“If I had six hours to fell a tree, I would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe”-Abraham Lincoln.
We've all had time management issues at work. You wake up hopeful and optimistic to meet all your deadlines.
Then life happens. You hang out late, run into traffic problems, and arrive at the office already frustrated with the world. Sitting down to finally put an end to this project that you have been putting off for weeks, you realize that you have consecutive dates until noon and yes, you are already late for the first one. Eventually, you leave your last meeting and start browsing emails when you're drawn into another meeting.
The good news is that there are ways to compensate for these seemingly elusive day hours of the day. It's a personal matter. TIME MANAGEMENT-manage your time instead of letting it run you. We’ve gotten time management tips for work to get you started.
Find out how you are currently spending your time. If you want to optimize your personal time management, you must first understand where the time is going. Try to log your time diligently for a week by tracking your daily activities.
This audit will help you:
Determine what you can accomplish in an achievable day.
Focus on the activities that offer the best returns.
As you complete the audits this time around, it will become clear that your time is spent on unproductive thoughts, conversations, and activities. You will have a better idea of the duration of certain types of activities (which will be very useful to come up with a later tip).
This exercise can also help you determine what time of day you are most. productive: this way you know when to work on your projects that require maximum concentration and creativity.
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control over time spent on specific activities to work smarter rather than harder. It's an act of juggling various things that helps you increase your efficiency and achieve a better work-life balance.
Improving the management of your work in the workplace allows you to improve your performance and achieve desired goals with less effective efforts and strategies. However, a lack of time management or poor time management skills at work can lead to:
(a) Missed deadlines and appointments
(b)Procrastination and lack of focus
(c)Lack of professionalism
(d) Inefficient workflow and poor quality of work
(e) Unwanted stress(f)Poor professional reputation
(g)Strained workplace relationships
(h)Financial penalties
(I)Work and life imbalance
Good time management has many benefits. In your professional life, time management can benefit you in the following ways:
(1) Getting work done on time. Allocating a finite time to tasks help you complete them on time. It also helps you to manage your workload in the most efficient way. When you have timed assignments, your brain is rewired to follow structure and complete those tasks on time. Therefore, you can easily get work back on time if you have managed your time well.
(2) Provide a better quality of work. As a dedicated employee, you are required to perform work of certain standards and qualities. With proper use of time and prioritization of activities, you can easily deliver higher quality work. Prioritization helps you focus on important tasks by keeping them in order of priority, allowing you to work on them with full focus and concentration. The quality of the work has therefore improved.
(3) More productivity and efficiency. It’s no secret that effective time management skills make you more productive and efficient as a professional. These skills are useful to help your complete tasks as quickly as possible without compromising the quality of the work. Your overall productivity often plummets when you work on unimportant but effective tasks Time management skills allow you to tick both important and urgent tasks on time.
(4) Much less procrastination "I'll do it later" - It's an excuse we all found once. The meaning of time management is not only to spend more time, but also to reduce the urge to delay and postpone meaningful tasks. Applying good time management tips allows you as a founder, leader, or employee to work smarter rather than harder. Instantly eliminate procrastination by making sure you are familiar with the added activities your to-do list and when it needs to be finished.
(5) Less stress and anxiety. There are times when employees feel overwhelmed by too much work on their plate. This can not only take a toll on your productivity, but also put a strain on your overall health. Excessive stress and hypertension can lead to heart disease, depression, obesity, etc. Knowing what to do can reduce unnecessary stress and tension in your life.
(6) Improved quality of life. If you keep things under control professionally, you have more time to focus on your personal life and relationships. Knowing that your homework and activities are well advanced will bring a sense of calm to your personal life. When you feel more calmed and less stressed, your quality of life is improving automatically.
(7) More opportunities and career growth. Being on time with your work will not only increase your efficiency but will also help you gain a good reputation at work. When managers and seniors know that you always finish your homework on time, it could lead to more promotion opportunities for work.
Time management is not something out of the blue. Frankly, everyone can learn this art with a little practice and learning. So here are some steps that tell you how to become an expert in time management.
Planning plays an important role in time management because the two go hand in hand. You can only make the most of your time if it is carefully planned. When it comes to planning, you don't need to follow a strict routine, but rather it means making smarter decisions by knowing the right time to do a business or activity. The idea behind time management is to work smarter rather than harder and find time to do other things as well.
* Prioritizing your daily activities is the key to successful time management. That said, many employees start the day with unimportant tasks or something that can easily be done later. Prioritization helps you understand that not everything you do is important. It is important to focus on your priorities to be successful at work. Discover the most important and urgent tasks. This categorization will help you focus on what needs to be done. You can use various project management tools that help you prioritize at the start of a project.
* Multitasking takes your time unconsciously. Instead of accomplishing too much, you end up getting nothing out of it. The best way to use your time is to take one thing at a time and get it done before moving on to the next. Make a list of tasks that need to be done according to their priority. Not only would you be able to concentrate better, but there would also be lower distractions. And no distractions mean less risk of mistakes.
* Eliminate Distractions In our daily lives, distractions cost us many precious hours a day. Cell phones, chatty co-workers, social media are some of the common workplace distractions that cost us almost three hours a day. In order not to let these distractions eat up your time, it's best to cut them out of your schedule altogether. Take a moment to educate yourself on the things that distract you. If social media and cell phones are blocking your productivity, set a fixed time on the day when you can check your social media. No one understands the importance of time management at work better than project manager, especially when you must handle too many tasks and team members simultaneously. Many successful project managers use time tracking software to stay on top of things. These tools are useful for managing and tracking the time spent on each activity. If you are looking for such a tool, you can try ProofHub. It helps you keep track of every minute so that you can effectively manage your time at work.
* Schedule your break time. Taking regular breaks from work is an effective way to stay productive throughout the day. But its effectiveness is subject to management risks, especially when you start taking too many breaks. It goes without saying that you can't do a big project or activity all at once, you need a break. What’s even better is having a well-planned break. Go for a walk, stretch, or plug in your headphones and listen to your favorite music, do whatever you want it helps you relax and get back to work with energy later, but takes no more than 10 minutes.
The next time management tip is to match your priority work to your highest productivity hours. The basic idea here is to check in with yourself often to find out when, where, and how you are most productive. Research clearly shows that our day is punctuated by cycles that affect our level of alertness and motivation. For example, you may be at the peak of your brain capacity, with maximum focus and attention, before lunchtime, and slow down considerably in the evening. So, if you have a project that involves critical decisions and complex thinking, the best-case scenario is to handle it in your "golden hours". Even with 110% effort, there will be occasions where you simply cannot get things done within the specified time frame. This is where you accept that there are limits to how productively and efficiently you can manage your time. For example, if you have double the normal workload in a day, outsourcing and delegation is your best bet. Don't assume you can do what you want in each amount of time. Remember that this will make it more and more difficult to effectively manage your time.
Ultimately, effective time management skills can have a positive impact on work and life in general. When you learn to track your time daily, you are better off to receive things, make better decisions, especially, get the final control of your main priorities.
