Time is the most valuable resource you have. It can not be saved, accumulated, it’s not renewable and neither can it be stopped. Once it passes it’s gone forever and can never be recuperated.

And yet people still waste it and let it pass without doing the things they want or dream of. They look at some magical time in the future as if one day the planets are suddenly going to align and it will be the right time to start a new business, pastime or activity. Or they repeatedly tell themselves they don't have time. Not stopping to realise that if they don't have the time, then what are they spending it on that's ultimately stopping them from living their best life.

Using time unproductively can cause so much stress, frustration and anxiety. Always feeling like you are running against time and can’t quite catch time are common feelings of people who have big dreams and plans but just can’t get a handle on their time management. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of the week and feeling that you haven’t achieved anywhere near what you would have liked to have.

Imagine! Just finding an hour a week by, for example, getting up an hour earlier, could find you an extra week over a year. Finding an hour a day is like finding a whopping 365 hours which over a year is like finding 7 whole working weeks.

There are many things you can do to find an extra hour here or there. In this article we are going to be looking at 10 top time saving and productivity tips that are going to help make you unstoppable.

Let’s Go!

1.) Work out what you are currently spending your time on.

First, look at your average workday and ask yourself where your time is currently going. Take a pen and paper and write a daily plan of what you are spending your time on.

Are you wasting time? Are there any tasks that are ultimately not helping you achieve your goals? Identify your time sucks?

Common time sucks include; the Internet, emails, unnecessary meetings, traffic, entertainment, television, social media and general disorganisation.

How much time are you spending on social media? How much television are you watching? How many times are you going to the grocery store?

Next, try and work out what you could realistically achieve in one day. How many of the regular tasks you do can you fit into a day?

2. Identify your priorities

Good time management is not about changing or developing time, but rather, minimizing the amount of time one wastes with unnecessary actions.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of spending time on activities that are not ultimately helping us to achieve our goals. It could be that these are enjoyable activities or ones that are important but not important enough to be draining you of your valuable time and could be delegated

Ask yourself what are the activities that are going to provide you with the greatest returns. Now write them down.

These activities are the ones that need to be scheduled into the first part of the week and the first part of the day. Most people are more productive at these times. However, if are more productive at other times, this is when you need to be doing them.

If you are working on a side hustle and know you are going to be tired when you get back from work try and get up an hour earlier and do them before you leave for work. You’ll be amazed at the feeling of achievement.

It’s imperative that you should be spending all your time on the important stuff and delegating or outsourcing anything else.

3. Schedule everything

You see we all have the same 24 hours, it's how we use that time that will be the determining factor in how successful we are.

Scheduling or time blocking is the practice of planning out every hour/minute of your day in advance and dedicating specific time “blocks” for certain tasks and responsibilities. While a to-do list tells you what you need to do, time blocking tells you when you're going to do it.

If you are someone who bills time, a solicitor, designer, consultant then this practice may well be a familiar one but for many of us, this isn't a practice we use in our daily lives. Often we schedule meetings or appointments with others but don’t actually schedule our important work.

Time blocking will help you make the best use of time, stay focused and achieve the big things you need to do to grow your business. It also helps takes away so much stress and overwhelm.

The act of scheduling makes things real. Also, the act of writing things down will often help you highlight what is and what is not important.

Make sure you do the following;

Schedule a time for planning. Either set aside time on a Friday or the weekend to plan your week ahead and schedule 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of the day to look at your schedule. Don’t forget that priorities can always change so it’s important to be fluid.
Schedule your most important tasks at the beginning of the week and the day while you are most productive.
Schedule in time for UUW ( Unwanted Unimportant work) These are the things we all have to do every day like, answering emails, emergency problems that we may need to solve. If you schedule a time for UUW’s you won’t feel so overwhelmed and you’ll also have a planned time to deal with them.
Schedule iregular breaks. It’s been proven that taking regular breaks increases productivity. It also helps us to enjoy the day more and creates regular rewards for completing work.
Schedule time for social media.
Schedule your downtime. Relaxation and enjoyment is essential. Make sure you schedule the activities you most enjoy.
Schedule in time for exercise and meditation.

4. Avoid multitasking

Do you ever feel like you are running 100 miles an hour? You're texting while you’re talking on the phone, Sending an email while you are cooking or trying to write an email while you are on the phone.

Well, the truth is you are not really multi-tasking because you can truly only give your attention to one thing at a time. Of course, there are exceptions but when it comes to things we actually need to do consciously it is nearly impossible to give more than one thing our full attention.

Multitasking is stressful, it often leads to making mistakes which wastes even more time.

5. Set time limits to tasks

If you set a limit to the time for a task it gives you the momentum to finish it quicker. As you get used to scheduling your tasks you'll become your own expert in working out actually how long things take you. It will also help you to budge for tasks that need outsourcing because you'll know how much time to assign.

6. Time batch your tasks

Time batching is a time management technique that includes grouping similar tasks together and setting aside time to complete them all.

Time batching helps you to focus on one thing at a time rather than jumping from one task to another. It helps you to stop multitasking and minimises distractions so that you can concentrate and pay attention to detail. It stops you from switching your attention back and forth.

Time batching can give you a great sense of achievement when you look back and see how productive you have been.

Some examples of time batching would be;

Creating similar themed social media posts.

Scheduling a week or a month of social media posts.

Taking a batch of photos for your product or service in one sitting.

Creating a series of videos for youtube.

Write a series of emails

Write a series of blog posts

7. Start saying NO

If you get on the No train and you’ll find you’ll get to your destination much faster!

No is one of your most important words in the vocabulary when running your business. You are the only one who knows what you need to spend your time on. You need to say no to anything in your work time that does not contribute to achieving your goals. That includes anything that may be taking your attention or tempting you away from your goals.

Busy has become a badge of honour, a signifier of success. But if you really are “too busy”, chances are, you are not saying no enough.

Remember once time has gone it's gone and you can't get it back. Make sure you spend every valuable moment of your time. Make sure who and what you give your valuable time to.

8. Cut out distractions

All the pings and dings need to go. Unless you cut out the distractions you will never reach your zone of genius.

Turn off notifications on your phone/computer
Only respond to urgent calls.
Shut down tabs. OneTab is a great little app for keeping you organised and giving you access to your tabs when you need them so you only need to have a few open.
Avoid the temptation of visiting Social media which will only send you down a rabbit hole.

9. Get organised

Being disorganised saps your energy and can leave you in a state of stress and overwhelm. Not being able to find things when you need them.

Even if you are not a naturally organised person you can still build that muscle.

Here are some ideas

Go through your paper and make a list of all the things that need to be actioned ( write this into your schedule or use your UUW time!) and then file the paper and deal each item on your list schedule
Schedule time to tidy up your computer files and send anything to junk that you do not need.
Keep a tidy desk.
Write everything down on paper. Your brain does not have the space to remember everything and be focused and creative.

10. Build in breaks

We have mentioned this before but this point needs it’s own important place in this list of productivity tips. It’s being proven that taking regular breaks increases productivity. Having a break gives you something to aim for. It could be as having a cup of coffee or eating lunch going for a walk. You could schedule in a gym session or meditating or could be as simple as doing some housekeeping. Make sure you make your breaks guilt-free and official by scheduling them in.

Do you have any other time-saving ideas? if so would love to hear about them in the comments.