12 Best Time management tips: How to do more in less time for Women Entrepreneurs, Yoga Teachers and Creatives

Time is a precious and limited resource that so many of us struggle to manage and maximize. As a successful women’s career and well-being coach with multiple concurrent projects I often get asked How can I do more in less time? Here are my 12 top tips on How to Do more in Less Time:

12 Productivity and time hacks to do more in less time:

1. If you don’t yet, keep a schedule, a visual tally / overview of all your projects or have to-do list to go through it systematically. I have and excel spreadsheet to track deadlines and progress of writing, coaching and creative projects which I update and check periodically, and I use Tumee to plan my Yoga classes.My husband Luca, who’s a consultant and ultra organised person, likes the phone and desktop app To Do list. 
2. Break large, complex tasks into smaller, manageable chunks, and use the Eisenhower matrix featured below (Importance vs. Urgency) prioritize the most important tasks to be done by yourself, and others that you might delay, delegate or drop.
   
   
3. Batch your tasks – group similar tasks together and do them in the same sitting. For example, only check email at allotted times of the day e.g. 9am, 2pm and 6pm, and if an email-related task comes up, only do it during that time.
4. Once you’ve identified the most important task(s), eat the frog – do the most important thing first. Getting started on the most difficult thing will give you energy and a sense of accomplishment that you can enjoy through the rest of the day.
5. Time-block important tasks in your calendar, even if they aren’t urgent, so they can get done before they become urgent. I use google calendar to block out my schedule for when i intend to do something, like writing a report (during my research manager days) to ideating new coaching programs right now.
6. As you’re working through your tasks, get into the habit of mono-tasking (working on one thing at a time) and working in a distraction-free space (e.g. tell others you’re busy, close the door, switch off social media notifications) to improve your focus on the task at hand. Put your phone outside of sight, close those extra tabs (if you’re like me, you probably have 46 of them open… Close them! Only keep 1 open.)
7. Identify when you are at your best and plan your day according to it: Research has found that some people’s brains peak in the morning (“larks”), while others are sharpest at night (“owls”). This trait is called “chronotype”—people with different chronotypes have different peak times of day. I’m 100% a morning person and get all my best work done in the morning before lunch.
8. Set boundaries to protect your most productive times: If you’re a morning lark and tend to get your best work out in the morning, make sure you keep this time for yourself. For me between 730-9am is my sacred time for my morning rituals (affirmations, meditation, mindful movement and refueling – breakfast). Between 9am-1130am I knock out my best work – creating programs, writing content, new training material etc. I leave coaching, teaching and workshops in the afternoons and evenings.
9. Struggling with procrastination? Hold yourself accountable by hiring an accountability coach like me, or be in community that kicks your ass like CaveDay to beat procrastination. I’ve been with CaveDay since the pandemic and they are 95% the reason why I manage to eat the frog and take action on the things I’ve been holding back from. I’m also a guide for them occasionally, so maybe you’ll see me in one of the caves! 😉
10. Embrace the motto ‘Done is better than Perfect’ and ‘Enough is good’ – Perfectionism can acerbate time overwhelm. When working through your tasks, ask yourself, what would ‘just enough’ look like for this, rather than perfect, or 100% complete?
11. Set a time limit for how long you spend on each task. Parkinson’s Law asserts that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. Especially if you tend to perfectionism, you might find yourself working on non-crucial aspects of a task. By setting a time limit, e.g. 40 minutes, a boundary for how long you work on each task (till it is just enough, ‘done’ but not perfect), you free yourself to move to the next task.
12. Creatives: do writing separately from editing! Creating / writing something new takes more creativity, while editing takes more logic and discernment, which are completely opposite energetically. You can do it one after the other, but don’t try to write while you edit yourself.

Are you looking for 1-on-1 support? Book a call with me to find out more about coaching with me.

You receive support to overcome the 1-2 key challenges stopping you from realizing your full potential. You learn how to do more in less time, work less and achieve more, and enjoy ease, flow and well-being and create a career and life you truly love.  Because these are all the things I value, practice and embody in my life 🙂

If you’re considering, but a little unsure, check out these resources I created for you:

• Struggling with procrastination? Try this Guided audio Beat procrastination & Get started and bring the thing you’ve been holding back from doing to Tuesday Tribe, my weekly livestream sessions on InsightTimer
• Need a confidence / inspiration boost? read You don’t have to prove yourself

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