In our daily life, we are always in a hurry to get many things done, and sometimes it is very difficult for us to manage these processes. As long as the work we have to do has a deadline, we don't have any problems about when these works should be completed. Of course, we have a lot of difficulties in planning this, but the homework and tasks given to us since we were little, teach us to keep up with the deadline.

What about when the process requires us to set these deadlines and when we face responsibility from many sources, not just one source, are we successful at managing them? There are dozens of people working in many companies who decide on when projects should be completed, how many people will do this project, and how much budget these projects should necessitate. Unless you have a secretary, unfortunately, there is no one to do it for you.

In this blog post, I want to share how I created a management scheme for school, work, and personal development with you. After that, I will mention some of the applications I use to manage these processes, why I use these applications, what I pay attention to in order to set deadlines, and how I create my working periods. I hope it will be a useful post for you. Let's get started!

1. You can not remember everything.

I can summarize this part in a very simple sentence. The only thing that you need to do is to write.

Of course, there are many ways to do this, but if you ask me which one is the most efficient way, I would go for using paper.

We live in a digital world and we are all familiar with following up on what we need to do in the digital environment. However, sometimes it is good to integrate traditional ways, too. To do so, take a piece of paper and write down everything you need to do in all its aspects, and create an outline to be able to manage these processes. You may later detail them in a digital environment.

Not only write down what you need to do, but also write the ideas that pop up in your mind, the topics that you may be interested in later, and the article that you want to read, but you don’t have enough time to read!

“Taking note is an action that enables your thoughts to be revived.”

2. Use a calendar.

My best assistant in self-control is a <u>calendar.</u> I recommend using a digital calendar application because you can set reminders on most of the calendar apps, and track your workload by accessing your weekly - monthly workflow.

There are several calendar applications in the market, and I tried the most popular ones. Among them, what I suggest is Google Calendar.

Why?

First of all, you can set events, reminders and customize their notification frequencies. Furthermore, Google Calendar is available for every device which has a browser, and also applications are provided on iOS and PlayStore.

In addition to the qualities of the standard calendar application, if you make the meeting plan through this application, an invitation is automatically sent to everyone who will attend the meeting, and a google meet video conference link is automatically set.

The people who receive the invitation can indicate whether they can attend or not, both via their emails and google calendar. In this way, you can have the exact number of participants who are supposed to attend the meeting.

I also really like the widget provided by Google Calendar on my android phone. You can arrange its size and you can have an idea about your schedule.

3. Stop thinking, start taking an action.

Well, now we know what our tasks are, and we do not need to memorize our whole tasks, so now you can focus on doing your tasks one by one.

First of all, you should define an estimated time to complete your task. This will be very complicated at first, but after a while, you realize that you will be very successful at estimating your workload. If you want to be successful in estimating time for your tasks, first of all, you should record your working hours. In such a way, you will be able to manage your time according to your workload.

What do I do for my task management;

Maybe you are familiar with Pomodoro Technique. In short, you create periods for each task. I prefer to set each period for 25 minutes, and I set a goal for that. After I am done with the first period, I give a short break for 5 minutes. In this link, you can create your own Pomodoro Timer. I prefer to use a browser because my computer is always on when I work on something, but you can download a Pomodoro timer application to your Android or iOS device too. Thanks to this method your attention span will considerably increase.

Sometimes I also may add two periods to complete one task, or I adjust the timing of periods if my workload is high.

P.s. Please do not set yourself impossible goals. Set your goals which you can do.

4. Do not let anything disturb you!

Well, last but not least you should only focus on your task. If you lose your focus on your subject, it means that you need to restart some of your studies or you may lose the path of your plan. Mute notifications on your phone by turning on the “do not disturb” mode. Even turning airplane mode on may be one of the options. During the break times in your working periods, you may check your notifications, e-mails, calls, etc.

What I do is to add some of my contacts to my favorite list on my mobile phone, so that I can hear their callings even if my phone is on “do not disturb” mode. These contacts are people who are critically important to me and who should be able to reach me whenever they call.

Most of the social media application notifications are disabled on my phone and I check the notifications at long breaks during Pomodoro technique.

At the very beginning, you may encounter some difficulties until you set up a system for yourself, but in time you will find the mistakes you have made and you will get rid of them. Take your time. The first thing you are supposed to do when you wake up is to plan your day. Have a productive life!