Keeping track of time is not easy when you have dozens of tasks to be completed. Struggling to manage time could lead to stress, sleepless nights, anxiety, burnout, and other mental health issues.
To become a Super Affiliate, you need to create compelling content, market products and content, analyse performance, interact with your audience, generate traffic, generate leads, and the list goes on.
The above list made me gasp for breath!
When you have to do dozens of things in 24 hours, time management becomes extremely crucial. So to help you become a time management ninja, we have made a list of the top 10 methods after days of research and also added our experience.
(1) Eat That Frog!
When you have dozens of things to finish, identifying the most critical task and doing it first will save your day.
When you sit on your chair, identify what is the one task that will give you a sleepless night if you fail to complete it. Is it a YouTube video, a blog post, a podcast episode, a landing page, a coaching call, etc.?
Identify the task and finish it first. Do it the first thing in the day.
When you complete a critical task, a task that could give you a sleepless night, you will feel a sense of accomplishment. This sense of accomplishment will give you the inspiration to finish the remaining tasks.
So, when you start working, complete only one critical task every day. Although what I wrote may seem counterproductive, if you complete only one critical task every day, you will complete 30 such tasks in one month.
This is not to say that you can overlook the other tasks. I am saying that work on that one critical task and after you finish it, you can take up the remaining trivial tasks.
(2) Urgent-Important Matrix
The Urgent-Important matrix was put forth by the former US President, Dwight D. Eisenhower during a 1954 speech to the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches.
He said, “I have 2 kinds of problems – the urgent and the important. The urgent is never important and the important are never urgent.”
The above statement showed how the former US President organized his workload. According to him, great time management was effective and efficient.
He suggested and used the below strategies to schedule his tasks:
- Create a quadrant and label the X-axis urgent and the Y-axis important.
- Now, put Yes in quadrant 1, No in quadrant 2, No in quadrant 3, and Yes in quadrant 4.
- You will have 4 quadrants:
- Urgent and Important
- Not important and Urgent
- Important and Not Urgent
- Not Important and Not Urgent
Quadrant 1: Urgent & Important
If you identify an activity that is urgent and important, put it in the Urgent-Important quadrant and do it immediately.
Such types of tasks usually come with short deadlines. These types of tasks must be taken up immediately.
The Important-Urgent tasks are those that you MUST FINISH!
The examples of Important-Urgent tasks are as follows:
- Complete a task due tomorrow
- A coaching call
- A project proposal
- Bugs/Errors on website
- Responding to customer emails
Quadrant 2: Not Urgent But Important
The activities in the Not Urgent-Important quadrant are those that help you achieve short-term personal and professional goals.
Since they can be completed in the short term – a few days or weeks – you can schedule them.
When you identify tasks as Not Urgent-Important, make sure you have enough time to finish them. For example, you can schedule your monthly Netflix subscription to the end of the month.
Examples of Not Urgent-Important tasks are:
- Paying for a Netflix subscription
- Enrolling on an academic course
- Attending a networking event
- Modifying a personal project over time
- Signing up for a gym membership
- Planning for long and short-term projects
- Learning a new skill
Tasks that fall under the Not Urgent-Important quadrant help you in the long-term growth. This is the quadrant where you usually do “deep work.”
Since these tasks have a later deadline, you finish them by taking your time and the quality of the output is super awesome!
Quadrant 3: Urgent But Not Important
Urgent-Not Important tasks are those that may seem crucial but take you away from your goals.
These are what I call distractions that occur while you work. For example:
- Interruptions from friends, family, and coworkers
- Checking notifications
- Responding to social media messages
The tasks in the Urgent-Not Important quadrant may make you feel like you are doing something. If these tasks take up a lot of time, you will feel stressed, anxious, or worried.
Many experts suggest delegating tasks that fall under this quadrant. If the task can be finished without your involvement, you can delegate it to someone else.
Examples of the Urgent-Not Important tasks are as follows:
- Meeting notes
- Buying groceries
- Doing the dishes
- Tasks that somebody else can do better than you
I suggest you save these tasks for times when you are free and low on energy.
Quadrant 4: Not Urgent & Not Important
The tasks that come under the Not Urgent-Not Important quadrant are time-wasting leisure activities.
If you want to become an efficient Affiliate Marketer, I strongly recommend cutting down on the time you spend doing the Not Urgent- Not Important tasks.
I am in no way saying that you should not spend time on leisurely activities. I am saying that if you spend too much time on things that do not accomplish anything, you will drain your energy, passion, and creativity.
Examples of the Not Urgent-Not Important tasks are:
- Scrolling on social media for hours
- Binge-watching web series
- Watching TV for hours
- Endlessly browsing the Internet
- Excessively exploring online shopping apps
Once you divide your tasks in such a way, you will observe that your productivity has increased 2-3x.
It will take time to figure things out, but once you do, you will be a time management ninja!
(3) Pomodoro Technique
According to my experience, the Pomodoro technique is the most effective technique in time management.
Thanks to the Pomodoro technique, I have successfully increased my productivity by 2-3x. Formerly, I used to complete 4 tasks during the working day. Now, I am able to complete 11-12 tasks in the same time window!
The technique is easy-peasy! You divide your work into chunks called Pomodoros of 25 minutes, followed by 5-minute breaks.
How I follow the Pomodoro technique is as follows:
- I set a timer of 25 minutes and work.
- When the 25-minute session is over, I take a 5-minute break. I listen to a song, watch a video, walk, talk to my siblings, etc.
- Make sure that during the work session, you focus completely on work and during the break, you completely focus on the break. DO NOT WORK or think about work during the break.
- When the 5-minute break is over, I work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break.
- I continue this 25-5 cycle for 4 sessions or 4 Pomodoros, I take a 60-minute break. During the break, I relax, meditate, have fun, watch an episode of my favourite web series, etc. You can do whatever you want during the break, except work, okay?
The beauty of the Pomodoro technique is that you CAN CUSTOMISE IT!
If you do not want to follow the 25-5 cycle, you can create a 15-5 cycle, a 45-15 cycle, or a 50-10 cycle. You can set the duration of the work-break cycle however you like.
If you feel you can work without distractions for 45 minutes, you can create a 45-minute work session followed by a 15-minute break.
If you feel you perform the best in 20-minute work sessions followed by 10-minute break sessions, you can implement it!
The Pomodoro technique will help you if you have difficulty setting up a schedule. I have observed that if you work without a schedule or a routine, you will become lazy and lenient. And that severely increases the time you take to complete simple tasks.
(4) Do The 3 Most Important Activities For Today
I know as an Affiliate Marketer, business owner, or employee, you have a lot on your plate. There are deadlines to be met, content to be created, reviews, client or customer calls, and the list goes on.
However, every task on your list is not important. There are tasks that you can delegate or schedule for later.
Identify the top 3 tasks that you must finish today and take them up.
I have not used this technique myself, but mentors and business partners who used it said that following this technique helped them improve their productivity by 3-4x.
They suggest that you identify the top 3 urgent and important tasks and finish them today. Gradually, you will realise that the remaining tasks could be completed later or they aren’t as crucial as you had thought.
(5) Do The Most Complex Task When Your Focus is High
I have always been a proponent of this! I usually work when my focus levels are at their peak.
It makes more sense to work when you are focused, isn’t it?
If you are not focused and try to work, what will happen? Working when you are not focused is like trying to drive a bike with little to no fuel. There is no point in dragging yourself!
On the contrary, when you are focused, when your focus levels are high, you will do a much better task and produce a high-quality output.
So, DO NOT DRAG YOURSELF! Work only when you have the energy and focus.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s okay to take breaks! Your body is like a machine and overworking could result in burnouts or meltdowns. So, it’s okay to take breaks and please take breaks whenever you feel low or less focused.
When you work when your focus is high, you will observe that you get more done in less time. For instance, if you take 5 hours to do something when you are not focused, you will take only about 2 hours when your focus is high.
(6) Break The Tasks Down Into Smaller Chunks
The Pomodoro technique was about dividing time into chunks. This technique is about breaking the task down into smaller chunks.
For example, if your today’s goal is to publish a blog post, you can divide it into the following chunks:
- Research: Take time to research about the topic, the content, stats, facts, etc. After finishing your research, take a break of 15-30 minutes, relax, and DO NOT THINK ABOUT WORK.
- Create a rough draft: After finishing your research, you could note down the key points that you plan to include in your blog post. After you note down all the points and sub-points, take a break of 15-30 minutes.
- Write the main post: Once you have all the points and sub-points, you can create the main post that will be published on your website. I recommend taking 5-10 minute breaks after you complete each idea or heading.
- Edit/Review: Upon completing the entire post, you can proofread and/or edit, make changes (if required), look for grammar errors, spelling mistakes, etc. When you are happy with the content you created, you can publish the post.
I hope the above example gave you the idea.
Select a task that you want to finish, divide it into smaller chunks or sub-tasks and work on each sub-task one by one.
I realised that when you break a task down into sub-tasks and start finishing them one by one, you will complete the entire task in a lesser time than before.
(7) Take Breaks!
This is the most overlooked aspect of time management. I attended training and workshops on time management and I never saw anybody talking about taking breaks.
In my 4 years being an Affiliate Marketer, I have realised that taking breaks is as important as working. As I mentioned earlier, you do not want to overwork and reach a stage of burnout or meltdown.
Many Affiliate Marketers, business owners, and employees believe that if they work without breaks, they will get more done. But, as per my experience, the opposite is true.
If you work all the time, you will get exhausted – mentally and physically – and the quality of your work will take a severe hit!
Think of taking breaks in terms of driving a car. If you drive a car, I am sure you park it and let the engine cool down before you drive further. Similarly, you could relax, take breaks, and cool yourself down before you do any other work.
(8) Create A Schedule The Night Before
I learned this lesson the hard way! Before I used to plan my day when I was fresh and, believe it or not, I wasted an hour everyday planning.
After I was done planning, my energy was already at 60%. However, when I started to plan the previous night, I saw a spike in my productivity. That way I knew what I had to do the moment I sat on my chair.
When you create a schedule/planner the night before, you do not waste time thinking about what you have to do in your peak energy hours. When you sit down to work, you will know what you have to finish.
So, instead of planning during your high-energy hours, if you plan the night before, you will save energy and spend it on doing something productive.
(9) Do Not Multitask
When you multitask, you are not doing both things simultaneously, you are merely juggling between them. When you juggle between tasks, your mind wears out faster and your work quality is affected.
Instead of working on two things at a time, focus only on one thing. Concentrate all your energy on that one task and after you finish it, take up the other task.
When you do one thing at a time, you achieve more. If you do not know which one to take up first, create a priority list and do the most important task first.
(10) Pareto Principle For Effective Time Management
In 1906, an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto noted that 80% of the land property in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Thinking of it as a mere coincidence, he started to find this 80-20 ratio in other places.
His research found that:
- 80% of an organization’s results are produced by 20% of employees.
- 80% of a software’s failure/crash is caused by 20% of software bugs.
- And so on…
Pareto then proposed that since the 80-20 ratio was found in other places, it could be an indication of natural law.
Even in Affiliate Marketing, you will find the prominence of Pareto’s Principle or the 80-20 rule. Talking about myself, YouTube videos generate about 80% of leads for me. Hence, I devote 20% of my time to creating them.
In every aspect of life, 20% of effort returns 80% of the results. You may have many t-shirts, but I am sure you wear 20% of the t-shirts 80% of the time.
So, you should identify the tasks that have a high return and focus more on them. For example, if webinars generate sales, focus more on webinars. If blog posts help generate more commissions, focus on blog posts.
Conclusion
Keeping track of time is not easy when you have dozens of tasks to be completed. Struggling to manage time could lead to stress, sleepless nights, anxiety, burnout, and other mental health issues.
To become a Super Affiliate, you need to create compelling content, market products and content, analyse performance, interact with your audience, generate traffic, generate leads, and the list goes on.
The above list made me gasp for breath!
When you have to do dozens of things in 24 hours, time management becomes extremely crucial. So to help you become a time management ninja, we have made a list of the top 10 methods after days of research and also added our experience.
- Eat That Frog!
- Urgent-Important Matrix
- Pomodoro Technique
- Do The 3 Most Important Activities For Today
- Do The Most Complex Task When Your Focus is High
- Break The Tasks Down Into Smaller Chunks
- Take Breaks!
- Create A Schedule The Night Before
- Do Not Multitask
- Pareto Principle For Effective Time Management
