Read more: Productivity Hacks to Make Every Minute Count: Mastering Time Management in the Upcoming Year

If you are one of the persons saying that there are 24 hours in one day and you have no extra time for activities that are out of your plan, these productivity hacks can help you make every minute count and enjoy it. The end of the year is the best time to master time management in the upcoming year. The most important things to learn are to get rid of perfectionism and start acting right now, set well-defined SMART goals, adopt time management techniques that are suitable for you, and embrace growth mindset considering challenges and opportunities.

1. It Is the Time to Set Clear Goals with the SMART Framework

Try to learn how to break your tasks into small and manageable steps through setting goals that can be measured by a specific time. They should be realistic or achievable instead of something from Instagram posts like save 5,000 dollars each month and you will have a passive income at 25 years. It may be not relevant in a specific case or completely irrelevant. Thus, learn how to set relevant goals.

2. It Is Important to Get Rid of Perfectionism in the Upcoming Year

Remember there can be no right time for the right action or product. Think of this as a situation when you had time to spend money it you had no money or the time when you wanted to sleep but had no time to sleep. However, when later, you had time to sleep, you actually woke up very early in the morning. In fact, in life, there may be no right time to act and do something ideally.

Do something at the moment. The result may be not so perfect as expected but the result is better as its absence.

Any result may be better than its absence.

Moreover, perfectionism is associated with various psychological disorders, as Fang and Liu (2022) state.

3. It Is a Good Choice to Practice Mindfulness as One of the Productivity Hacks

Time management techniques can help you deal with a rigid schedule. However, sometimes, such work can put much strain.

It may be better to consider your emotions and feelings, mental state, and productivity to embrace flexibility. It may be enough to focus on 3 or 4 most important tasks and then have a free time for things that make you relax.

Overall, prepare for the next day the night before it:

• Create a SHORT to-do list to leave a room for activities that make you relax and your hobbies;
• Self-reflect on your progress: how do you feel about it? What should be fixed?
• Consider your priorities and whether your actions are aligned with it;
• Do activities that can improve your health and as a result productivity.

4. It Is Effective to Categorize Similar Tasks

Sometimes, it is necessary to categorize similar tasks to get rid of unnecessary activities. instead of doing one-by-one tasks, it is better to do hem in categories or batches. Try to set realistic limits for each category, and it will be the time-blocking strategy.

5. It Is Necessary to Stay Disconnected to Evaluate Your Progress

Disconnect all distracting apps and think how you can work smarter, not harder.

Work smarter, not harder.

Think about your success and where you need improvement. Disconnect social media during work and you will feel more involved in doing planned tasks.

6. It Is Important to Perceive Challenges as Opportunities to Grow

Try to adopt growth mindset to turn all challenges into opportunities to grow. Life is impossible without problems. Perceive difficulties as part of your life, as it is one of the most important productivity hacks.

Try to put 20% of your efforts to achieve 80% of results. It is the Pareto principle, which you can turn to your benefit. Learn how to make your time more valuable, for example, through monetizing your knowledge through digital products or blogs. Less effort, greater results.

Find a time management plan below that you can fill and that can help you start with increasing your productivity to make every minute count.

This simple quiz can help you start with integrating productivity hacks into your life.

Reference

Fang, T., & Liu, F. (2022). A review on perfectionism. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10(1), 355-364. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2022.101027