How many times have you thought that you don’t have time?

How many times have you thought that you don’t have time to do something you want? Probably many more than you would like. However, it is not that we do not “have time”, but that we are not managing it well. It is true that there are specific moments in which we do not have time for everything and that is why we leave some tasks parked, but if this is your day to day it is no longer a punctual moment, but your daily routine. At this point, we consider whether we are managing well the 24 hours of the day or if we need to make a change.

The first thing to keep in mind is that it is not a matter of time, but of priorities. This costs a lot to accept, since we make a thousand and one excuses to ourselves. However, it can be a necessary first step for the new organization.

To accept this it is enough to change our language, how we speak to ourselves. You can start with this little trick: instead of saying that you don’t have time to go to the gym or read a book, rephrase the sentence and say “right now it’s not a priority for me to go to the gym and take care of my health”, because that’s what’s really happening. This way, you’ll realize what your priorities are and the time you’re spending on them. If you find that you spend a lot of time on things that are not your priority (for example, working long hours to earn more money, when your priority is to be healthy), changes will have to be made.

In Stephen Covey’s well-known book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, the time management matrix that Eisenhower developed and that is still used as a model is described today. In this matrix it is necessary to locate the different tasks that are carried out throughout the day, attending to their importance and urgency. Important tasks are those that help us achieve our long-term goals and urgent tasks that require immediate attention.

In quadrant 1 would be the urgent and important tasks, they are those tasks for which you need to leave everything and get with them. It could be, for example, preparing an urgent meeting or suddenly breaking down the fridge and you need to buy a new one. Quadrant 2 contains tasks that are important to achieve your goals, but are more flexible over time. That is, they are important tasks that can be carried out in the long term. It could be things like preparing a work presentation for 2 weeks later or doing physical exercise.

Thus, in the long term I will get a good job or have better health. We should dedicate as much time as possible to these tasks because, otherwise, they will end up becoming important and urgent tasks and therefore we will run them. Quadrant 3 contains urgent but minor tasks. These tasks would be better delegated so that you can prioritize important-non-urgent tasks.  Quadrant 4 contains tasks that are neither important nor urgent, so we will try not to do them or minimize them to the maximum. Here we could put things that we do daily such as watching television or looking at the mobile.

Based on this division of tasks, productive people would be those who spend most of their time performing quadrant 2 tasks, reduce the time they spend in quadrant 1 and do not worry about quadrants 3 and 4. Reason? The tasks in quadrant 2 allow you to live life actively, anticipating and not doing everything quickly with to-dos for yesterday. In addition, they are the ones that will lead you to achieve your goals, with which you will feel really satisfied.

So, now that you know, make your matrix by putting all the tasks or activities you do throughout a day, and calculate how much time you dedicate to each of them. Once you have it, observe and consider what you want to change and what you want to spend more time on. With this valuable information, you only have to plan how you are going to do it from now on.

As you can see, managing your time better is just a matter of priorities. Check yours and get the most out of the 24 hours you have every day.