I personally love a good challenge. Anything with a start date, end date and clear goal that I can measure my progress against will keep me happy! But, which ones are worth your time when it comes down to time management?
Not all of us can sit around reading the endless books on controlling your time or managing everything around you until you have a less than ten-hour work week. Now, we’re not saying any of these books are invalid. On the contrary! They are full of useful information, but now we need something a little more tangible than an author explaining concepts.
How can we challenge ourselves? Try these:
The Pomodoro Challenge
This is a one-day challenge that relies on your phone or some type of timer. Set an alarm to ring every twenty minutes. Or keep an egg time handy and reset it to twenty-minutes every time it dings.
Every time the alarm or timer sounds, switch to your next most pressing task. Although you may feel like you are losing time jumping between tasks, many people enjoy this challenge. With a blend of urgency and hustle you’re making sure you are always working on something important while fighting of fatigue.
A Week of Achievements Challenge
A challenge that lasts all week, or all work week at least is one that I can get behind! It seems like the perfect amount time to really push your limits without ground shattering effects.
Sit down and list out seven goals. Then give each a separate due date over the next week. This challenge works best when you start small and build up. By listing your goals out and progressively building to accomplishing one task per day for a week you are actually boosting your confidence.
One huge aspect of time management is the ability to know what you can and cannot due in a given time frame.
Over or under-committing can be fatal to time management and that is where this challenge comes in. You should be able to accomplish all of your goals by the day they are due. It’s only one goal a day, and doesn’t that sound easy?
Eating an Elephant Challenge
We’ve increased from a single day challenge, to a week challenge and finally, here it is the 30 day challenge. Thirty-day or month long challenges are great because they build habits that you can keep up for a lifetime!
The “Eating an Elephant” challenge works on milestone planning. Do you have that giant year-end report coming due soon? A nursery that hasn’t been setup yet? How about clearing out your unwanted household items on an app or to eBay? Well, that’s an elephant.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
Using strategic planning, piece your elephant apart. Give a few daily goals, set weekly deadlines and intent for the final product to be 100% complete thirty days after you started.
What this accomplishes for a lot of people hoping to build themselves with great time management challenges is the ability to work on something every day. We know that a lot more is accomplished with little efforts made over long periods of time with the goal being on high-quality results. Build your time management habits by taking on an elephant!
Test Yourself
Use these three challenges to propel yourself into a heightened awareness of your time management abilities. How can you get the most out of these great time management challenges?
Only take on one challenge at a time!
Track your progress regularly, even on one day challenges.
Revisit challenges regularly, always keep pushing yourself!*