By Time management is a big struggle, even for the best. With so much to do, most people often find themselves with little time to make it happen. With time, as your professional and personal responsibilities grow, it is quite natural for you to find yourself facing the challenge of effective time management more than often.
Effective time management comes with many advantages. It helps boost your productivity at work, as you don’t rush through your tasks and deadlines. By organizing your time more effectively you can get everything done on time and alleviate your stress levels. It also lowers your chances of committing mistakes at work like missing deadlines, forgetting appointments, or bypassing errors. What’s more? It can even help you find some extra personal time as well.
So, if you find yourself often stressed out with too much workload or find yourself unable to maintain a healthy work-life balance, then you need to read these effective time-management skills right now.
- Make a Personal Schedule
The best way to manage your time is by organizing your day (or week) in advance. If you have been accustomed to your role and your organization for a while, you would be able to identify the recurring tasks and patterns that need to be added to your schedule. It is a simple to-do list to get you started on the right track and focus on essential things that need to be done.You can use online and offline tools to prepare a more functional and organized schedule and to-do list, such as Trello, Any.do, Wunderlist, etc.
- Prioritize your tasks
Just preparing a schedule is not enough; you need to know which tasks require more attention than the others. You have to prioritize your day keeping in mind the importance as well as the urgency related to your assignments at work. At times, it is the unimportant tasks that can end up consuming most of your time. So, be smart about prioritizing your work to focus on more important things that will deliver the best returns.You can follow a simple ‘ABC Method/System’ of prioritizing, listing your daily tasks under each letter based on importance and urgency.
- Start Early
Here’s one thing that most successful people have in common- they start their day early to get more time to plan and execute their work effectively. By starting your day a little early you can find extra time for yourself that can be spent on prioritizing your day, answering your emails or brainstorming on new ideas.You are at your best and sharpest when you get up. As your day progresses, your energy levels go down, which affects both your productivity and performance.
- Set Deadlines
Learn to set realistic deadlines for your tasks at work and stick to them. Deadlines help you stay focused on tasks that are important. They also help to prioritize your time at work better. Setting personal or professional deadlines will help you achieve your goals in a more organized manner, and push you towards challenging yourself further. - Avoid Multitasking
Multitasking is a myth that can hamper your productivity. Tackling several tasks simultaneously can be counter-productive and more time consuming as your focus gets divided further away from your priorities. If you have to multitask, then it is best to set deadlines to each of them and group them further to complete your work seamlessly. - Learn to Say ‘NO’
The art of saying ‘no’ is a crucial one to learn in life, be it personal or professional. While it is not easy to say ‘no’, remember if you keep saying ‘yes’ to every additional task and project thrown at you, it can end up derailing you from your own priorities and deadlines.As you are learning time-management skills, you need to be very conscious of how and where you spend your time while in office. So, if you feel you are already overloaded with work, say ‘no’.
- Delegate and Outsource Responsibilities
Sometimes it’s not easy to avoid multitasking or saying ‘no’ to extra work, in such cases you should delegate your responsibilities so as to be vigilant about how you spend your time. No matter how good you are you can’t do everything. So, spend time on things that you do best and outsource the rest. Remember, it is not a sign of weakness; it is a smart way to lessen your stress and stay more productive. - Avoid Procrastination
Procrastination is the biggest enemy of productivity, which can leave you strapped for time at work. There are many reasons why people procrastinate, like when they don’t enjoy their task at hand or feel overwhelmed with work or when they are being perfectionists. But delaying your tasks only ends with them piling up, which can be dangerous for you later on as it can lead to missing deadlines or messing your goals. So, if something can be (or needs to be) done today, do it! - Avoid Unnecessary and Bad Distractions
From social media and mindless browsing to water-cooler gossips, it is quite easy to get distracted as you continue doing the same tasks day in and day out. So, identify your weaknesses and find ways to deal with them. Whenever you feel that your attention is slipping away from your work or schedule, get rid of the distractions. Such distractions can take too much of your time, leaving you behind schedule.There are many apps and tools that you can use to get rid of unnecessary distractions. There are many tools to block distracting websites from your devices, such as Freedom, StayFocusd, LeechBlock, Zero Willpower, etc. You can also use apps like RescueTime, Focus Booster and Toggl, to track your online activity and find out where you spend most of your time.
- Take Regular Breaks to Stay Calm and Avoid Stress
While doing away with distractions is necessary, adding some scheduled break time to your day can be quite productive. During your day, have your lunch away from your desk and take a short 10-minute walk out of your office or listen to some soothing music. This will help you relax and get back to work with renewed energy. - Review your Workweek and Track your Goals
At the end of a workweek, spend some time reviewing your to-do lists and goals. See what you have accomplished, where you could have performed better and where you might be lagging behind. Time-management is not a short-term, quick fix hack that can be adopted in a short time. This skill needs to inculcated and developed steadily, so as to help you get better results in long-term.
These were 11 smart and practical ways you can improve your time-management skills at work, but there is something more we want to add in the end. Take time out for to relax and recharge yourself. Remember, work life is both a sprint and a marathon. It’s not just short-term but the long-term care you have to take of yourself to be able to achieve your goals without burning out. So, get enough sleep, take proper rest, spend time with your loved ones, and schedule some vacation time occasionally, as these things will improve your productivity, your focus, and your time-management skills considerably. Remember, health is wealth!
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