Learn how to manage time wisely and become a master of time management with these 12 super-powerful time management tips.
Do you get less accomplished at the end of a day in spite of being hyper-productive throughout the day? Do you wish that there had more hours in a day to finish the tasks that you want to do? Then you should pay attention to your time management skills.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to add hours in a day. But it is possible to manage hours in a better way to get more done in given hours. Instead of staying busy with menial tasks you can reallocate time for high-value work.
In this post, you’ll get 12 time management tips to organize your tasks and manage time in a possible efficient way.
1. Plan ahead
Planning ahead will allow you to improve your personal effectiveness. Create a monthly, weekly and daily plan. Set up a monthly goal and break it down in weekly tasks. On Sunday, spend some time to plan for the whole week. Create a to-do list for the next day.
Planning in advance will help you focus on your priorities. When you have a plan you can easily get started and keep going.
2. Have to-do list
A to-do list will help you to be organized and motivated to focus on high-value activities. It saves time, increases productivity and reduces stress. Successful people always add tasks in a list before they do them.
When you have all the tasks on the list, you can easily review them and prioritize them according to their importance. A to-do list will improve your work and personal life.
3. Track time
Many of us are unaware of time-wasting activities. Spending too much time in net surfing, chatting, scrolling down Facebook feed and reading emails are some time-wasters that you should be aware of. Audit your time for seven days and find out where most of your time goes in a day.
Use apps – toggl or RescueTime to track time. Review the report of seven days activities and limit time on less important tasks and time-wasting activities. Check email regularly, but not frequently.
4. Prioritize
It may seem that everything is important in your to-do list. If you review it properly, you’ll find that each of them does not have the same value. Since your time is limited, you should learn to prioritize.
Identify urgent, important and high-valued tasks. Complete the most important tasks first. Every day, plan to accomplish two to three important and high-valued tasks from the list. Let go rest of the list by deleting or delegating to a capable person.
5. Learn to delegate
As you know the value of time, you should master the art of delegation. This skill will let you manage workload as well as ever-growing to-do list without burn out.
Consider delegating repetitive and less important tasks to someone who enjoys doing that. This will free up your time and you can focus more on high-value tasks.
6. Be organized
You can do a work quickly when don’t need to find a file from a bunch of papers. When files and materials are available at hand, you will spend less time and energy to accomplish a task.
A proper filing system will let you think less to store and retrieve information. Organizing things may take some time, but this is a onetime process. You’ll save a lot of time in your day to day work. Even you can avoid procrastination. You won’t procrastinate when you know where necessary materials are to start the work.
Organize email inbox by labels and unsubscribe from non-essentials email list. Organize bookmarks, tools, files, and equipment. Declutter your life.
7. Learn to say ‘no’
The simple word ‘NO’ is difficult to utter, but an important skill to live a balanced life. Whenever you say ‘Yes’ to unimportant things, you say ‘No’ too important things.
If you really care about your time and goal, you should practice refusing requests of unimportant tasks. Being helpful is good, but it should not at the cost of your own life and time.
8. Avoid distractions
Do you face the trouble of getting work done because of distractions? Find out what is breaking your focus while you are trying to finish a work. Take actions to manage them or eliminate them altogether. Technology related interruptions are phone calls, instant messages, social media notifications, and email messages. You can avoid them by limiting their use and adopting new habits.
Avoid instant answer of phone calls when you are doing an important work. If your work environment is breaking concentration, find a quiet place to work. An empty meeting room in the office or a locked room at home can help you to get away from a distracting environment.
9. Allow breaks
Take breaks frequently to avoid burnout. After hours of work, your body and mind need rest. It is suggested to take at least five minutes break in every hour.
Close your eyes or walk around or do stretching to refresh body and mind. Take a light snack to replenish energy level. This short break will stimulate your creativity and keep your mind sharp and active. You can maintain your productivity level steady throughout your day.
Short breaks will stimulate your creativity. Breaks are helpful to keep your mind sharp and active. You can maintain your productivity level steady throughout your day.
10. Batch similar and small tasks
Replying email, sending an invoice, writing assignments and other administrative tasks needs to be categorized in core groups. It is an inefficient way to do these tasks when the need arises. You’ll end up switching your focus from one task to another.
On the other hand, when you do identical tasks together, you can complete them in less time and more efficiently. By doing this, you can avoid interruptions while you are working on the most important task and give 100% attention on every task at your hand.
Streamline the process of email response, workshop development, writing and making phone calls.
11. Set time limits
Set a time limit for tasks. For example – allot 30 minutes to read and respond to email or spend 30 minutes to search for a topic on the internet. This will prevent you to spend time whimsically.
Time constraint will let you be focused, efficient and quicker on your job. Allow time block for each task and stick to it.
12. Schedule everything
Responding email to checking social media accounts and social networking to running errands – everything should be on schedule. Set a routine for daily jobs. Instead of logging in email and Facebook more than 10 times a day, limit this only 2 times.
Add meetings and errands in the calendar according to their priority. Instead of running for errands throughout the week, limit this once a week or month. Delegate when possible. Scheduling will prevent you to take impulsive actions. You will only move for a task that has more impact on your life.
You cannot control time, but you have control over your activities. You’ll live a balanced life and make it better when you manage and utilize your time wisely. You can improve your time management skill by adopting a few productive habits in your life.
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