At the end of the day, do you feel like you didn’t get everything done that you wanted to? If you’re like most people, the answer is yes. If you learned some time management skills, you would be able to get everything done and still have time for you. Read the following tips to learn how.
If you want to become an expert at time management, you have to develop a strategy for dealing with distractions. An extraneous problem can make it hard (or even impossible) for you to complete the work you need to do. Try setting aside a fixed portion of your working day for distractions. As they come up, make a note of them and deal with them only when their time has come.
Plan your daily activities out. Make a schedule for your daily activities and stick to it. This will help eliminate stressful and last minute situations. You can make a daily to do list and put the most important things that you need to get done at the top of the list.
When you find yourself constantly late and missing deadlines, consider getting a bigger clock and putting it in a place where it stares you down all the time. Studies show that when people can see a clock during the day, they mentally gravitate toward more time-saving efforts! Try this at home and the office to better manage your time.
Keep a diary of how you are spending your time. Do this for about 3 days. You will be able to see what you are spending time on. You can then determine what is necessary to spend time doing and what isn’t necessary. Figure out how to manage your time better.
When time management becomes difficult, take some time to assess your current level of productivity and efficiency. If you’re not concentrating on tasks and sticking with them until they’re complete, ask yourself why. In order to have more effective time management, it’s important to know what results you are getting from your current workflow.
Build time in your day for unforeseen interruptions. It’s time to own the fact that you can’t control what happens every minute. Things happen, whether you want them to or not. So add in buffer time into your schedule to handle these moments. That way, at the end of the day, you’ll still feel accomplished!
Prior to calling someone on the phone at work, take a few minutes to plan out the questions that you need answered. Often a lot of time is wasted simply through the rambling that occurs on the telephone when you don’t know what you really need. Having a sense of your goals prior will help keep you on track.
To perfect your personal system of time management, take a moment to catalog the most common time-wasting activities you engage in. Whether you prefer to check your e-mail, surf the web, or hang out in the break room, you should identify the behaviors you practice when you’re dodging work. In the future, when you notice yourself initiating these time-wasting processes, stop and remind yourself that you have important work to do!
Believe it or not, breaks can help you get your work done faster. If you are stressing out about what needs to get done, you are not focusing on the task at hand. Take a break when you feel overwhelmed and come back to the project when you are refreshed.
After reading everything in this article, you will be well-equipped to manage your time well. Once you begin, you’ll see that you have more time than you thought. You will be able to add activities to your life instead of cutting down. Time management is a great way to make your life fuller, so use these tips and get out there!