BREAK IT DOWN
Mastering Time Management
We’ve pulled together tips, tools, and techniques that make time management more flexible, personalised, and neurodivergent-friendly.
Time Management Techniques
Time Blocking
This tackles a lot of difficulties we can face with task management by allocating specific times in the day to get stuff done, so can be great if you jump from one thing to another without getting things done, or spend a lot of time thinking about what you should do first.
1
List all the tasks you need to accomplish
2
Estimate how long each task will take to get done
3
Schedule the tasks into your calendar, ensuring that they don’t clash with other things you need to do, and that you leave some time in between for breaks
4
If there are too many tasks to fit into a day, work out which are most important and schedule those first
5
If you complete the task in less time than you scheduled for, you earn some bonus free time, enjoy it!
6
If you don’t complete the task in the time scheduled, you either reschedule other tasks to get it done, or add it as a new task to schedule for tomorrow
The Pomodoro Technique
The original task management technique, this helps anyone who needs more structure to their day on order to be more productive, while crucially ensuring you take regular breaks so that you don’t burn out.
1
Work for 25 minutes (you can adapt this to a shorter time if needed)
2
Take a 5 minute break
3
Work for another 25 minutes followed by a 5 minute break
4
After completing four 25 minute sessions, take a longer 30 minute break
Eat the Frog
This is the cold shower equivalent of getting stuff done - grit your teeth and tackle the biggest challenge first thing, then ride that feeling of accomplishment for the rest of the day.
1
Identify the frog - make a list of all the tasks you need to accomplish the following day. Rank them not by due date, but by size, difficulty and importance. The biggest, ugliest task? That's your frog.
2
Eat it first - dedicate a chunk of your highest mental energy to making progress on your biggest task (the frog) before you do anything else.
3
Take a break - once your frog-eating session is complete, give yourself a real break to recharge.
4
Enjoy the feeling - you’ve completed the worst thing on your list - the rest of your day is free to work on other, more fun and less difficult or daunting activities. Enjoy it!
10-minute rule
This simple technique is great if you are struggling to get started, maybe because you feel a bit overwhelmed by how much you need to do.
1
Set a timer for 10 minutes
2
Start working on a task - resist every urge to switch tasks, check emails, etc. Stay focused on putting in maximum effort for those 10 short minutes.
3
When the timer goes off, you are free to finish or take a break. But pause and think whether you could do another 10 minutes - often getting started is the hardest step to take, and you’ve done that, so maybe 10 more minutes is possible