4STEP GUIDE TOCREATE MORE TIME OUT OF A

BUSY SCHEDULE

CREATE MORE TIME WITH A BUSY WORK SCHEDULE - LIFEHACK.ORG 

Introduction 

Do you feel like you’re overwhelmingly busy? Maybe you never have enough time and your schedule is ever growing?  

You’re not alone. Many people today feel that way and constantly lament a lack of time.  

Time is elusive, fleeting and precious; we are only allotted 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Learning to manage time more wisely is the only way to maximize the time we do have. When we do this, it’s as though we are creating more time out of your already busy schedule. 

In this activity sheet, you’ll learn how to manage your time and handle tasks the most efficient way, so you can work smart and achieve more, while not being constrained by limited time. 

Why You Don’t Seem to Have Enough Time 

While there are people who can’t seem to find the time to finish their work, there are those who manage to do everything in time and still find a couple of hours to relax and do what they like.  

Why is that? People who are chronically pressed for time usually share a few common characteristics... 

Not Organized 

People who are disorganized not only waste time looking for missing tasks, but also lower their productivity and hinder their chances for success. However, if you are organized, you will give your productivity a real boost and can also create time for the things and people that matter in your life.  

Not Prioritizing 

Prioritizing ensures that you make the most efficient use of your time. If you don’t rank tasks in order of importance, or make decisions on what’s most important at work, you will always feel like there are not enough hours in a day.  

Not Tracking or Budgeting Time 

Tracking and budgeting your time is vital to taking control of your day. People who don’t budget and track their time are the ones who wonder where time has gone and can’t understand why they accomplish so little at the end of each workday. 

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CREATE MORE TIME WITH A BUSY WORK SCHEDULE - LIFEHACK.ORG 

The good news? You can learn the smart way to manage your time and workload to start achieving more in less time. 

 

How to Create More Time 

If you are lagging behind when it comes to mastering your day-to-day, then this section is essential for you to understand. 

Here, you will learn some major frameworks extracted from Lifehack’s course. These frameworks will help you master your time and accomplish whatever you want. 

Every task contains three components: 

● Intention: Why you are doing it ● Value: What benefits this task brings you ● Cost: What you have to give up or invest to achieve the value ( in resources, time 

spent, etc.) 

To be able to identify the right tasks to focus on--and spend the right amount of time doing them--you’ll need to know how to evaluate them. 

How? 

Use the Superstructure Method. 

This method helps to put your actions in perspective and evaluate objectively. It helps you to think of actions like building a skyscraper. You start from a solid foundation before you reach for the sky. 

   

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CREATE MORE TIME WITH A BUSY WORK SCHEDULE - LIFEHACK.ORG 

Step 1: Start with a Clear Intention 

Look at all the tasks you have on hand and think about why you need to do these tasks. 

Ask yourself:  

● What benefit am I getting out of this task? ● Will this action help me make progress towards my goal or my company’s goal this 

week? 

 

Step 2: Decide the Task’s Value 

Based on your goal, sort the list of tasks into one of these three categories: 

● Must haves: Absolutely critical to achieve the objective. Without it, the outcome is meaningless. 

● Should haves: Important but not critical. However, leaving it out may lessen the impact of the final result. 

● Good to haves: Having it is nice, but not including it won't have any negative impact on our objective. 

For example: 

An editor’s goal this week is to ensure each of the writers follow the editorial calendar and produce high quality work. His/her tasks will be: 

● Must haves: Set a clear editorial calendar; Create a style guide for writers to follow through 

● Should have: Send emails to writers to follow up with their writing progress  ● Good to have: Schedule phone call / face-to-face update meeting with writers 

The next step is to quantify these tasks into something you can objectively rank using numbers.  

Start by assigning a number value to each of your tasks. The higher the number, the more important/urgent/valuable it is. 

Instead of a linear scale like 1 to 10, we use a set of Fibonacci Numbers (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21) --because as the numbers go up in increasingly larger intervals, it’s easier to visualize the difference between the numbers (e.g. 8 vs 13). 

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CREATE MORE TIME WITH A BUSY WORK SCHEDULE - LIFEHACK.ORG 

For example: 

● Must haves ○ Set a clear editorial calendar (21) ○ Create a style guide for writers to follow through (13) 

● Should have ○ Send emails to writers to follow up with their writing progress (5) 

● Good to have ○ Schedule phone call / face-to-face update meeting with writers (1) 

Now, it’s your turn to assign a number to the tasks:  

#  Task  Task Type  Value 

e.g 

Create a style guide for writers  Must have  13 

1       

2       

3       

4       

5       

6       

7       

8       

9       

10       

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CREATE MORE TIME WITH A BUSY WORK SCHEDULE - LIFEHACK.ORG 

 

Step 3: Evaluate the Task’s Cost and Prioritize 

After quantifying the relative priority among tasks, we need to look at each task’s cost -- the time cost. 

Some tasks are difficult, require external help, or require extreme focus. Usually this is reflected in the time required to complete it. 

At this stage, rough estimates are all you need. Usually, we split cost estimates into half-hour intervals: 

0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 

We don’t suggest having a task longer than 3 hours. This reflects that the task is probably too big and needs to be broken down further. 

And, when you have both Value and Cost quantified, you can calculate the Final Score of each task and prioritize the tasks by the Final Score -- from the highest to the lowest. 

How to calculate the final score? 

Divide the task’s Value by its Time Cost.   

Now let’s try to put everything together and find out the priority of your tasks:  

#  Task  Value  Time Cost (hr) 

Final Score  Priority 

e.g 

- Set a clear editorial calendar  - Create a style guide for writers  - Send emails to writers to follow up with their writing progress  - Call for a phone call / face-to-face update meeting with writers  

21   

13    

5    

1 

2   

2.5    

1    

1 

21/2 = 10.5   

13/2 = 6.5    

5/1 = 5    

1/1 = 1  

1   

2    

3    

4 

5 

CREATE MORE TIME WITH A BUSY WORK SCHEDULE - LIFEHACK.ORG 

1           

2           

3           

4           

5           

6           

7           

8           

9           

10           

 

Step 4: Schedule the Tasks 

Now that you know the priority of your tasks and approximately how much time you’ll be spending on each task, it’s time to put all these things into action! 

How? 

It’s as simple as scheduling these tasks on your weekly planner -- on which day and at what time should you tackle these tasks?  

If you have been following through with our guidelines on categorizing your tasks into Must Haves, Should Haves and Good to Haves (for the week), you shouldn’t be overwhelming yourself with loads of tasks any more. You’ll always have an organized weekly plan that allows you to master your time. 

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CREATE MORE TIME WITH A BUSY WORK SCHEDULE - LIFEHACK.ORG 

You may even notice that you're actually creating a solid routine for some recurring tasks such as replying emails or having regular discussions. And, routines save your time and energy to decide what to do every time, and are best to help you stay away from distractions. 

Learn more about the power of routines in this article: 

Powerful Daily Routine Examples for a Healthy and High-Achieving You 

 

Bonus Tip! 

Whenever a task comes across your mind during the week, or if there are any less important tasks that can’t fit in this week’s schedule, jot them down into your Backlog.  

Use your Task Backlog to hold onto all your tasks. It’s a way for you to process new things systematically, and not let new tasks overshadow your current priorities. 

 

Be the Master of Your Time 

Time is limited, for everyone. Learning to work smart is the only way to achieve more in such limited time. 

As demonstrated in this activity sheet, you can better manage your tasks and become a master of your time with the prioritization and tasks management techniques. 

If you want to achieve more within the limited time we have in a lifetime, stay tuned with our email newsletter.  

 

You’re Invited to Join Our Free Webinar! 

You’re also invited to join our FREE Fast-Track Class to learn some effective time management techniques! Sign up here for free now! 

 

 

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