Starting from the app I picked up right after abandoning my physical bullet journal Todoist. This is a blast from the past. It got the job done when I had a lot of random shit to keep track of, but honestly, I had so much going on in high. Bullet journaling is built around two concepts— Indexing and Rapid Logging. As tasks, notes and events arise, log them into your daily journal entry and denote each with a different bullet. For example, one could place a dash before notes, an open circle before events, and a dot before a task. As for the planner I tried using bullet journal etc. But to be honest it was just to much repetition of what my calendar and todoist already had in it. The other issue I had was the journals limited pages/space. I would be buying a minimum of 4 journals a year. I went with a digital journal in Evernote where I store my reference documents already. No, not a literal external hard drive. I think of my Bullet Journal or Todoist as my external hard drive; a secondary location to keep whatever's swirling in my head safe.
Some of the best time management techniques are really simple and straightforward, others a little bit complex, but all of them can actually be easily implemented into daily practice.
We decided to provide you with:
- a detailed description of the 10 most useful time management techniques, but if you don’t find any of them the right fit for you,
- we added a comprehensive list of all other time management techniques we found out there with a short description and a link to more information, if available.
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The wall of fame for the best time management techniques
Based on our research, testing and opinions of productivity experts, here are the best time management techniques you need to know:
The list of all other time management techniques (48 techniques) out there.
Now let's dive deep in each one of them.
1. SMART Goals
Proper time management always start with setting goals and knowing in which direction you want to go in life. One of the most popular goal-setting techniques is called SMART goals.
The technique has been here since 1981 when the paper entitled “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives” was published by George T. Doran.
The idea is pretty simple. Every SMART written goal should be written down following the next criteria:
- Specific – clearly defined desired outcome, what you want to achieve
- Measurable – there must be away to measure progress
- Achievable – the goal can be met with available resources
- Relevant – it must fit a bigger picture and you must know why you want to achieve something
- Time-bound – a clear deadline for when the goal will be achieved
Most people don’t set goals. Only around 10% of people have written goals. That means it takes effort, with some real reflection and thinking to write down meaningful goals in the right way.
So, if you decide to write down your goals, you don’t want to write vague resolutions that won’t give you a sense of direction and proper motivation. It would be an exercise in vain. You want to write down your goals in a smart way.
You can find many detailed descriptions on how to set SMART goals, practical examples and templates on the internet.
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2. The Eisenhower Matrix / The Eisenhower box
Once you have your goals written in a SMART way, you should break them down in concrete and actionable tasks. Then the tasks need to be prioritized. The Eisenhower Matrix is one of the most popular frameworks for prioritizing tasks.
As an interesting fact, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, serving between the years 1953 and 1961. His matrix recommends arranging tasks in one of the four quadrants:
- Urgent + Important (Do first)
- Not Urgent + Important (Schedule)
- Urgent + Not Important(Delegate)
- Not Important + Not Urgent (Eliminate)
Urgent tasks are the ones that you feel you must react to (like emails, phone calls, meetings etc.) and tasks that are time‑sensitive to finish, meaning you have strict deadlines.
Important tasks, on the other hand, are the ones that contribute to your long-term goals and things you really want to do in life. Important tasks are the ones that are part of your business or life vision and mission.
Of course, you should always tackle urgent and important tasks. It’s important that you spend most of your working time in this quadrant (urgent + important).
The important but not urgent tasks, like sports, learning, creating, bonding with people, you should schedule in your calendar(and make sure you do them regularly). All other tasks you should delegate or simply delete.
This method is also often used by recruiters.
3. Kanban Board
Kanban is a Japanese word meaning a billboard or signboard. The main idea of the Kanban board is to have a visual board that helps you to track progress on your goals.
People who are fans of Kanban usually use a big dry‑wipe whiteboard to visualize their goals or software that supports Kanban visualization. In our experience, a physical Kanban board works much better.
You should draw several columns on the whiteboard,visualizing the stage of each specific task. The columns on the blackboard are usually:
- To Do
- In Progress
- Done
Then you need sticky notes. Every sticky note represents a task that needs to be completed. You simply write the name of the task that needs to be completed. You can use different colors of sticky notes for different types of tasks.
Bullet Journal Todoist
After you have the big board and sticky notes with tasks, you simply stick the notes in one of the columns, depending on the phase the task is in.
If you followed all the steps, you should have a nice visual representation of your tasks and in which stage they are. Based on your progress, you move sticky notes through these columns.
Bullet Journal Vs Todoist
Software that supports the Kanban method: