"Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, and not enough time on what is important." - Steven Covey
Whether you're an experienced professional or a rookie, there will always be moments when you feel you need an extra hour or two to finish your tasks. It's impossible to be in control of every minute of your workday, but it's worth trying to rule most of the day while being the most productive you can be.
Time management skills are not easy to acquire, but they can significantly improve your career once you possess them.
Please don't take it the wrong way: being busy all the time does not equal being productive. You must be smart in handling your work to be effective and perform well.
In the following lines, we will see what time management is, what skills are, the benefits of handling your time at work, and a concise but straightforward plan for better time management in the workplace. It’s an article both for employees and for managers.
Contents:
Time management is the process of organizing and planning the way to spend your time on all activities. It’s the method that helps you prioritize your tasks to allocate the perfect amount of time to finish every one of your projects. Effective time management at work will increase efficiency and improve work-life balance.
1. Organization: Maybe the most important, at least in the top 3. Being an organized professional can take you very far since it can support preserving the big picture and knowing what is due and when. So when can we say a person is organized in the workplace? When they have a well-kept office, with all the supplies in order, when their calendar is always up-to-date when missing a meeting is not an option, when locating documents is not an issue, and when he/she decides to get organized with useful, relevant notes. You can even go as far as unsubscribing to unnecessary emails to eliminate distractions.
2. Setting realistic goals: it’s a needed skill because you can plan the whole work and prioritize tasks as needed by having an end goal. You should consider setting both short-term and long-term goals. Set goals that are achievable, realistic and measurable, to be able to track your progress.
3. Prioritization: you should do a “priority-setting” session every day or at least every week. For a good result, you need to know your power to work, your rhythm, if some tasks require collaboration with colleagues, therefore those may not be in your total control.
You can choose to start with small tasks that require little time and then get to the most pressing projects that require your full attention, focus, and devotion. Or the other way around. If you feel you have too many tasks per day, start analyzing: how many do you really need to get done on that precise day? Make sure you complete the most important ones.
4. Scheduling is crucial for handling your time at work since some tasks can only be done at specific times while others have pressing deadlines. Scheduling your day, week, and month will help immensely and will affect your activity and the activity of others. A good example of effective scheduling is dividing vast goals into milestones and milestones into little projects. You also need to be punctual in order to achieve a great level of scheduling.
Tip: Scheduling is also known as planning. This skill allows you to foresee all of the tasks needed to complete a project and save time. Planning is one of the time management skills that come naturally to us; that is why it is quick and easy when it's done right. Unfortunately, we lost our natural path, and we have been educated to overcomplicate things.
Related: We have recently published an in-depth guide on how to plan your day, that covers 7 steps: 1. Define goals, 2. List your tasks, 3. Prioritize, 4. Cultivate healthy habbits, 5. Use planning tools, 6. Act now, 7 Reflect and adjust.
5. Effective communication: another key skill in this time management game. Developing great communication skills will allow you to clearly present your goals and plans to your peers or managers.
Also, learn to say no. It’s not wrong. You don’t always have to help others get your tasks done first. Just do it politely.
This skill will also help in delegating, which is the next desired skill.
6. Delegation: this applies mostly to managers, and it’s a very important skill. You can’t do it all alone, you need to focus on the strategic plans and projects and delegate smaller tasks to your team. You can even outsource some tasks to freelancers to free up your time if your staff is too swamped already. Make the most of your time.
7. Stress management: work shouldn’t be everything, so don’t forget about your mental health and general well-being. If you manage to handle stress positively, you will be at a higher motivation and productivity level. You can achieve this by taking small but constant breaks over the day or by stopping when completing big tasks and rewarding yourself.
Other examples of time management skills are:
There are so many benefits, and you will see that time management skills will positively impact your work activity day by day:
Effective time management is not impossible to achieve. So here are five steps you should consider in your journey for improvement:
1. Plan ahead
Planning is not about following an extremely strict routine where you plan every minute of the day. It’s about knowing the right time for each task, and the deadline for each project to be completed, it’s about working smarter, regardless of your position or role.
2. Prioritize
There are many ways you can choose to use prioritization. For example, you can categorize tasks into urgent/non-urgent, important/slightly important, crucial for success/insignificant for success. Prioritization will allow you to understand that not everything you do is essential (for you, for the company as a whole).
3. Reduce or eliminate multitasking
Multitasking is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. You may believe you are good at everything, but by trying to solve all the work yourself, you will just become overwhelmed sooner than usual, and the quality of the work you perform will decrease big time. Make a list of the things you MUST do yourself, and the other can and should be delegated to other members of your team.
4. Use a time tracking system
Technology is our best friend! Using time tracking software is one of the most effective methods to manage your time perfectly. Such a system will allow you to track and manage time spent on every task. Absence management will also become a more manageable challenge for managers and HR professionals.
5. Identify your most productive hours
You should observe yourself to detect your most productive hours and then ensure you will take on the most important tasks during that interval.
We are all very different, so there is no perfect recipe. Some work better before lunch, others 1 or 2 hours after lunch. It depends. But finding that ideal interval may be key to better time management.
Discover ten additional time-management tips to boost your productivity and reach your goals faster.
Probably you are asking this question yourself right now. The answer is simple, and it lies in the definition of “ skill ”: an ability to do an activity or job well, mainly because you have practiced it.
Without proper time management skills, you cannot simply organize your time (even less as a manager) and structure your work in a way that allows you to accomplish your goals and observe your deadlines. Managing your time well enables you to be creative and proactive with your goals. When you have a specific time set aside to complete your tasks, you can also allow for time to look at the big picture for yourself and your company.
Get a handle on why managing your time effectively is important and what you gain from it by reviewing these eight reasonswhy time management is crucial:
Up to this point, you’ve learned that efficient time management enables you to work smarter, not harder, so that you get more done in less time. It also helps you balance your life by reducing, if not eliminating, stress and useless pressure.
Next, in this article, you will find out more about the ten time management mistakes we all made and even more pieces of tips we’ve all learned from. Save this list and get back to it whenever you feel your days are shorter
Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, perfectionists strive to produce high-quality work as well as show more discipline, engagement, and motivation. However, their high and inflexible standards and all-or-nothing mindset often cause stress, burnout, and anxiety that impair their performance.
Time management tips:
Most of us have at least once experienced this state when we read a paragraph of text over and over and can’t get a grip on what it says. Or you need to write an article or prepare a report, but your mind is wandering, and unable to concentrate. Here are a couple of ideas on how you can get back on track
Tips for focusing:
You can’t manage your time and focus if you prioritize the wrong things and invest time into tasks that return little or no goal-related results. Here are a few tips on how you can distribute your workload effectively:
There’s no need to master your time management skills if you don’t have a clear vision of where you are heading. Without a vision, you have little chance to create the results you want and feel joy and excitement to keep ongoing.
Time management tips:
5. Not Tracking Time
You can’t improve your time management skills and approaches if you don’t keep track of your time. Time tracking sounds like a tedious task, but once you implement it into your routine, it will reveal unexpected trends and insights. When you analyze how many hours phone calls, emails, and distractions take, you can develop a more strategic approach to your time.
Time management tips:
6. Not Being Ready to Cope With Stress
Stress management and time management often go hand in hand. If you wait until the last minute to complete your task at hand and fail to plan and prioritize, you will more likely feel stressed. Not all stress is bad, but persistent exposure to stress can put your health and performance at risk. Time management tips:
7. Doing Everything On Your Own
It doesn’t matter if you are an employee, a business owner, or a self-employed person, you can’t do everything independently. We all have 24 hours in a day and limited energy capacities as human beings. So if we push ourselves too hard, we are more likely to become stressed, less effective, and deliver low-quality results.
Time management tips:
8. Not Breaking Down Big Projects
Big projects look overwhelming and often lead to stress and procrastination. When you break them down into small digestible parts, individual tasks seem more approachable and doable. After you finish a small task, you will feel accomplished and motivated; your progress becomes more visible, and you’ll feel more productive and efficient.
Time management tips:
9. Not Conserving Your Brain Power
According to Nelson Cowan (Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri), our average working memory capacity is limited to three to five items. Anything that exceeds these limits has a high chance of falling out of our brains. Knowing the limit of your brainpower is essential to keep your brain uncluttered to have more space, energy, and focus on accomplishing the tasks at hand.
10. Being Unmotivated
Motivation comes from the intention to work toward a goal. But every person’s motivation is triggered distinctively. Let’s see what else can fuel you with motivation.
Conclusion
After reading this article, we hope you are fully convinced of the importance of time management skills. By developing or improving these skills, you will create better habits, which will lead to a more productive and focused version of you.
Good time management promotes achieving bigger goals, reduces procrastination, and allows for smarter working every day.
"I must govern the clock, not be governed by it." - Golda Meir