5 Alternative Time-Saving Techniques to Boost Productivity

Time tracking and time management help organize everything more effectively. Some techniques are good to stop putting off tasks, while others allow us to manage schedules. In this post, you’ll find five alternative time-saving methods that will help overcome procrastination, plan your day or week, and re-organize an approach to your schedule.

We bet you’ve heard of Eat the Frog and Pomodoro time management techniques already.

The former intends you to start a day by completing the most critical, challenging, and energy-consuming tasks to save time and motivation. The latter helps you organize time by blocks to stay productive: You take a five-minute break after 25 minutes of work and consider a more extended, 15-30-minute break after four of those 25/5-minute time blocks.

These two are standard time tracking and time management techniques, and you’ll find them in every second blog post on productivity tips. But what about a few alternatives to try?

5 Alternative Time-Saving Techniques

1. ALPEN

This time-saving technique comes from German economist Lothar J. Seiwert. ALPEN is the acronym outlining five critical steps in organizing and using your time:

• A (Aufgaben): You write down all the tasks, planned activities, appointments, and even your morning routine.
• L (Länge schätzen): Estimate the length of every action to understand how much time you could spend on it.
• P (Pufferzeiten einplanen): This phase is about planning buffer time.
• E Entscheidungen treffen): You make decisions on prioritizing tasks.
• N (Nachkontrolle): You follow up and control the execution of tasks according to the list.

So you start a day by making a list of tasks, note how much time each of them will take, and then allocate 60% of your time to work and the rest — to socializing, rest, and unplanned activities.

Remember about prioritizing: You can postpone some activities or delegate them. In the evening, evaluate how productive you were, revise your plan, and move the unfulfilled tasks to the next day.

When you see that you postpone one task a few days in a row, prioritize or give it up.

The ALPEN method helps understand where your time goes and what you can do to organize it for better productivity and project management.

2. GTD (Getting Things Done)

The time-saving methodology comes from David Allen, a personal performance expert. In his book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity, he described it, suggesting to make time management a lifestyle.

This system comes from a straightforward idea: It’s easier for us, humans, to process information than store it. To make the job easier for our brain, Allen advises capturing and collecting all tasks and ideas, even the smallest and craziest ones, in one place. You can store them in a task tracker, in an email, or your smartphone notes.

When gathered, clarify each with details:

Write out step-by-step and set a deadline if possible; delegate what you can; complete the tasks requiring less than two minutes of your time at once; move the activities with a specific deadline to the calendar.

Feel free to store all tasks into folders. For example, you can have separate folders for project-specific tasks, household chores, and hobbies. When organized, choose a folder from the desired category and get to work.

It’s worth updating your to-do lists at least once a week. The process may seem tedious, but the method will start working if you get into it, and life will become much more ordered.

3. Autofocus System

The author of this time-saving system, productivity expert Mark Forster, addressed it to all creative people who find it challenging to deal with boring or monotonous tasks.

He suggests getting a notebook and writing down all the tasks that come to your mind on the first page: attending webinars, trying new online courses, going to the gym, reading, etc. Then, run through that list slowly and thoughtfully to find the activity you want to do.

Forster advises doing it for as long as you want. Once you lose interest but the task remains unfinished, cross it off the list and add it again to the bottom.

Ideally, you need to work with the first page until you cross out all the tasks. But if there are some activities you don’t want to do, leave them and move on to the next page, with a new to-do list. When the notebook is complete, go back to the beginning and take up the tasks you haven’t done.

Sure thing, there are some tasks you can’t postpone or give up; such as checking emails, for example. Mark Forster recommends having a separate notebook for them and proceeding according to the same principle.

The autofocus method combines a systematic approach to business with an intuitive one. Intuition helps us make appropriate choices and not to waste hours on procrastination.

4. The 20 Minutes Trick

This one reminds the Pomodoro technique: You give yourself 20 minutes to complete a task. Once these 20 minutes end, you decide whether you want to stop or continue working.

The trick is that you’ll be more likely to continue: 

It’s hard to start, but it’s harder to stop. 

Journalist Younes Henni says

This time-saving technique helps you overcome emotional resistance and beat procrastination. When we get involved in a task, it’s easier to keep at it by inertia than to quit halfway through.

Henni notes that the 20 minutes trick allows doing twice more than planned and sometimes gives a four-hour productivity boost! As they say, a good beginning is a half battle.

5. The “Pessimistic” Approach

Time management consultant Laura Vanderkam is sure that “good time management means planning a resilient schedule, not a perfect one.” She has noticed that even those people who plan things in advance often forget to prescribe the time for force majeure. So, they succeed in time management when everything goes according to the plan but have to give up hobbies, self-growth, or time with family when something unexpected happens for them to work more.

Laura suggests the backup approach, a so-called “pessimistic” one:

It’s when you don’t expect that you’ll keep the schedule minute to minute but set aside extra time in the week for work tasks. Yes, it can be challenging to do with a busy schedule, but it allows you to get everything done.

Choosing the best time-saving technique for your needs

Time management and time-saving techniques are many, and everyone has their own preferences here. Sure thing, we can’t use all of them at once; but we can try both standard and alternative time-saving tactics to understand which one works best for our individual needs.

But whatever technique you choose, please do not ignore and underestimate the power of time trackers: They’ll help you see where your time goes and re-organize your schedule for better motivation and productivity.

About the author:

Lesley Vos is a professional copywriter and guest contributor, currently blogging at Bid4Papers.com. Specializing in data research, web text writing, and content promotion, she is in love with words, non-fiction literature, and jazz. Visit her Twitter @LesleyVos to say hi and see more works.

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