Varun Chandran
Tech entrepreneur and social volunteer from Kerala. He is the founder and CEO of Corporate360, a fast-growing tech startup with offices in Singapore, India and US.
Running a start-up can be excruciatingly time consuming and has the potential to zap all of your energy, not leaving much time for anything else. But we value time spent with family and friends, while also having time to ourselves for a chance to work on our creative projects.
Over the years, we had to get to grips with time management so Corporate360 didn’t completely consume me. Through this process, I have learned some great ways to manage time and become more productive, which I want to share to help other entrepreneurs and busy business people master the clock.
Take time at the end of each day to plan for tomorrow
“At the end of each day, I map out what I’m going to do tomorrow,”
This process helps to focus on what lies ahead and to review short-term and long-term goals. The key to writing a schedule for the following day is to give yourself timeframes and deadlines to achieve each task, so you don’t get caught up on one single item, leaving no time for anything else.
Start the day with the most difficult and important tasks
Humans are natural procrastinators, and if there’s a task we don’t want to do, chances are we’ll keep putting it off. This should be avoided. “Kick off your day by accomplishing the most important task on your to-do list first”. “It’ll give you a sense of achievement and make you feel better about the rest of your day.”
Understand when you are the most productive
We all have our power hours. For some of us, this might be the early morning, for others, it could be the evening.
The trick is to find out when you are the most productive, and the times of day you struggle to concentrate, and then assign relevant tasks for these periods. “If you tend to switch off when 3 pm arrives, schedule some mundane tasks for these hours when you’re low in energy”
Be aware of what wastes your time
If you find yourself being distracted by unimportant tasks throughout the day, take note of them so you understand what you’re spending your time on when you shouldn’t be. “Think about delegating these tasks to an assistant if you think it’ll free up more time to focus on other, more important things.”
Ignore social media
Research from Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange shows the average person wastes more than three and a half hours a day on social media. This is a frightening statistic and shows why it’s important to switch off from social media during the hours you know you should be working.
“The same goes for email too. Only respond to emails based on priority, so you’re not constantly distracted every hour”
Focus and make each day a success
I hope these tips will increase your daily productivity. Do you have any handy tips to add? Leave them in the comments below!
