Why I will never do a task again without a timer

In my school period, I used to wake up at 6:30 AM and I needed to get out at 7, so there was only 30 mins to go to the bathroom, pray, get dressed, have a breakfast and prepare my bag. The time was really tight but I figured out a way to solve it, to have a clock in front of me while doing all these tasks to feel the tick of every second and not waste it.

Then after I went to college I didn’t need that technique because the time was kinda flexible and sometimes I didn’t go at all (yeah I was a huge slacker during college). But then after graduation and when I started working on multiple projects, I faced a huge time management crisis, an epic fail that led to chaos in my tasks.

So I analysed my performance and attitude during this chaos period and I found out some sort of things

1. The tasks take much time than what I predicted, which means that I’m not realistic with my predictions
2. I underestimate checking mail and social media or any fun or break time and I lose myself there for more than I should
3. I do a better job when being watched or monitored

These basic 3 issues inspired me to use a timer when doing anything, from eating in front of the TV to working on my projects so I can solve those 3 basic problems. The timer will help me with:

1. Knowing exactly how much time each task has taken so I can make my prediction better in the future
2. Knowing exactly how much time spent on social media and fun things so I don’t underestimate them again
3. Being monitored (by myself) to do a better job

I found a great tool to manage this for you, you write each task with the predicted time for it and it will ring when the time reach that goal time. Its a Chrome app called task timer, it’s pretty useful and I’m already using it right now when writing this post and I’ve given a 1 hour goal to finish it (and I did it in exactly 58 mins).

I have just started today to use this technique and I’m not sure how much time I’ll save but I’m pretty sure that it will save a huge amount of time. I guess you will may even notice the results through my social media activity.

Advertisements