Author, speaker, and time-management expert, Jackie Gaines, recently revealed helpful tips to help you make the most of your time and increase your productivity–without losing your mind in the process.
According to Gaines, if workers could figure out how to make the most of their waking moments, they could be far more productive and happy regardless of their time constraints.
“Success at work and in life often comes down to one thing: developing better time management skills,” says Gaines, author of Wait a Hot Minute! How to Manage Your Life with the Minutes You Have. “Our minutes have become hot since time is so scarce these days, and we toss them away without a second thought. The truth is, we are always going to have obligations, deadlines, and responsibilities, but if you learn how to handle your hot minutes, you can work with the clock instead of against it.”
To manage time, Gaines recommends taking charge of your minutes and letting them work for you to achieve your goals in a timely manner. “While you won’t ever succeed long-term by racing the clock, you can drop your bad habits, improve ineffective practices, and kick stress to the curb so that your whole life improves,” she concludes.
Below are Gaines’ no-fail tips to help you make the most of your time (no matter how little you have) and achieve a healthier and happier work-life balance.
- Prioritize sleep so you can function when you’re awake.
- Establish what the “workday” means to you and your boss.
- Don’t stay on your e-mail all day.
- Choose human connection over technology.
- Learn to say no and mean it.
- Set achievable goals each day.
- Give multi-tasking the ax.
- Listen up!
- Don’t be a sheep.
- Stop shuffling papers.
- Step away from the Internet.
- Have some fun along the way.
- Practice breathing and mindfulness.
- Stop owning other people’s stuff.
- Let go and delegate.
For more of Gaines’ expertise feel free to grab one of her books: Wait a Hot Minute!: How to Manage Your Life with the Minutes You Have, Believing You Can Fly, The Yellow Suit: A Guide for Women in Leadership, and Destination Infinity-Reflections and Career Lessons from a Road Warrior.