Eat a Live Frog and Other Time Management Tips for Remote Workers
Working from home can bring on distractions that will ruin your productivity or quality of work. | Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
Working remotely has a bounty of benefits, one of them being that you get to work off your own schedule (for the most part). However, working remotely also comes with several distractions that can hinder your productivity and quality of work. Remote workers have unstructured time and are 100 percent accountable for how they use it.
If you find yourself getting distracted, there are several techniques that could be helpful with the way you manage your time. To help, we have outlined five types of time management techniques that have worked for people in the past.
Time Blocking
This method was created by Elon Musk. A serial entrepreneur that works over 80 hours a week and still manages to make time for himself and his family. So, how does he do it? Time blocking.
How to do it: Look at everything on your plate for the day and assign each time in your day to a task. These tasks can be anything from taking a shower to completing a blog post. Below is an example:
10:00-10:30 AM: shower and get ready for the day
11:00-12:30 PM: complete [task A].
12:30-1:00 PM: eat lunch.
1:00-2:00 PM: complete [task B].
The Pomodoro Method
Famous for its tomato timer, the Pomodoro method encourages you to use a timer to break down your work into intervals. This is especially helpful for creative thinkers or people who find themselves getting distracted easily.
How to do it: Choose a task you need to get done and set a timer for a certain about of time (ex: 25 mins). Focus on the task at hand and when the timer rings, take a short break (3-10 mins). For your break, consider going for a walk, grabbing a cup of coffee or doing something non-work related. When your break is over, continue the same task or start another for the same amount of time.
The Eisenhower Matrix
If you struggle to prioritize the tasks in your day, then this method is for you. This time management technique was created by President Dwight Eisenhower. He would use it to prioritize his most important tasks and decisions, by putting them into one of four quadrants.
How to do it: Organize your tasks into four separate quadrants sorting them by urgent vs not urgent and important vs unimportant. Urgent tasks are those that have tight deadlines and need to get done today/tomorrow. Important tasks are those that contribute to your long-term goals or values. Once you have done this, you should prioritize your day by working out of the first two quadrants.
Eat That Frog Technique
This technique is derived from Mark Twain’s quote “Eat a live frog the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” This means that you should start your day by doing the most difficult tasks first.
How to do it: If you have a big goal for yourself, whether it’s completing a huge project or losing 10 pounds, write down a list of steps you need to take to achieve your goal. Then order your list in terms of priority. Your most difficult steps are going to be first. These are your “frogs.” Take action to eat your frogs first before completing the rest of your tasks.
At the end of the day, managing your time comes down to your mindset and finding a method that works best for you. I recommend trying out a few of these techniques to see what you are most comfortable with and adjust from there. Something that works for your friend, might not work for you. So, test out a few methods and see what feels best.
Guest writer Sierra Skelly is a creative writer and content marketer from San Diego. When she isn’t creating compelling content for clients such as USA.edu, you can find her reading a murder mystery novel or hiking by the beach.