Do you have the feeling that the days fly by? That the day does not have enough hours for everything you have to do? You know you should do certain things, but the days go by without you finding the moment. Or you progress, but not enough. So your chores are piling up.
Let us first look at possible reasons why you don’t seem to get done enough throughout the day. Then we will see how to improve your energy management and become more productive.
Reasons you don’t get done enough in the day
If you really want to make better use of your time, you will first have to pay more attention to how you spend it. There are a series of time thieves due to which we don’t get done as much in the day as we would like. Here are some examples:
- Just reacting to what comes up.
- Not using a to-do list.
- Not planing the tasks to carry out and when to tackle them.
- Letting yourself be distracted and “wasting timeâ€.
- Suffering many interruptions.
- Not having routines.
- Wanting to take on more than you can handle.
How to get done more
Having the feeling that the days are passing by and that you are not making progress can be frustrating. It seems that more tasks accumulate than you manage to complete.
Once we have seen the possible reasons why you don’t get done enough, let us review each point and how you can improve in each aspect.
1. You react to what comes up
The days go by and you are assaulted by unforeseen events and urgencies. The hours fly by and at the end of the day you don’t have the feeling of having achieved much.
If you spend your days reactively doing whatever comes up, you won’t be very productive. In addition, others will decide for you what is important and what you should do.
The only way out of this loop is to start being more proactive. That is, decide what is important to you on a professional and personal level. Which tasks and activities contribute to your priorities? This brings us to the next two points: using to-do lists and planning.
2. You don’t use to-do list
Either you don’t use a to-do list at all, or you use it only once in a while. In this case you will depend on what you remember. The problem is that our minds do not have the gift of opportunity. Although we may have a good memory, things occur to us without rhyme or reason, even though we cannot take action on them at this moment.
Have you ever been in a meeting and suddenly remembered that you had to buy bread? Bad timing, right?
Keeping a to-do list has several advantages:
- Unloading your mind from chores, thereby reducing stress levels.
- Having a vision of the things to do.
- With this, you can decide what is the most important task to perform at any given time.
- Thinking proactively about what you want to do. Which tasks are more productive and will bring you closer to your goals.
Also, using a to-do list creates satisfaction when you can check off what you have completed.
3. You don’t plan
If you don’t take time to think about what to do the next day, the next week, or the next month, time passes without you seeming to make any progress on important things.
I, for example, write down at the end of the day the important tasks for the next day. This way the next morning, at a glance, I know what to tackle first. If one day I don’t do it, I notice how my productivity drops.
Sometimes we believe that we do not have time to stop to think and plan with everything we have to do. But this is a mind trap. When you take time to plan, you can make time for the important things, including rest and taking care of your well-being. It is a matter of deciding if you just want to be busy or if you prefer to be more productive and dedicate your time to what matters to you.
4. You get distracted easily
Your mobile applications and email are great distractors and time thieves. How much time do you spend on email? How much time do you spend on social media?
Those notifications, supposed to help us not to miss anything, only appeal to our curiosity and sense of urgency. They make us nomophobic.
That’s why I suggest you turn off all unnecessary notifications or even all of them. So instead of an app’s notification drawing your attention, you decide when it’s time to use it and catch up.
I also suggest that you pay attention to when you tend to get distracted. How do you feel at that moment? Bored, stressed, tired, do you have a hard time making a decision, etc.? What more healthy or productive activity could you do instead of giving in to the temptation of surfing the internet, social media or doing a series marathon?
5. You get interrupted a lot
Perhaps you have the feeling that you don’t get done enough in the day because it seems that you get continuously interrupted. Someone comes to talk to you, calls you on the phone, or the doorbell rings, for example.
Whether you work in an office or work from home, it is a good idea to let people around you know when you need time to focus. That is, either set hours at which they should not bother you or set hours at which they can consult you about things. It will depend on the type of your work and the system that can work best for you.
As for telephone interruptions, consider whether you must be available at all hours. Can you put the phone on silent or airplane mode from time to time? If you use phone or messaging apps, can you set your status to “occupied�
6. You don’t have routines
One day you go to bed early, so you wake up early the next day. Another day you stay up late and have a hard time getting up the next morning. One day you eat breakfast and another you don’t. One day you have lunch early, another late, another you hardly eat because you think you don’t have time.
Those are just a few examples. But the point is that our body and mind love routines. Because that allows them to save energy. In order to perform well, we need enough rest and good nutrition. Regular physical activity also keeps us fit and helps us relieve stress.
All the healthy habits that you manage to incorporate into your life will help you to have more energy, greater ability to concentrate and feel better. Then the days will be less uphill for you and you will not feel so easily that everything is too much.
7. You want to take on more than you can handle
Last but not least, ask yourself if perhaps you are being too ambitious. Maybe you do get done enough in the day. However, as you set out to do more than you can handle, you end up feeling like you haven’t accomplished enough.
I suggest that you review how many tasks and errands you pretend to do per day. Do you take into account the duration of the tasks? Do you consider your energy levels? We are not equally productive throughout the day. We all have off-peak hours in which we find it more difficult to concentrate. That is why it is a good idea to take into account your productive hours when planning when to tackle the most important tasks.
Try to be realistic with the time available, your energy as well as the number and duration of the tasks and duties that you want to take on.
Do you feel that you don’t get done enough?
Do you have the feeling that the day does not have enough hours for everything you have to do? What is the reason in your case? How can you improve the management of your time and energy?
If you want us to review it together, feel free to contact me.
