According to Allen Bluedorn, a University of Missouri management scholar “Time is a social construct.” With all the memes surfacing regarding this, we cannot deny that it makes sense depending on what kind of lifestyle you have or what culture you are in. For example, a day of work means something completely different in Europe from those in Japan or South Korea. 

Sometimes there are days and points in one’s life where day and night become blurry. While sometimes the night becomes our day, and the mornings become the night for our body clock. This is especially true during the pandemic, as everyone is at home or working from home. 

Time management is a process where we consciously take control and plan the time we incur doing specific endeavors.

This is done to multi-task within the day to increase individual efficiency, measure the effectiveness of certain strategies, and to be productive all day. Each of us is a multifaceted individual with different roles where each of us has responsibilities and obligations.

 To manage time better is to strive for a balance between work and family or personal life. In a day, we are only given a finite amount of time to juggle these responsibilities. Some of it is towards our career, social life, hobbies, family, personal interests or passions like charity or environmental activism, the improvement of our body and self, and other miscellaneous commitments that we have made.

There are a lot of techniques that we can use in order to manage our time effectively.

We just have to find which ones would work for us. One example of this technique is the Pareto Analysis also known as the 80/20 rule. Created by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, this technique tells us that 20% of our actions will dictate 80% of the outcome we desire.

That means the goal is to prioritize tasks that are most likely to solve our problems. Aimed towards problem solvers and analytical thinkers, the Pareto Analysis tells us to create a list of all our problems in order of severity, identify the causes, group together the ones caused by spending any time in social media and then plan and execute an action towards each.

Another technique that we can use is the Eisenhower matrix. This is aimed at those in leadership positions and critical thinkers. Dwight Eisenhower was the 34th US president and Allied Forces Commander during World War II. With his method, tasks are grouped into four: Urgent which are those that need to be done as soon as possible and are not urgent. The other is important, which are the tasks that are in fulfillment of long-term goals and what we stand for and unimportant. Those that are urgent and important are those you need to work on, while the not urgent and unimportant tasks are those we delegate for others to accomplish or decide to delete from the list altogether.

A British Naval historian and author of 60 books, Cyril Northcote Parkinson also created a law that can be used as a time management technique. He said that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” What he means is that the amount of time you give yourself to complete a task is also the same amount of time that it would take to finish it.

For short bursts of time, you can work more efficiently. This entails limiting the amount of time for tasks, setting a deadline for each task, getting it done as early as possible, and even working without a charger for your laptop so you will be forced to complete everything before your computer dies.

Rapid Planning Method or RPM was formulated by a motivational speaker named Tony Robbins. Aimed at people with long-term goals or working students or parents, this is a way to train the brain to focus on a certain vision and to concretize and make it all real. There are 4 C’s that need to be accomplished with this method. The first step is what is called Capturing- list down all the tasks needing to be accomplished.

 Next, chunking- group tasks according to their similarities. Third, creating your own RPM blocks. In three columns, you need one for the task, the result you desire, and the purpose of accomplishing it. The last one is creating an empowering role for yourself. Like a positive gamer tag or anything that would motivate you to complete your goals.

The last technique I’m going to share would have a bit of comedy flair in its name: The Eat The Frog Technique. This is named after a Mark Twain quote that says: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen the rest of the day.”

 Aimed at abstract thinkers and people with long-term goals, the main objective here is to list the most difficult tasks which are your “live frogs” and get it done as soon as possible in the morning. This is a funny way of remembering and doing our priorities for the day which is easy to put in mind all the time to make sure we did the things within our priorities. 

Time management will be mostly carried out with utmost productivity with a FlexiSpot product 

That will complement your time management techniques such as the Favorite Combo: Standing Desk + Under Desk Bike that features a height-adjustable Standing Desk EN1 and the Under Desk Bike V90.

The Standing Desk Desk EN1 is height adjustable made with high-grade steel, the desk frame eliminates any wobbling even at the highest adjustment point, and its powerful motor, coupled with two-stage legs, ensures smooth and fluid-like transitions all day long. With three programmable presets, you can easily save your favorite seated, standing, and under-desk cycling heights. That means that you can work in any of the postures that prevent excessive sitting or standing which may cause pains in the lower back and on your neck and shoulders.

The Under Desk Bike V90 on the other hand ensures that you do your regular exercises by cycling to strengthen your legs and thighs, and other parts of your body while performing your task for the day. This is a great tandem for your home office complimenting your time management strategies.