Want to know the essential time management goals to better manage school, life, and work? There are seven critical goals that every adult should have to improve their ability to get all the things done.
As you may know, being an adult requires you to manage multiple priorities. Accomplishing these time management goals consistently will help you to manage adulting with ease.
As a grad student, full-time school leader, and long-distance caretaker these tips helped me to stay on top of everything I needed to do. So, whether you are a student, parent, professional, or all three you can use these tips in your life to help you master adulting.
This post is all about the most critical time management goals you need to help you successfully navigate adult life.
Critical Time Management Goals
Allow me to set the scene to lay the foundation for the advantages of time management.
You have been working diligently to prepare a huge presentation for department heads at your job, and you knocked it out of the park! As you are sharing your success with your co-worker immediately after, you receive a text from your doctor’s office saying you missed your appointment and you need to reschedule. That reminds you of the medical case study you still haven’t read for tomorrow’s meeting. Then you realize, you still have to send the calendar invite to the meeting participants, and the meeting is tomorrow! Suddenly, your manager hurries up to your desk to request the report from your presentation. “The department heads want to review it now”, she exclaims proudly. You have it, but you forgot to print it. Have you ever felt like your one huge success has been overshadowed by smaller complications and errors? These effective time management strategies will help to ensure that you are able to manage it all!
1. Aim to meet with yourself every week
Your to-do’s may not reflect mine exactly but our weeks and days can feel just like hades if we don’t have a plan.
Prioritize meeting with yourself once a week to organize your schedule, priorities, and to-do’s. This will help you get your head around what needs to be done to optimize the time you have available. Hold one 60-minute block sacred for you to plan out your week. Make this a sacred time that is distraction and interruption-free. This 60-minute block is your catalyst for success at work, school, and home. While you should not expect that your week will go as you have planned it completely, having a game plan is critical to managing a full life. To learn more about the exact strategies and templates I use to manage my tasks, time, and priorities check out this time management activity book. It guides you through 6 activities taken directly from my weekly planning routine to help you build a weekly schedule that organizes your time and priorities for maximum impact.
2. Aim to check your schedule at the start of each day
Although you have planned your week you still need to orient yourself at the start of each day. Otherwise, you may forget your goals and focus for the day. There are many times someone has asked me how my weekend was on Monday morning and I had completely forgotten what had taken place less than 12 hours ago. It’s the same with time management. You want to ensure that you know what each day’s priorities are at the start. Taking 5 – 10 minutes each morning to review your agenda, planner, or notebook will orient you to your priorities, remind you of meetings, and give you a sense of the day’s flow. This is also a great time to set alarms on your phone to remind you of meetings, appointments, and deadlines. You may also want to use this time to send any reminders or updates regarding your schedule for the day.
3. Aim to adjust your schedule at the end of each day
This is one of the most liberating and reassuring time management techniques shared in this post! At the end of each day, you get to observe and reflect on all the work you accomplished, the meetings you kept, and the deadlines you made. Relish in that! Celebrate that! Also, use this time to review tasks that you have not completed and meetings you need to reschedule. Make adjustments in your schedule so that you head into your next day confident that you have addressed any loose ends. This should take about 10 -15 minutes at the end of your day before you begin to wind down.
4. Aim to keep one schedule that includes all priorities
Some of the best time management advice I ever received was to put everything in one place. Your school schedule, your work schedule, your personal schedule, and your family schedule should all be in one place. Having different reference points for all of these schedules is a breeding ground for conflict. If someone asks you if you are free to hang out on the 20th, rather it be in one place that I refer to instead of synthesizing all of my activities from various sources to give an answer. I prefer building out a time management template on Google Sheets that is unique to my needs. However, I used the Every Girl planner by Day Designer for part of 2021 when I was in graduate school and working full-time. I really liked this planner because it was task-oriented, motivational, and easy to use! You may want to check out some current planners by Day Designer here (commissions earned).
5. Aim to work on the big rocks first
Doing the most difficult and complex tasks first is a challenge, but it will give you more time in the end. Have you ever seen the rock illustration demonstrating task management? The vase represents your time, when the big rocks (hard tasks) go in first you’ll notice that the smaller pebbles and sand can fill in the crevasses and not overflow. However, when you start with the smaller tasks (smaller less complex tasks), there is not enough room in the vase to hold the big rocks. One way to motivate yourself to get the hard things done first is to organize your workspace in a way that leads you to complete the more complex tasks first by having them set up to start when you first open your laptop or walk into the kitchen. You may also find it helpful to eliminate distractions during the time you are working on your bigger rocks so that you can optimize your focus. Another way to work through this is to name your complex tasks and break them down into smaller less complicated tasks to complete.
6. Aim to maintain free space
I know the feeling of needing to get it all done in one day. I caution you against over-stuffing your schedule. There is often variability in our days and unexpected emergencies and urgencies take over what was once priority. Make sure you include free space to handle those occurrences. You should also consider that some things will take longer than expected. Building in free space to account for variations in your schedule will help you to make the needed adjustments to stay on track and will have minimal impact on your agenda. If you find that you don’t need the free time, leverage it as an opportunity to rest or to get ahead on what you need to do in the upcoming days.
{Related Post: Time Management as Wellness}
7. Aim to develop a growth mindset
Managing your schedule is a commitment that will take time to perfect. I have spent years tailoring my time management practices to work for me. There have been times when I have missed meetings and forgotten deadlines. What has allowed me to recover and make it through some of the toughest most intense moments, was that I believed I could get better. With practice, education, and commitment I did! You can too! No matter what you forgot, or if managing your hectic life seems insurmountable, I want you to know that you can absolutely manage all that your life has to offer by incorporating these time management techniques.
This post shared the most critical time management goals every adult should aim to accomplish to manage their busy lives.
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