Dr. Aeon’s Time Management Tips
Knowing how to manage your time is crucial as an aspiring PR professional. Balancing projects from different clients, and attending internal and external meetings can be tricky without set time management strategies.
The Broom Student Fellows met with time management researcher, Dr. Brad Aeon. Aeon shared tips on maximizing productivity with time management, helping the Broom Student Fellows navigate their postgraduate career and personal life.
Visualize your time
Creating a true schedule will push forward efficiency with your time. Aeon explained there is a stark difference between a calendar and a schedule. A calendar should be used to maintain deadlines and occasions, whereas, a schedule structures a daily routine.
Deep work sessions are undisturbed blocks of work time that must be implemented into a schedule, at least two to three times daily. With social media as a distraction, applications such as freedom.to and Opal block notifications and app usage, elevating deep work sessions. A 30-min.break must be scheduled in between. Any task that takes 15 min. or more must be scheduled and incorporated into your schedule.
Cognitive Offloading
Most people consume an influx of information every day. Information organization tools like Evernote, One Note and Notion store notes and plan out tasks.
Implementing these tools daily will help avoid task aversion. About 50% of study respondents explained that their procrastination is due to task aversiveness and timing of rewards and punishments. Instead of creating a to-do list with a daunting task, break it down into subtasks.
Prioritization
With multiple tasks and subtasks ready to be completed, how does someone start? Aeon recommends two strategies: plan around chronotype and focus on outcomes.
A chronotype is your biological clock and knowing it will maximize your productivity level. Deciphering whether someone may be a morning lark or night owl helps structure mornings, afternoons and evenings to the appropriate tasks. For example, morning larks should choose complex tasks in the morning and dedicate their afternoon and evening to simple and creative tasks.
The Mere Urgency Effect plagues the ability to finish tasks that provide greater and long term benefits. Aeon enforces the idea that even when a meaningless task is urgent, it does not mean it should be completed first. Looking at the outcomes of each task will help reach goals and see results sooner.
