4 HACKS TO MAXIMISE YOUR TIME

Written By Daniel Jebb

So how do we better maximise our time? I feel like this article is just as much for me, as it is for the readers. Successfully managing our time has become one of the hardest things for humans to achieve in the twenty-first century. Too often we desperately scramble to achieve a multitude of tasks within the smallest possible time frame, taking on too much at once. When this happens making room for hobbies can become a distant memory. Watching twenty minutes of that show you love, or reading that page-turning book is no longer an option.  Depressing right? When we are working day in and day out, with little to no breaks, in a constant struggle to achieve our goals, we are apt to suffer burnout. There is a sweet spot between meeting our commitments, and also making room for our actual lives. This article will look at several methods in which to maximise our time in a way that lets us achieve our goals, but also doesn’t turn us into robots whose only purpose is to schedule tasks. As much as I love the Daleks from Doctor Who, I don’t want to become in any way like them.

1: Time Limit

Setting a time limit is a great way to maximise our time, by forcing a task to be completed within a certain duration. I’m sure we are all too familiar with the dastardly cycle of procrastination, where we keep going around in circles - accomplishing next to nothing. When we don’t have a time limit, the period in which we work on a task is potentially endless. It’s like walking endlessly through an expansive void with no visible exit. Working like this is demotivating, as we have nothing fun to await us on the other side of completing a task. Additionally, human beings can only work for a certain duration of time before we start achieving diminishing returns, and the quality of our work suffers.

It is better to work hard for a two hour period, than put in a superficial level of effort for say, four or five hours. I was watching a video from one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, who told a story about a deadline he was struggling with. He informed his editor that he wouldn’t be able to submit a short story within a two-week period. The editor said that was fine, but also mentioned how another writer had accomplished this feat in twenty-four hours. Inspired by this, Gaiman set himself a very tight deadline - this enabled him to break through his block, writing a story from start to finish in approximately forty-eight hours before his deadline. Such a story emphasises just how effective setting a time limit can be, and how the extra fire in our bellies it grants, can allow us to successfully maximise our time.

2: Rewards

Another way to maximise our time is through the use of scheduling in rewards. Rewards come in many different varieties, but whatever the reward is, it should be something you enjoy doing - a form of leisure time. For my downtime, I like to go for a run, hang out with friends, and read books. These are just my own personal examples, but rewards are specific to the person.

Operant conditioning can explain how rewards help us maximise our time. Operant conditioning refers to a method of learning, and mental association, where we associate particular things with either rewards or punishments. Experiments were done on rats, which showed that rats who experienced electric shocks (punishment), were less likely to repeat certain behaviours, but rats who were given food (reward), were more likely to repeat certain behaviours. Rats have the same brain structure  as human beings, so this study was used as insight into how rewards/punishment drive human behaviour.

Under the theory of Operant conditioning, human beings can utilize reward based cues in their environment to spur on motivation. By scheduling in something fun at the end of a task, we are rewarding ourselves for being productive, which acts as a reinforcement for our good habits. I would use this method when I was in school; I would study hard for a set duration of hours, and then reward myself with activities such as video games, basketball, and hanging out with friends later, which was very effective for me. Using this method of reinforcement, we can automatically prime our minds to look forward to completing tasks, as there will be an incentive waiting at the end of it. 

3: Social Media:

The third way to better maximise our time is to reduce the amount of hours we spend on social media. This one is probably quite obvious, but I know I’ve certainly been guilty of swiping up and down my social feeds in a truly pitiful manner, the blue light of my phone bathing my face in a ghoul like fashion. It’s really quite terrifying how many of us in this age are mindlessly scrolling away our days, using these apps for a cheap dopamine hit. Check out, ‘The Social Dilemma’ for a great Netflix documentary of this phenomena, which may horrify you the way it did for me.

However innocuous social media may at first appear, the hijacking of our attention has devastating consequences, as it zaps our ability to focus. Without focus we take so much longer to complete tasks, as we are only using minimal levels of attention. A great book I read called ‘Deep Work’ by Cal Newport, elaborated on social media’s impact on the brain. The book expounds on how constant task switching, such as checking social media frequently within study periods, reduces our ability to be productive and get tasks done in time.

Cal Newport held that low-level tasks such as social media leave an ‘attentional residue’, which basically means that the low-level thinking of a superficial task carries on for a time into the high-level task. This makes the high-level task so much harder and longer to achieve, as our brain is not operating at optimal capacity. To better manage our time we should all try and cut back on social media. We don’t have to necessarily eliminate it completely, but we should at the least cut social media out during more cognitively demanding tasks. This is guaranteed to bring greater equilibrium to your life, which will go a huge way in helping maximise your time.

4: Perfectionism

The fourth and last point I will make for maximising your time is to stop being a perfectionist. No one is perfect. We are flawed, but  at the same time that’s also what makes YOU FLAWLESSI made. John Legend was right when he sang about, ‘perfect imperfections.’ When we strive to be perfect, we are never satisfied with our output, and will continuously and futilely extend the amount of time we spend working on something, in an attempt to reach an unattainable standard. This disrupts our ability to manage time, as we spend too long working and worrying about tasks, which we should already be happy with. Such perpetual worry is toxic to our body, and  rids us of energy for other tasks in the day. This makes us lose even more time! There is no human being in existence who is perfect, and anyone who thinks they are, should immediately check themselves into a mental health clinic for narcissism disorder. Perfectionism gets a big thumbs down from me, I’m afraid. Put in your best effort, but at the end of the day, don’t let your time be derailed by unrealistic thinking.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these four hacks on how to maximise your time. If you enjoyed reading this content, and want to keep up with more articles, please sign up for email notifications and/or follow us across our various social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Flawlessli You, is on a mission to elevate YOU to become the best version of yourself mentally, spiritually and physically, through dissemination of quality information, concerning topics such as self-development, mental-health, skincare and many others. We would love you to become part of our family, and take the next steps in realizing your FLAWLESS potential.