Do you have the feeling that you have less and less free time? The new digital environment eliminates the barriers of time and space; they fade to make way for a permanent availability. This can cause the feeling of loss of free time. However, if you follow a series of recommendations, it is possible to get the desired free time.
What is free time?
What do we mean when we talk about free time? It is the time used in other activities that are not working.
More and more often, we stop enjoying the present moment with family and / or friends to keep an eye on messages or emails.
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Techniques to improve time management
Do you want to get more free time? Start by improving time management. Here are some tips:
Avoid doing several tasks at the same time. According to sociologist John Robinson, this generates a sense of lack of time and loss of concentration.
Plan your task routine, focus your efforts on what is the most important or urgent.
Encourage meetings of maximum 1 hour and tell the others to be punctual. In many cases, these meetings are unnecessary and they are extended with no reason. Both the preparation of all points and punctuality must be enforced if we want to improve our management of time.
Try to respect the necessary rest times. If we do not sleep enough hours nor take small breaks, our mind will not be performing enough. It has been shown that attention and efficiency drastically decrease over time.
Are you an owl or a lark? Some people are more active in the morning and others at night. Plan those tasks that require more concentration according to your peak hours.
Avoid time robbers: last minute meetings, WhatsApp messages, comments on gossip … All interruptions that lengthen our workday should be avoided.
Finish with the constant attendance culture of your company. In Spain, productivity is measured, paradoxically, by the completion and length of the working day.
The Pomodoro technique
This technique is based on taking advantage of the freshness of our brain to the maximum, without distractions, in other words: you must work without distractions of any type for a 25-minute period (this period of time is what is known as “pomodoro”), after each “Pomodoro” you will have to do 5 minutes of rest.
When four pomodoros are completed, there is a 15-minute break in which you will have to change your activity, moving away from your work zone. Simple, isn’t it no? How can I apply the Pomodoro technique to my work? Although the Pomodoro technique seems simple on paper, its implementation is not that simple. Find out how long it takes to finish an activity by counting the pomodoros (periods of 25 minutes).
Do not let anything or anyone distract you during the period of concentration (pomodoro). Keep some minutes to go over the task. Plan your workday according to the pomodoros so that you reduce the lost periods of time to the maximum, getting more free time. One way to improve your productivity is to set goals and give yourself rewards for reaching them. You can get some help from Apps like Marinara Timer or websites like Moosti or Tomato Timer
Do you want to make the most of your free time? Download our Infographics now.
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