reason is that there is a part of us that wants to carry on watching it. If we have a job that needs doing or a commitment we need to fulfil but don't feel like doing it, it's so easy to escape into the t.v for a few hours.

Take a personal survey for a week in which you record the amount of t.v you watch and at what times. Also record what programs you watch. After the week, review what you've done and decide if this was time well spent. 

Look at where you could have done something else, how you could have otherwise spent that time. 

I know most of the stuff I watch I've forgotten about a week later, unless if it's something that really stands out.

Here are some tips to help reduce t.v watching.

1. Limit the time

Allocate an amount of time you can spend watching t.v a day, lets say an hour. This amount of time doesn't have to be at a specific time of the day, but can be at any time, with the rule of only watching it for an hour. 

This will force you to decide what you really want to watch and what you can do without. It will also help towards building your time management skills. 

The only bad thing about this is that you have to be strict with yourself to see an improvement. So a better way, may be to make sure someone else helps to limit the time as-well.  

2. Spend the time wisely

Try starting something you've always wanted to do, for example: start a blog. 

Now you may choose to completely go cold turkey on t.v and take on this blog for the amount of time you usually watch t.v. However, I think a much more manageable thing to do is to reduce your t.v time by 1/2 hour to an hour and spend that time on your new commitment. 

Just doing half an hour a day can help you to see big results, if you want you can read my post about the motivational trick 'don't break the chain'.

3. Cut-down

If you're finding it particularly difficult to stop, then cut down a set amount of time each week, slowly heading towards your goal. 

So for example: say you watch four hours of t.v a day. For the first week you would make sure you watch 3 and a half hours, then for the second week cut down by another 1/2 hour to 3 hours, and the next week by another half an hour etc. 

This is a more manageable approach for a lot of people, and you can reduce your t.v watching to an hour or less quite easily.

4. T.V-free days

Pick a day in the week, any day will be fine, but preferably a day when you watch t.v. Make that day a t.v-free day, so whenever that day comes around, whether it be rain of sunshine, it is a t.v no-go.

This doesn't have to be limited to just one day of the week, but for multiple days if you're feeling up to it. Maybe try a configuration of watching t.v only every other day of the week.

5. No t.v whilst having dinner

Try to not watch t.v whilst eating your dinner, this is a great time for talking. It can be hard though, if everyone else is insisting on watching it. :)

6. Limit time on certain days

This tip is very similar to tip #1, but revolves around allocating a set amount of t.v time for each day. So you could do something like 1/2 hour every week day and an hour for Saturday and Sunday.

7. Remove your Cable/digital/sky subscription

The amount of channels that are to choose from can mean we can just have an endless day of t.v.  

By unsubscribing to these t.v services, you will cut the amount of channels you have by a heck of an amount. 

This will mean not only will it make finding a program you like harder, but will make it easier to come away from the television set and do something else.

8. Throw your t.v out

The most drastic option and definitely the best if you're cutting the habit of addictive t.v watching, is to just throw the thing out all-together.

At the start you will feel lost, bored, and angry at yourself for making the decision to throw it out, but give it time and you'll most likely be very thankful you did.

Don't Break the Chain

I find that when I first start something new and exciting, my passion and enthusiasm for it are through the roof. 

So for the first few days my excitement and quest to get stuck-in levels, if they could be measured, are on an all new high. After these first initial days have passed though, I find that I start to plateau and then soon become bored. 

This is common for many, and is a problem for me personally. I always find that I do this, I find something that I want to do, stick at it for a few days or a week and then never come back to it, or maybe come back to it a year later. 

Even long-term commitments I have trouble with (not talking relationship-wise), for example this blog, there have been some weeks when I've spent hours each day on different posts, and then not blog for a week or so. 

This is where motivational practices and techniques come in, and there are really a whole host of different ones to choose from. One that I've recently come across and I think is really simple and effective, is called 'Don't Break the Chain'.

It's a productivity/motivational technique publicised by Jerry Seinfield. Seinfield came up with the technique when he was trying to come up with better jokes for his career as a comic. He noted that spending time each day writing a joke was more beneficial than spending hours one day a week writing many jokes.

The key is consistency. 'Consistency breeds momentum' and is a great tactic to implement into your life. 

I personally love this motivational gem. Basically what you do is, pick a task or something that you want to start doing. For example: start a blog, start exercising, start learning a musical instrument, start whatever you want, but with the intention of wanting to stick at it.

Next, print out or draw out a calendar year onto one piece of paper. Make sure it's a grid calendar, or even in fact just a grid of 365 squares. Then write at the top of the piece of paper: 'Don't Break the Chain' and your task next to it. Also write down the minimum amount of time you think you can handle to do daily.

So for example, I have one for blogging. I have set myself a goal of spending at minimum half an hour a day writing a blog post, so nothing extra I do with the blog counts, but just specifically for writing posts for you guys and girls to read.

Now I know half an hour a day doesn't sound like a lot, but remember that's a minimum level of time, and I'd much rather spend 30 minutes a day blogging for a week, than spending 3.5 hours one day a week. 

Not only am I more alert by doing this, but the overall quality is improved and because it's only half an hour, I feel compelled to run over time (which I know I wouldn't do after 3.5 hours,). 

Not only that, but my concentration is in a much healthier state doing these short sessions every day, rather than one long session a week.

If you achieve your goal, then put a big coloured cross on that day, so you know that you accomplished what you've set out to do. After a few days of doing this you'll notice a chain of crosses start to build up, and like a snowball, it will build up and up, helping you to cement this practice into your life. 

Since starting this, I've already noticed a difference in my personal productivity.

Another thing you'll notice is that as you're chain builds up, you'll desire to keep it going without breaking will remain strong. I'm not saying that there won't be days when you really don't care, but stick at it and you won't regret it. 

If you do happen to miss a day, don't stress, just get right back to it the next day. I should point out however, that once you miss a day, it can easily cause you to miss another day, then another and so on. So just be persistent. 

I don't claim ownership or credit for the picture present, all credit is reserved for the original owner. No copyright intended and I am in no way profiting from  the images present. If you have an issue with the picture that is present, then please contact me.

11 Tips to Revise Effectively

I hate exams (like a lot of us), and even worse is when I have no idea what any of the answers are. In a position like this it's not surprising to see an end result of a fail or a very low score.

Revising can prevent this feeling (or at least help you to feel more confidant during the exam). I once heard from a academic that anyone can pass an exam with good marks, it just depends if and how they revise.

As I have a few electrical exams coming up and a music theory exam as-well, I thought it would be a good idea to share some revising tips and which one I find the best.

1. Summary Papers 

I thought I would start with my preferred method of revision, and that is to make summarised notes on a page. About 80% (or sometimes more) of the information that we take in when learning is useless, and only 20% (or less) being the key parts. So with this in mind, I divide the page into two long sections (A4 paper,) and start making subtitles with the key points underneath.

The summaries of each sub-heading may take up only a few lines, maybe a whole page, maybe more, the main thing is that you're just noting down the important exam points.

For my last main exams I took (all about electrics), I had only 12 sides of A4 summary pages to revise - which beats reading through books upon books in my opinion.  

2. No Distractions 

However good a multitasker you think you are, you wont be able to revise effectively with noise and interruptions (e.g. the t.v.).

In order to concentrate fully on the information you're trying to absorb, quietness is the best way to go.

If you're in a position where it wont be possible to revise quietly, then more revision will have to be done so you can ground the information into your mind.

I have heard however that baroque music helps while studying. Here's the link to the page: Music moves brain.  

3. Questioning 

Get your friends and family members to question you, particularly the parts you're struggling with. This is a great memorisation technique.

4. Past exam papers 

Past papers are an excellent resource for revision and definitely help if done correctly.

When I did this in the past I would go back over my test (once completed) and tally up all my wrong answers. I then would correct myself mentally and say the right answers out-loud before proceeding to redo the whole test. I would repeat this process until I had no answers incorrect. I did about sixteen different practice exams in this style, It was long and hard but I think I achieved 100% for the exam I took.

5. Study-buddy

Despite the sub-heading it doesn't just have to be just one person you have to study with, it could be a whole group. 

This can be really beneficial as questions will be thrown this way and that way, resulting in acquired exam knowledge.

The downside is that you may be tempted to muck around, but if you're all serious about revising then it should be fine.

6. Take breaks 

Breaks are essential for optimizing the time you spend revising. You are human like the rest of us and our brains become fatigued if pushed too far. This is why short regular intervals are necessary. Whilst you take these breaks, get a drink of water to keep you hydrated and some fruit for those essential vitamins.

A rough guideline to when one should take these breaks is up to oneself, I suggest every 45-60 minutes.

7. Mind maps 

For people who are visual learners mind maps are great. Choose a heading to start with, place it in the middle of your page and branch off sub-headings from it. Then sub-headings from the sub-heading etc.

Personally they're not my style but for a lot of people they work really well.

8. Diagrams and sketches 

Another great one for visual learners is the inclusion of colour, pictures, diagrams, sketches and the like, can really help to solidify the points in your mind.

9. Repetition 

It's a sensible to decide to revise, however if you're going to revise just the once, chances are that you're not going to remember a lot in the exam. Repetition and consistency must be used in order for you to reach and maintain your peak amount of knowledge on the subject.

If you want to I have a previous post about self-discipline for reading.

10. Revise in plenty of time 

Don't put revising off when you know that you have an exam coming up. Force yourself to study, you'll find that once you start it isn't as bad as you were expecting it to be. Quite often the worst part about revising is thinking about revising.

On the day of the exam you'll be glad you did that revision.

11. Revision cards 

Create your own pocket-sized revision cards to carry around. Whenever you have some downtime take out your cards and read them over. For example: on a train, on a bus, whilst in a queue etc.

If only one thing sticks in your mind afterwards, then it's time well spent, after all it is during downtime.

Like I said at the start, exams are hated by many of us and can bring misery about. If you do revise though with one of the above study methods or a different way that works for you you'll do better.

Remember, you're not the only one who's ever been under this amount of stress.

If anyone who's reading this is taking an exam of some sort, I wish you good luck.

What is multitasking?

In modern society we're always in a rush. Rushing to be somewhere, rushing to complete something, rushing to get ready, rushing to reach a deadline; the list goes on.

In fact, we feel forced to rush, and all of this rushing can cause you to feel as though there isn't enough time in the day to do everything. Not to mention the fatigue that you will most surely feel at the end of the day.

The problem with having so many things to do (as most people do nowadays), is that you have to work right up until you go to bed, or are unable to finish everything that you wanted/needed to complete, not having any time to relax before bed. 

You look at someone else's life which seems to be as busy as yours, apart from the fact that they manage to finish everything quicker than you do, and have a hefty amount of spare time left over.

The question that always arises from this is; "how do they do it"?

This is something that many of us have experienced or is experiencing. Before I go on, if you do find it a struggle to complete all of your tasks before the days end, or want some guidance on how you could improve your productivity, then I would recommend you reading 10 Rules to improve time-management and 21 Ways to boost productivity.

After this long introduction you'll probably thinking that I'm going to suggest that multitasking is the solution...well...no I'm not.

I wanted to find out what multitasking is about and if it really does make a difference to peoples lives, or if it's actually a faulty concept.

What is Multitasking?

I've heard multitasking often referred as something women can only achieve, and no man is able to accomplish this. I'm not entirely sure where this statement originated from, but it is false. 

There are lots of people who are multitaskers, and I'm sure you are too, just without realising it. You don't have to be a women or some high flying businessman who uses confusing words, to be able to multitask.

So what exactly is multi-tasking? Human multitasking that is; is alerting to the performance or ability of an individual who is able to handle more than one task at the same time, while still giving enough attention to each that they are carried out. This does not mean however, that they are carried out to a high standard.

Many researchers take up the position that multitasking is merely a myth and if confronted with choices where the mind has to concentrate, the brain will only be able to focus on one thing at a time.

Another group of researchers agree with the first theory, that multitasking cannot be accomplished when decisions have to be made that require full attention. However, when performing smaller manual jobs, or jobs that are very familiar to a person, multitasking can be carried out to an adequate degree. 

When a person is multitasking, the brain isn't able to fully focus on both tasks, and is therefore going to take longer to complete both tasks, while a higher chance of error is certain.

A study on multitasking by Meyer and Kiaras, in which they monitored the interim between each exchange while multitasking, found that the brain made no progress at all. 

The conclusion was made that people who are multitaskers not only carry out a task to a lower level of quality, but also are slower in the performance. 


I take up the position of the second theory. If the brain has to concentrate on a task (to properly focus), then it can't concentrate on the other task(s) and will make mistakes. 

Regarding the position of multitasking while performing manual jobs or familiar jobs, I do think multitasking can be achieved quite easily. For example: If I haven't got a lot of time available for getting ready to be somewhere, I'll often brush my teeth while putting on shoes or getting things together. Another one is to eat breakfast or lunch while writing things down, simple tasks like these. 

Something I can do a bit more of also, is to concentrate on a conversation and talk myself, while concentrating on playing the piano. I think it's familiarity.

12 Ways to stay organized

Organisation is a great tool that is taught by businesses, professional organisers and the like. The reason for this is because of its effectiveness.

When getting down to the root of what being organised is, is that it is really an instrument for improving time-management and lifting morale.

When disorganisation and clutter becomes a normal obstacle that you have to put up with daily, it can affect your emotions. 

Frustration, stress and mild depression, can be triggered or made worse from total disorganisation.

All you need though, is to have the right guidelines and rules in place for beating this common horror.

1. De-clutter 

Clutter is one of the #1 reasons why it seems like an impossibility to become organized.

It's very easy to convince yourself that you need to keep a useless item, when in fact you wouldn't think about it twice if it were gone. 

Go through one area at a time, and completely remove all unnecessary clutter. You will need to be really strict with yourself, and will be glad because of it afterwards.

2. Make Decisions 

Not making decisions straight away, or not coming back to them, can result in clutter. For example: a t-shirt that should have been put away; a letter that should have been posted; documents that needed to be shredded. It all mounts up, leaving you in a very big hole to climb out of.

3. Plan 

Planning ahead is something that will take a few minutes or more (depending on the scale of the plan), but can save you hours later on. Having the foresight to be able to know what possible difficulties may arise and knowing how to handle them is brilliant for organization.

It could be in the form of a schedule, a planner, a list, a calendar, or of something similar.

4. Allocate items to places 

Now you have to decide which things go where. Put things where they are easily accessible, for example: Washing liquid/powder next to the washing machine; cooking pots and pans next to stove/oven; trainers and shoes by the door; stationary on your desk etc.

This may seem like common sense, but is not the habit for everyone.

Another thing I do, is to put items that I use often, all in one place.

The placement of your items is up to you.

5. Create systems 

Being organized doesn't just mean being tidy, it also means to catalogue and to categorise. So lay out a logical system (in different areas) that enables you to find and/or research something with ease.

For example: Organising books from the largest to smallest, or into alphabetical order; file documents into categories or names, or alphabetically like the books.

Start with the organisation of the most important things, and then work you way around until every area is completed. Your most important, could be files on your computer and your least important, could be your garden. For other people however, this could be completely the opposite.

6. Spare space 

Designate an area that has some spare space (a table for example), for items that you need to put away. This will mean that misplacement will decrease, as you're not forcing yourself to quickly find a spot to put something when you're busy. 

You can come back to it and sort it out when you have spare time. (Rule #12 is a good thing to use).

7. Layout 

Not all things are in your best interest to tuck away, so that you have to spend a couple of minutes just getting to it. 

Some things will need to be laid out (such as stationary on your desk). This is not an excuse however, to allow things to get messy. You can still be tidy and organized when things are laid out, they're purpose is for convenience only.

8. Get productive 

Improve your productivity, allowing you to get more done in a shorter amount of time. If you want to read more on this, then I encourage you to check out two previous posts of mine: 21 Ways to boost productivity and What is time-boxing.

9. Follow-through 

What's the point of having a schedule; planner or to-do list, if you're not going to follow through with them? Remove distractions and obstacles, and get yourself committed to completing your goals.

10. Be conscious of the time 

I talked about this in my last post (15 Steps to improve punctuality), encouraging the awareness of the time. 

Having a knowledge of the time will tell you if you're on schedule, or if you're wasting time. Try placing clocks in areas you are likely to acknowledge them and if you have more than one, set them all to the same time.

11. Replacement 

Once you're organized, a very easy but often a put off thing to do, is to place things back where you got them. Do not let yourself say "it's only one thing, it won't hurt". This attitude will send you back to square one. All these one-off's will mount up and you will be in a big hole for the second time. 

If you do have to leave something out, for you to put away later, then use rule #6.  

12. Maintenance 

One day every week, set aside a period of time in which you can re-establish your organisation. When people are organized, a habit that tends to develop, is letting themselves get back into old habits. I suppose old habits die hard.

This is why having a session every week will help you stay on top of it and not it on top of you. Deal with it while it's a small problem before it becomes an even bigger one.

15 Steps to improve punctuality

Arriving consistently late all the time or on a regular basis, can cause tension among family, friends, work colleagues and bosses. (Which can get you fired in some cases).

You convince yourself that you have no time to do anything and are always trying to cram as much as you can into your schedule. I know what you feel like, at one point, our family was late nearly everywhere. I can remember one case clearly, when we were meeting up with some friends, and they had been waiting about an hour before we arrived. 

Now we seem to be doing okay and are managing to get to places on time or early.

Normally it will start out as being late by a couple of minutes one or two times, and as time goes on, slowly transforming into a monstrous habit that has you trapped and unable to escape!

That may be going slightly over the top, but the point I'm trying to make is that once you develop this bad habit - it can be hard to get out of. Luckily there are some easy steps and guidelines that you can use to get your time-keeping back on track.

1. Schedule 

I've stressed the benefits of having a good solid schedule in place before, so I'll refer you to a previous post of mine which explains it better than I think I'll end up writing here. :)

2. Analysis 

As you carry out your day-to-day life, keep a record of all the things you do. If possible, it would be even better if you could keep a note of time lengths in representation of the different things you do. 

Record for 7 days, and then have a look over them afterwards. This is where you get an insight to what you really spend your time doing.

You can decide which things are not needed or are lower down in priority, as well as looking to see if you can shorter the time you waste.

3. Deadlines 

Deadlines are horrible, in this case however, they aren't so bad. When you know that you have an appointment to get to or a planned arrangement, set yourself a deadline in which everything is to have stopped by then.

This could be something like 15 minutes before you have to leave, allowing yourself a chance to get ready.

If you don't want to set yourself a timed deadline, just stop at an appropriate time a bit before when you should be leaving. Be strict with yourself!

4. Aim to be early 

When you have somewhere to be, instead of leaving on the last minute or later, try leaving earlier. Leaving earlier will compensate for unforeseen obstacles such as traffic or diversions.

If it's to do with work, showing up early can leave a lasting impression (a good one).

It can also allow you to sometimes start sooner on arrival of your destination. For example: If you're meeting with other parties and you arrive early, and they arrive early, you can get things running sooner....unless if they have a problem with punctuality.

5. The value of time 

Learning to value and understand the time you have will lead to natural better time-keeping. You will be able to realise the importance of the time you have each day, making use of time that would otherwise be wasted.

With this new understanding, you can plan around appointments with much more ease, naturally allowing yourself to get to places on time.

6. Commute time 

Prior to the finalisation of the designated time that you need to leave by, estimate the approximate commute time. If it is an unfamiliar route, leave yourself more time. Also keep in mind possible hold-ups along the way, so point #3 will maybe tie in here.

The ability to be able to place a time value on a journey will develop as time is manifested (long term wise), building upon the foundations of  step #5. 

7. Plan before-hand 

If you're not a fan of schedules, then just incorporate a list of things you have to do before leaving for the prepared meeting. 

Normally I find that planning the night before is the most effective, making use of down time you are likely to have. Or you could write a quick plan in the mornings, though this isn't something I'm a fan of, as I like to get started as soon as I get up and already have a plan set in place.

Being prepared is a key element in upgrading personal punctuality.

8. Early Riser 

If you're late because of the huge amount of things you have to get done, then try getting up earlier. Like with the schedule in point #1, I've also done a post showing the benefits of being an early riser.

9. Forward the clocks 

I know this sounds strange, but forwarding all of your clocks by five or ten minutes can help in getting to places on time.

The main clock that we run by in my house is about 7 minutes fast, and makes a surprising amount of difference to our punctuality. Although the tendency can be to then say to ourselves: "We don't have to go just yet, we still have another five minutes or so".

10. Minor jobs the night before 

Similar to point #7, but instead of planning out your whole day, do minor tasks for the day. For example: Make lunches if going somewhere, pack bags and clothes, get the clothes you are going to wear ready etc.

11. Wear the other shoes 

If you are meeting up with someone, try to position yourself in their shoes. Try to understand what it must feel like to have to wait around bored out of your mind. Having this empathy will cause you to speed up.

If you're consistently late, some people may reduce or stop making arrangements with you because of the fact they may need to get on with other things which could be done instead of waiting for you!

12. Time conscious 

Although it's great to use all of these other techniques, if you're not conscious of the time, you can (and most probably will) overrun the time and end up being late. 

Set all of your clocks to the same time, get a watch (even just a £1 one, it still keeps the time), set an alarm signalling the final ten minutes to go. Make sure you're always conscious of the time.

The amount of times I've been getting ready to go somewhere, looking at the time and realising that I have only 5 minutes left - I would rather forget. :(

13. Avoid the T.V  

If you have things to do, do not allow yourself to watch the t.v. T.V is one of the biggest time wasters in our modern lives, and is extremely easy to get sucked in for an hour or more. So whatever you do - avoid the t.v.   

14. Read and wait 

It can be really boring getting somewhere early and having to wait, so arriving early may be put off. If you have something to do however (like read a book), then you'll find that these periods of time will go much quicker.

15. Organisation 

A main reason for jobs and tasks to be done slower than expected, is disorganisation. 

Not being organised and having things all over the place, can lead to huge delays, e.g you can't find your car keys or that important document.

Keep major items in allocated places, so that when you need them there and then, you can whizz straight over and get them.

What is timeboxing?

When approaching a task that we really don't want to do, and it's something that we really want to put off...the prospect of it can be daunting.

You eventually decide to get on with it, but as time goes by; you start to become distracted and you can't concentrate on the task in hand.

Now from this position people generally make one of two decisions. They either 1). Plough ahead, finishing the job way behind schedule because of their mindset, using up valuable hours of the day. Or 2). Give up and maybe come back to it another time, if at all.

The problem with these two choices, is not the choices themselves. I know that it sounds strange, but it is actually the mindset in which you approach a task. Going into something that you've put off or have been really drilling into yourself, about how horrendous this task is going to be, is wrong and has a knock-on affect to personal productivity.So when you come to making choices (like the two above), you will not be in a right mindset to make a logical choice.

What is Timeboxing?

Timeboxing is a technique in which individuals can exploit a set period of time to; start, continue, or to finish a selected task.

For any task you choose, appoint a short, set period of time (e.g. 30 minutes, ) and try to get as much of that task done in the selected amount of time. Don't worry about how much of it you get done or about completion; just concentrate solely on the job.

Once the time is up, you can stop the task and continue it another time, employing the same rules.

Why should we use it?

Timeboxing is originally for the use of businesses, but because of the effectiveness of the concept, many people apply it to their lives.

The good thing about timeboxing, is that you don't have to be concerned about the time, because you will have selected the amount of time at the start. 

Neither do you have to worry about the amount that you get done. If tackling a complex task; you are likely to need multiple timeboxing sessions; so the amount that you complete doesn't need to worry you.

That's two of the biggest worries, off of your mind and that's before you've even started. As a result of this, you'll have a much more positive mindset, effecting the performance of how you work.

Timeboxing can also be an insightful thing too, giving you a clearer idea of you're daily time management. Having this knowledge will be useful when trying to apply timeboxing sessions to your schedule.

Concerning the tasks that I may exert timeboxing in, my time limit will vary. For instance: If it's a small job, I may only allocate 10-30 minutes, and if it's a big job, then I'll probably set a larger amount of time like 30-90 minutes. 

These are just the guidelines I sometimes use, I say sometimes because I will take other factors into account. For example: how many other things I have to get done in the day, the priority of the job, if I really want to make a sizeable dent in the task or if I feel like spreading it out over a longer duration of time, how much I feel I could get done depending on my concentration levels etc...

Another thing you could do for smaller tasks, is bunching them all together and trying to get them done in one long span of time.

There is a common side-effect to timeboxing that you may experience, and you can judge if it's good thing or bad thing. What I'm talking about is; whenever I do a job using timeboxing, by the time I come to the end of my set spell of time, I quite often feel like I'm on a role and I want to keep going.

I think it's because I know that it's unforced and I'm able to stop at any time.

This may seem good, as you're getting more done. However,if you are a person with a tight schedule, getting on a role isn't something you really want to experience; running behind schedule is easily done. 

It's very easy to tell yourself:"five more minutes, that's all" and then ten minutes later say again: "Just two more minutes, if I just do this and that, then I'll stop".

Although, all you need is a small dose of self-discipline to help prevent this from happening, if it's unwanted that is.

Dreaded deadlines can become more manageable with this system as-well and can become just like any other timeboxed task you'll ever do: beaten!

Conclusion

With the technique of timeboxing, our productivity will be greatly improved. Having these predetermined sessions of time will aid in motivating ourselves to take on bigger and more complex jobs. 

If we always try to complete a task in one long stretch of time, longer jobs wouldn't see completion as frequently and would be put off.

Our concept of time and how much can realistically get done is expanded upon and the implementation carried out to a higher degree.