Learning and Productivity Mondays: Time management – The Action Method

September 13, 2021August 28, 2021 | Rae

Guys, I’m facing some kind a blogger slump, probably because I tend to wear myself out while writing blogs, it’s pretty new for me. But I’ll still try my best to be active in the site and write few blogs here and there.

Let’s say you are working on a science project. You need to set up a time, materials and there are some few things you need to do later on. Now compare this to doing your task, see any similarities? well that’s what we’re focusing on. The action method mostly focuses on keeping tasks as projects so that you will understand what you need to do. In this blog, I’ll be explaining how this method works, pros and cons and who’s it’s best for, let’s get into it!

How this works: So we are going to separate the projects in 3 folders.

Action steps – The next concrete action time in the project
References – Resources or information you need to keep, but don’t act on
Back-burner items – Things or ideas you might need to handle later on, or in another specific time.

Pros
- You can view the tasks in your list so you can act on it.
- All the tasks and ideas will stay fresh on your mind.
- Once you finish tasks, it will start to dwindle down.
Cons
- It won’t be helpful to prioritize.
- You can feel overwhelmed with the tasks.

Who’s it best for: It can be great for people who need reference and need help staying focused on the action tasks.

And now we’ve come to the end of the blog, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Feel free to check any other blogs I’ve posted and if you want to support this blog(Not forcing you to, it’s your choice:) ), make sure you like, Leave a comment (don’t be hurtful), and follow me if you want more content like this! Until then… Bye!

Learning and Productivity Mondays: Time management methods – Time blocking

September 6, 2021September 11, 2021 | Rae

Let’s say you make a To-Do list for a 8 hour workday. It can be full of meetings, emails or just have small talks with people throughout he day. But you only get 1-2 hours of productivity because you’re so caught up with a lot of things. That’s when time-blocking comes in place. In this blog, I will be talking about what is time-blocking, how you should use this and few tips when using this method. Let’s get into it!

What is Time-Blocking?: This is a practice in which you plan out every moment of the day and dedicating specific blocks(time-period) for certain tasks. We all have our reasons on why we can’t do time-blocking. Whether it be predicting your day, not having time to make a schedule and a lot of other complications. Although this can be hard, we will work through how you can use it.

How should we use it?:
- Start with your high-level priorities: When creating your schedule you have keep in mind on how you are going to segregate time. You need to know why you are doing this and list out reason which you can help you have a base on your planning.
- Create your “Blocks”: Start by creating your time periods by choosing an activity and scheduling it.
- Set aside time for both Deep & Shallow tasks: When your creating your tasks, activities like resting, talking to friends, check out social media can be scheduled as well.
- Ultraschedule: You got to be very determined when it comes to creating a schedule. Try your best making time for everything without wearing yourself out.

Few tips from Time-Blocking Experts:
- Make Breaks between your day: Set aside time for breaks, we are not machines that keep working right? you can take some rests whenever you get time.
- Set an “over-flow” day to make you feel less overwhelmed: If you are falling behind your schedule, you can make an “overflow” day since you have a lot of things to do.
- Overestimate the time you’ll take for a task: When scheduling a task use, try estimating the time you will take for a task. You can also use methods like pomodoro.

Learning and Productivity Mondays: Time Management methods – The SMART goals Method

August 30, 2021August 25, 2021 | Rae

In today’s method, I’m going to be explaining the SMART goals method. As you see in the name of the method, it mostly surrounds over keeping goals and focusing on what you want to achieve. I’ll be explaining how it works, pros and cons, and how you can get started, Let’s get into it!

How it works: This Method sort of works as a goal-setting formula that can encourage you to be serious with what you want to achieve. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-related. This means that that the goal you’re setting should well-defined and clear. You need to straightforward but at the same time logical for the goal you are setting. Let’s look at some examples.

Bad goal: Lose weight

SMART goal: Lose weight within 2 weeks and set up a healthy eating schedule at the start of summer vacation.

Pros:
- Using SMART goals can help prioritize your goals.
- It can keep you motivated
- Keep track of progress
- Clear definition of success
Cons:
- It doesn’t solve conflict between different goals
- It may cause stress
- You might put too much focus on the goals

When it comes to the cons, you have to careful on how you creating the goal. It should be kept in a comfortable timing so you don’t feel overwhelmed.

How can you get started? : When it comes to breaks in the year, whether it vacay or just holiday, try utilizing them to be more productive so you don’t get regret the time you had in the future.

Learning and Productivity Mondays: Time management methods – Eat the frog

August 9, 2021August 9, 2021 | Rae

In everyday tasks, we always have that one task that is quite hard or difficult, so our minds are always occupied, thinking what we are going to do. Today’s technique has a lot to do with overcoming hard tasks, so it can be hard for people who procrastinate. In this blog, I will be talking about the “Eat the frog” technique, how it works and the pros & cons. Let’s get into it!

How it works: First, you’ll have to identify the frog in your task list, the frog being the hardest task. It can be the task you’re doing for the week or day. Choosing your frog can be quite easy, a lot of people spot it. If you need help, it is basically the task which makes you think a lot and stresses you out. Next, you’ll need to get the task done first thing in the morning. And that’s pretty much it.

Pros: 1. Get the hard task out of the way early in the day. 2. Strengthens your willpower. 3. Reduces stress makes you feel calm the rest of the day.

Cons: 1. It requires a lot of dedication and willpower when trying this method. 2. Can be emotionally draining and can affect the rest of your day. 3. Easy to fall of this habit.

Who’s it best for: It can be good for people wanting to get things done and want to finish it early.

Learning and Productivity Mondays: Time management methods – Personal Kanban

August 2, 2021August 1, 2021 | Rae

When using task applications, you mostly assign tasks to yourself and categorize them into labels. The Kanban has something similar to it and it can be done on a piece of paper or using MS Word or PowerPoint. Kanban is one of the leading time productivity methods because of it’s ease of use and effectiveness. In this blog, I will be talking about how it works and the pros & cons.

How it works?

The Kanban board has only 3 lists:

Backlog/To-Do – This is similar to the to-do lists you write on paper. It consists tasks that need to be done soon.
Doing/In-progress – This list consists of tasks that you are doing currently.
Done – This list is basically tasks that you have done. Once you’re done with the task you can put in this list.

Since this method has 3 lists, it’s not that you should write your tasks in all of them at once, it’s kind of like a process. First off, you put all the task you need to do in the first list, and when you are starting to do one of the tasks you can move it to the next one, and finally once you are done you can move it to the last list.

Pros: 1. Powerful visualization 2. Easy to track your progress 3. Simple to manage and organize

Cons: 1. Long tasks can be overwhelming 2. Working on a lot of tasks can be confusing 3. Hard to scale

This method is more over for people who are more visually orientated and looking for a simple and straight-forward solution to manage tasks and projects.

Learning and Productivity Mondays: How to prioritize your tasks with the Eisenhower matrix

July 26, 2021July 26, 2021 | Rae

Since I am focusing a lot on tasks and organizing everyday life, I have an interesting method in which you can use, it’s the Eisenhower Matrix. It’s seems complex but it’s quite simple and easy to use. I’ll explain about it in this blog. Let’s get into it!

The Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, or simply as the Important/Urgent Matrix is a graphical tool used to prioritize tasks by focusing on 2 attributes: Importance and Cruciality. It’s more of a graph and it has 4 boxes in which I’ll explain each of them.

1. Important but Not Urgent Tasks – This section consists of tasks which are important but doesn’t have to been done right away. However, the tasks should have a specific date for it to be done. Examples include: Projects, setting up a meal plan, etc.

2. Important and Urgent Tasks – This section consists of tasks which are critical and have to be done in the same day or a short span of time. Examples include: Assignments, meetings, etc.

3. Not Important and Not Urgent Tasks – This section consists of tasks that are not needed to be done immediately and it’s not that important. These tasks can be done later. Examples include: Special occasions, future plans.

4. Not Important but Urgent Tasks – This section consists of tasks that are not important but are quite urgent. It can be done by you or you can get a friend to help you. Examples can include: upcoming group projects, planning an event later on.

And we come to the end of the blog, I hope you enjoyed this blog and learned something from this, if you have tried do share your experience and your thoughts about this blog. Feel free to check out any other blog content you’ve missed and check out my Pinterest. Until then… Bye now!

Learning and Productivity Mondays: Time Management techniques -✨Pomodoro Technique✨

July 19, 2021July 16, 2021 | Rae

In our day to day life, we have our plans and schedules to follow. But it’s not easy, having full focus a specific task. After scrolling on my Pinterest feed, which is full memes and random stuff, I came across the Pomodoro technique. After doing some research and testing it out, it has helped me a lot in my online classes and just general tasks. In this blog. I will be talking about what it’s about, how does it work, what are the benefits and some of my experiences of it. Let’s get into it!

What’s it about?: The Pomodoro technique is one of the most popular time management methods created by Francesco Cirillo in the early 1990s. Since this technique has been there for about 30+ years, a lot of people have been using it in their daily life to complete their tasks in a more organized way. Fun fact: “Pomodoro” means “tomato” in Italian. And the reason why Cirillo named this technique Pomodoro is because as a university student he used to track his work with a tomato-shaped timer.

How does it work?: When you use this method, you have to set a timer for 25 minutes, and during that time period, you work on the task with 0 distractions, not even multi-tasking. After 25 minutes, you can take a short break(5 mins) or a long break(10 mins) and everything you need to do before the next set. After 4 reps, you can take longer breaks(let’s say 20 mins).Depending on the number of the tasks, you can use this as many times as you need.

Benefits of this technique: The main idea of this technique is to give you a sense of urgency or awareness of the time you’re spending on a specific task, therefore, the use of timers. It can also make you hyper-focused on what you are doing so that you can get it done. It also reduces mental overload and burnout, because you are splitting your tasks in these time periods which also includes breaks.

My experiences using this technique: In one of my other blogs, I was talking about applications to use during studying/working. When I used those websites in my studying and assignments, it actually does work for me. I’m able to finish everything and keep all my learning organized.

Learning and Productivity Mondays: How to create an evening routine for a productive day

July 12, 2021July 9, 2021 | Rae

After a day of work and studying, we always feel tired. We don’t feel like doing anything . What I suggest is keeping an evening routine. This can help refresh your mind and calm down. In this blog, I will be including 3 activities you can include in your evening schedule.

Music: Honestly who doesn’t like music(do you?), and I recommend this a lot. Keeping a playlist of all your favorite songs or finding relaxing instrumentals can really help clearing your mind and can help you have a break. Maybe even go for a walk while you’re at it. I do this a lot during the evening, I go walk in the apartment complex or in the terrace where there is more wind.

Journaling: Writing down your thoughts are some of the ways you can express your feelings. You can keep an everyday where you can write down all the things that happened in your day, what you hope for the future, and maybe write down some inspirational words.

Meditate: Meditating can be done in many ways. You can do some yoga to energize your body and relax your muscles. You can also spend time praying, talking with a friend, or jut have some sweet quiet time.

Declutter: You can also clean your house if it is slightly messy, a messy room isn’t an ideal place to calm down. You can do your normal chores and maybe put some music or watch a show so you don’t feel like you’re alone.

Books: Reading books can also be calming. It can be resting for your eyes and you can spend reading your favorite book.

Learning and productivity Mondays: Checklist items for studying/working supplies – My takes

July 5, 2021July 9, 2021 | Rae

Before the starting of school, I go for Back-to-school shopping. I buy my pencils, pens and basic stuff for my learning. Since it is lockdown, we get it online. Recently, I went into my Pinterest where I save my pins and I found a checklist of what you need, and it had quite interesting options. In this blog, I will be sharing a checklist for what you need for studying and basic things you need for working as well. Let’s get into it.

School items:-

Pencil box/pouch
Blue/Black ball point pens
No.2 pencils/ normal pencils
Sharpener and eraser
Highlighters
Markers
study planner( basically a Journal or any calendar)
Loose leaf papers/ spiral notebooks
Graph paper
Correction pen
Post-its/sticky notes(optional)
Glue and Scissors
Plastic folders/dividers
Water bottle

These are the things I use for my school. It has all the basic necessities for school. Even though, we are in the digital age and we have online school, we should still do our physical work and manage our offline school learning too.

Office items

Calendar
Binders and folders
Desk Organizer
Pens
Spiral notebooks
Planner
Charging port(Optional)
Pen stand
Water bottle

These are the things I feel can be useful for your office desk. Using binders, folders and Desk organizers can help make your place look neat and easy to use. These items can help make your place look organized and can give a focused environment to work in.

And now we have come to the end of the blog, I hope you enjoyed and found my blog helpful! until next time… Bye!

Rae-rae's blogs

Mediocre content, but on stuff I love

1, Learning and Productivity Mondays