The Right Time Management Tools For You

Are you here because you’ve got a lot on your plate, and seemingly little time to accomplish it? Or maybe you’re not as focused and productive as you’d like to be? 

Successfully managing your time can feel like a bit of a balancing act and is influenced by:

• your available time

• your level of interest

• productivity levels

• intruding distractions

Depending on the scope of your to-do list, you might find one or more of these tools to be helpful.

You can get started with any these tools for free, but some may charge a fee for premium features or continued use.

Seeing exactly how much time you spend on a task might surprise you.

Having a realistic sense of how long specific tasks take can make your to-do list management more realistic.

Time Tracker tools to consider:

• toggl (mobile, desktop, web)

• clockify (mobile, desktop, web)

Not sure where to start? There are several ways to turn your to-do list into a well-organized plan of attack.

Create a mind map is one way to capture ideas and organize them quickly into clusters.

Use the Kanban to sort all to-do items and placing them into one of three categories: To Do, Doing, or Done. The key is to keep only three tasks in the Doing category at any given time.

Organizing and prioritizing tools to consider:

• trello (mobile, desktop)

• asana (mobile, web)

• mindnode (mobile, desktop)

• proofhub (mobile, desktop)

Photo by Ralph Hutter on Unsplash

The Pomodoro Method can help improve your focus and productivity. It requires you to work on a specific task for 25 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break.

After completing four of these sessions, you’re then encouraged to take a longer break of 15 - 30 minutes. This can help you find the perfect balance between productivity and rest.

To boost your focus and productivity, check out these Pomodoro-inspired tools:

• focusbooster(mobile, desktop, web)

• Focus To-Do (mobile, desktop, web)

Distraction Blocking tools can be used on any device to block your access to specific apps and websites for a defined time period. 

To help keep distractions at bay, consider the following tools:

• Leechblock (web)

• Freedom (mobile, desktop)

• Noisli (mobile, web)

Start small. Consider your current to-do list and try to identify what you struggle with most.

Select a time management tool that targets that specific need, and get to work!