Effective time management is a struggle for a lot of people because we all have so much to do and very little time to do it all. It becomes even more challenging if you are a manager or a team leader as you constantly have to make time for your team and yourself. There are lots of different ways to improve your time management skills. Below are 7 of them.
Prioritize Tasks
Unimportant tasks can take up a lot of time and they might not have a big impact on the outcome of the project you may be working on. To ensure that this does not happen, try to prioritize bigger, more significant tasks. These are the tasks that will have the most impact once the project is completed.
Take Advantage of Technology
There is a lot of technology that can help you improve your time management skills. A good example is apps that block websites and apps that distract you as you work. These apps can block social media, email, and other sites so that the temptation to check them as you work is reduced.
For your phone, there are apps that can collect all your notifications, calls and messages in one place, so that you can deal with all of them later.
Avoid Multitasking
Even though there are a lot of people who swear by multitasking, it is often not a good idea. When you work on a lot of tasks at the same time, there is the potential of losing time when switching between different tasks. Even though it may seem like you are wasting a few minutes at a time, this time could add up to a lot of minutes or even an hour or two through the work day. The best way to work is to work on one task at a time. When you do this, you will be able to finish tasks faster as you will be fully focused on them and be able to complete a lot more in a single day.
Set Boundaries
This goes hand in hand with reducing distractions. If you want to manage your time effectively, you have to let people know when you are unavailable. Seeing these boundaries lets you work in peace and can be a good way of managing your time well. Communicate to those around you in a clear and polite manner that they should only distract you if there is an emergency.
Set Aside Time to Work
This applies to people working from home. It might be a bit challenging to get started with work. To reduce the chances of this happening to you, try to block some time to work. When doing this, try to set aside the time you are most productive. We know that some people work best during the day while others work best during the night. Once you block this time, ensure that you take small breaks, as you do not want to run out of steam before your work day is done.
Avoid Procrastination
This one is easier said than done. The mantra you should always follow is that if it needs to be done today, it has to be done today. Procrastination can be borne out of fear that you will not complete certain tasks in time. If you have this fear, divide these tasks into smaller chunks and work on each one of them one at a time. Remember that once you have the momentum, it is much easier to keep it going.
Identify Time-Wasting Habits
We all have time-wasting habits. Being on social media for too long or watching Netflix, these habits have to be corrected if you would like to improve your time management skills.
It’s remarkably easy to waste time. Some people are natural procrastinators and spend many hours a day actively avoiding work. A few of them even get away with doing very little, despite being paid significant sums of money!
Don’t let procrastination ruin your day. Utilize technology to improve your time management skills. Effectively managing your time truly is the quickest way to get a job done.
