Create A Time Management Outline In 5 Steps

Great time management can hinge on simply having great planning and organization. And one of the best ways to check this box is to create a time management outline.

So welcome to my quick guide on how to create just that.

The steps in this post follow my exact strategy (i.e., what’s worked for me). So I’m hoping you can find some value.

But first, let’s look at what time management is, its principles and why creating an outline is so beneficial.

Let’s get it.

What Is Time Management?

It’s a concept we all have an intuitive understanding for.

But what is time management technically?

Time management is the ability to manage and organize your time effectively and efficiently, according to your goals and work.

I used to think the whole topic sounded a bit dry – but then I embraced my inner nerd, and realized what I was missing.

But before we look at the benefits, let’s dig deeper on meaning. Let’s look at the core principle of good time management.

10 Principles of Time Management

Have realistic time horizons and goals
Allow extra time for unexpected things
Have backup plans and contingencies for when things go rogue
Find what works for you
Focus on habit formation to develop better time management
Prioritize things
Don’t overextend yourself
Know your distractions and limit them
Organization – keep track of things and all of your to-dos
Avoid multitasking (unless it’s slow motion style – but more on that below)

10 Benefits of Creating A Time Management Outline

Boost your sense of control in life
Get more done by wasting less time
Learn more about yourself, your strengths and your weaknesses
Become more organized in your day-to-day
Improve your focus for individual tasks
Procrastinate less with a concrete action plan
Improve your work-life balance by scheduling more intentional free time
Stress less by taking more control of your schedule and time allocation
Boost your reputation for time efficiency and reliability
Visualize your workflow for greater clarity on your goals and priorities

How to Create A Time Management Outline (5 steps)

Now that we’ve got a foundation for time management, let’s create our custom outline.

The six tips below follow a step-by-step format, so I’d recommend doing them in consecutive order (at least to start).

1. Define Your Non-Negotiables

The first step for better time management (and anything, really) is to clearly define your priorities and your goals.

These will be your non-negotiables – the things we absolutely cannot leave behind.

Knowing your priorities lets you rank your tasks appropriately. This can ensure that you get the most important things done first.

Because the simple truth is, we can’t always do everything all the time – and we can’t be everywhere at all times.

Prioritization and goal-setting is the first step in our time management outline.

So what are some of your non-negotiables?

For me, some of mine include:

Write and produce 1 new song everyday to share on social media (2023)

This aligns with my core goals of building my music and production skills

Spend time working on the business side of my brand

This is a catchall for me, and usually varies between writing new blogs, doing keyword research, optimizing my website or working on new digital products

Finish client tasks and meet client deadlines

Because it’s not all me, all the time…

Exercise
Meditate
Work on new projects and digital products

Once you have your core priorities clearly identified, creating a custom time management outline based on those things will be much easier.

2. Identify Your Bottlenecks

A great time management outline will know exactly where you tend to get derailed (and includes workarounds for these moments).

Knowing your strengths is incredibly helpful, no doubt.

But knowing your time management weaknesses or personal bottlenecks may be even more helpful.

So what are your biggest obstacles or barriers when it comes to time management?

When (and why) do you get derailed?

What are your primary distractions or demotivators?

Honing in on your bottlenecks is essential. So write those down first.

Once you know the weakest links in your time management chain, you can create workarounds for them.

For example, some people may get distracted with social media, easily getting lost in the infamous doom scroll. So a simple fix here would be to turn off notifications (or delete the app(s) altogether).

For others, it could be a lack of time, not enough rest or depleted motivation. So the solutions could be reprioritizing your schedule, starting a meditation routine for better rest and strengthening your why for better intrinsic motivation.

For me, one of my biggest bottlenecks is perfectionism, procrastination and impatience.

So I’ve been using gamification recently to address these (and I’m happy to report that it’s actually working!).

3. Testing – Find What Works

Once you know what’s important to you (and why) and what your bottlenecks are, it’s time to choose a time management style.

This is the testing phase.

The goal here is to use a time management style that works best for you. This can require trying many different methods to find the right fit.

I also like to mix and match strategies together, sort of creating my own unique time management style.

And I think this is an important point to highlight.

We should strive to create a customized time management solution that best suits our unique circumstances and goals.

I won’t go into all the different time management methods in this post (but I did write a blog on that very topic recently, which you can read here).

So I would recommend researching and exploring some of the different methods out there. Pick and choose a few that resonate with you and take them out for a proverbial test drive.

Once you decide on one (or more), it’s time to make things more tangible.

This is where creating a template or having some visual component is incredibly helpful.

4. Make Things Visual

I’m definitely a visual learner – and I think everyone can benefit from some type of visual element in their productivity planning.

So this next step will turn your time management draft into something more tangible.

Let’s create an actual time management outline.

This could be in the form of a personal notebook, a productivity app, a digital planner or a physical schedule.

There are many formats to follow here.

Here are some other smart ways to make your time management style more visual:

Create a time management mind map

You can try a free creative tool like Coggle here

Use a done-for-you template or printable time management worksheet

At the end of the day, there’s no right or wrong way to do things – it’s whatever works best for you.

For me, I’m currently using a scheduling planner and a workflow template mixed with some timeboxing techniques.

So test out a few different visual elements in your time management outline – see what sticks for you.

5. Develop A Time Management Habit

After you’ve created a template for visualizing and keeping track of your timely things, it’s time to shift focus to habit building.

The success of our time management behaviors depends largely on our time management habits.

But habit formation is a big topic. So we won’t get into the finer nuances of all that here.

The takeaway is this though: we want to turn our time management outline into an automatic routine. We want to create a new pattern of thinking and behaving.

Here are some quick tips for forming new, long-lasting habits:

Foster a growth mindset
Have a strong, compelling reason why
Stack the deck in your favor (make sure the people, places and content in your life support your new habit goals)
Focus on forming new habits (not breaking old ones)
Be patient and have realistic time horizons
Use visualization and emotional forecasting techniques to better embrace your new lifestyle