I am NOT your typical ‘organised’ freak and to be honest I was always the messy one with scraps of paper everywhere, overdue bills to pay and drawers stuffed with bits of paper and lists I never got around to tackling……ya feel me? When i started uni, things did change, I realised I couldn’t ‘wing it’ anymore and had to take control of my life and my responsibilities. This extended to my personal life, I found being ‘organised’ (or at least trying my very best to be organised) made everything a whole lot easier.

Since I started blogging I realised that there are never enough hours in the day and with pages upon pages of post ideas sometimes you have to learn to stop. Here are a few of my own tips to help you organise your time effectively and keep the dreaded ‘burnout’ at bay.

Goal Setting

• I write a weekly planner and a daily planner (I also have a month by month calendar where I write things like appointments/events etc).
• I find physically writing out what the following week and day looks like really helps me stay on track. I highlight the things I really HAVE to do without question and I add in all of the other things I want to get done.
• I write my daily planner the night before and use my daily planner to go more in depth with the things I want to get done. I even write down my exercise schedule on here: e.g 7am: 8km run in the park. This gives me a nice layout of my day and also allows me to mentally prepare for the day ahead. It also helps me sleep much easier.

Schedule time blocks for high priority tasks and so on

• If I have important things I want to get done I set a timer or give myself a ‘time-block’ to get this started and finished. So, for example if I intend on writing a food post I might give myself 3 hours to cook/photograph and write the post (depending on the recipe). hat way I can focus on getting it done efficiently. Remember to be realistic with you time block though…..nothing worse than rushing yourself and producing something you are not proud of because you were unrealistic about your time.

Concentrate at least half of your time on things that help you achieve results

• I try to spend as much time as possible on the things that matter to me and my brand the most. Think about the things that are going to help you get ahead or build solid work relationships and so on. Prioritise what is important to you in your work day.

Try to schedule calls

• Scheduling work related calls means you can work these into your day and also gives you the opportunity to plan for them.

Disengage your phone and media devices

• If you are doing something that does not require you to be online then make a point of turning these things off until you have finished your task.

Give yourself a treat to look forward to – schedule this in!

• So important! Give yourself little things to look forward to during the day or at th end of your work day.
• Giving yourself a ‘reward’ for all the hard work you’ve put in will help you be more productive and make all that work feel worth it.
• My rewards usually look like: going to get a chai latte, having a walk on the beach, getting my nails done, doing a quick meditation and so on.

PS:

• I hardly ever get everything off my planner completed so don’t give yourself a hard time if this happens. If you write it down everyday, eventually it will get done and just make sure it isn’t one of your priorities!

I hope you found this post useful and I would love to hear your feedback on time management. Let me know in the comments below! x x x

Wearing: Marc Bale watch and The Peachbox bangle

iphone case: the daily edited