4 Time Management Tips for Your Busy Schedule | FullContact

The more hyper-connected our society gets, the busier and busier we seem to become.

Email constantly has us tied to someone else’s to-do list, our phones keep us tethered to social networks (and ninja-ing various fruits), and our brains can barely consume enough caffeine to keep it all straight.

Here are 4 quick time management tips to get your days back on track.

1. Have a plan

They say the early bird gets the worm. I say the early bird gets to plan their day (not nearly as catchy). Wake up 20 minutes earlier than you normally would and map out your day. I use a free service called Sunrise that helps me do this.

You’re not making yourself any “less busy”, but you’re mentally preparing for what lies ahead. This alone makes the day much easier to manage as it comes around.

2. Create time blocks and stick to them

Most days we have mundane and monotonous tasks that we’re doing on a regular basis. Follow ups, paperwork, research, etc. These are the tasks that almost always get pushed aside (and in turn stressful) when life gets busy. Salesforce Tasks overload anyone?

Set aside a block of time each day to complete these tasks and don’t schedule anything during that time. For myself, this means returning the previous night’s email from 8-9am, prospecting from 10am-12pm, and sales follow-ups from 2pm-4pm. I schedule everything else around these times, and do my best to stick to them, which reduces a large amount of time management stress from my day-to-day.

3. Hire an assistant. Like a boss.

No, seriously. Anyone that lives in a big city understands the pain of trying to do ANYTHING more than 30 feet away. Traffic jams, headaches, and f-bombs abound. That’s why you should pay someone a small fee to do it for you.

TaskRabbit gets your errands done by “safe, reliable, awesome people,” and it can shave hours off your day. Need reservations for dinner, or a hotel room for your upcoming trip? Let the amazing assistants at FancyHands help you out. Just like that your schedule opens up, and you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I’m the boss.“

4. Work in Sprints

If you’re a salesperson like myself, your day is much more effective spent in short sprints than in long marathons. We can be hyper-productive for 1-2 hours at a time, but then we need a break. Whether that’s a walk around the block, a phone call to Mom, or a coffee run, these breaks are like quick recharges of the batteries.

This isn’t a bad or a lazy thing. This is simply how our sales brains operate most effectively. We aren’t good at doing monotonous tasks for hours on end. There is no energy or enthusiasm in that, which is needed for successful sales. Put on your best Usain Bolt impression, work in sprints, take breaks, and bust ass when it’s go time.

What’s your must-have for keeping life on track?

Post it in the comments. Our readers would love to hear!