16 Tips for Time Management to Get You Through the Day

Time is a luxury we cannot afford to lose. When not managed properly, well then nothing else is managed properly either. One of the major stressors in any job is work overload due to poor time management. Not having enough time to accomplish your tasks at times can seem never ending. The solution to resolve this is to get organized and manage your time effectively. It is not an easy goal to achieve at first but once your system is in place, it will be (not completely smooth but) smoother sailing.

The goal of any time management system (ironically) is not to give you more time, it is to prioritize what is important in order to use the time available wisely.

Sharing sixteen tips to help you take charge of your life and enjoy what you do:

1. 1. First things first:
      Give yourself a time audit. You need to start by finding out where your time goes throughout the day. Using a time management app helps great here. You will quickly find out that there is a big gap between your subjective time and reality.

 

1. 2. Meetings without direction:
      Set a clear expectation and ask for an agenda in advance. What’s the issue, who owns it and by when it will be completed are the key goals. Inspect what you expect as well but that ones for another blog.

 

1. 3. Prioritize ruthlessly:
      Time management starts here, by making a list of tasks you need to accomplish, rank them on scale of importance and when you will complete them. By writing your task list down, it will help you feel organized and on the right track. This will help you outline which task you will start first and how long you will spend on each task, and so on. Oh, and it also feels great when you check the task off as complete!

 

1. 4. Get into a routine:
      Select a time of day or week to get certain routine tasks accomplished such as cleaning, laundry, answering emails, writing a blog or reading a book, completing paperwork etc. and stick with it.

 

1. 5. Learn to say “No”:
      There are times when you must learn to draw the line. It is true when they say, ‘poor time management is often the result of our tendency to say “yes” to too many things’. Every time you agree to do something outside of your goal, another task that was scheduled will not get done. Learn how to say no. I know it’s not easy to do this at work, but when you back up your “no” with proper reasons why this is not the right time, it will come across as you are a master of your schedule. You can always defer the task to a later date when you can allow the time. Sometimes the “no” must be said to yourself – do not take on more than you are capable of.

 

1. 6. Be wary when committing to activities in the future:
      Even if a commitment is a few months or a year ahead, it is still a commitment. You have no idea what your situation will be at that time. Keep in mind that no matter how far ahead it is, it will still take the same amount of your time to complete the task. Plan accordingly.

 

1. 7. Break up large tasks:
      Whenever you can, break up large tasks into a series of small, manageable tasks. This will make it easier for you to deal with them. By breaking into smaller tasks, you will be able to fit a lot more into your hectic schedule.

 

1. 8. Conserve your efforts:
      Look at the way you do things. Are you a perfectionist? If that is the case, try to decide which tasks actually require meticulous attention to detail and which can be done casually. There is a place for perfectionism, but for most activities, there is not much to be gained from putting extra effort beyond a certain stage.

 

1. 9. Choose your course of action:
      Often, we start a task, dabble and think about it, and then we lay it off to the side. This gets repeated over. This way, you have not completed the task and you have also lost valuable time thinking about it without doing much with it. When you are confronted with a task, decide what you are going to do – deal with it right away or attend to it later but don’t procrastinate.

 

1. 10. Set time limits to start and to stop:
       We’re talking time management, so naturally, along with setting up start times for activities we also need to set up stop times. This will call for some estimating, but trust me, your guesswork will improve with practice. This will allow you to better schedule activities and others will be able to schedule time with you much easier.

 

1. 11. Pad your schedule:
       Give yourself enough time to accomplish a task. Nothing feels like that gloomy feeling of anxiety because the end time is too near. If you have trouble meeting deadlines, always give yourself about 20 percent more time than you think you need to do the job.

 

1. 12. Plan your activities:
       To get all this done, you must set aside time to plan and schedule your activities. If time management is important to you, then you need to allow yourself enough time to plan the way you will use it.

 

1. 13. Use of technology for reminders:
       Nowadays, you can use technology in just about everything to help you get organized. Setting reminders will help you stay the course. Calendars, Siri, Alexa, Google any smartwatch device, smartphones etc. just to name a few. There are also so many apps from the app stores to help with time management and productivity.

 

1. 14. Learn to delegate and/or outsource:
       To delegate is one of the hardest things we can do as owners of our work. If you have the opportunity, there may be times where you need to see that you don’t have to be the one person show to run everything at once. Learning to share the load by delegating or outsourcing allows you time to manage other tasks or make time to have free time.

 

1. 15. Do not multitask:
       This is a myth plain and simple. Your quality standards will remain high by keeping to your time spent on tasks, completing them and moving to the next one easily throughout the day.

 

1. 16. Take a break:
       It is common knowledge that your brain can only focus for about 90 minutes at one stretch. Schedule a short break to do a reset, avoiding burnout and maintaining high productivity in the long run of the day.

 

By taking the time and effort to plan and prioritize your activities, you will be able to achieve much more than you ever thought was possible in a 24-hour day (and please do allow for proper sleep…that one is very important). So, go ahead and incorporate the above tips into your work habits and see where it takes you.