How to Improve Your Time Management Skills: How to Get More Done in a Workday
Can’t manage to complete all of your job responsibilities within the allotted time? Here’s how to become better at time management.
A long to-do list produces tension, irritation, and stress.
You’re anxious about missing the deadline, which creates a cloud of worry when a potential punishment from a supervisor, client, or coworker hovers around you. When you fail to meet expectations, you get frustrated.
The solution is good time management, but how often have you tried honing that ability with many applications and tactics, only to see little progress?
“These products imply a person’s core ability, but the skills constituting time management predate the efficiency of any technology or software,” notes Erich C. Dierdorff, a professor of management and entrepreneurship at DePaul University.
To put it simply, not everyone organises their time in the same manner to get the same results. The tools and applications are useful, but they will have little influence unless we improve the soft skills necessary to be good time managers.
So, what exactly are excellent time management abilities? They are talents in awareness, arrangement, and adaptability, as Dierdorff points out.
Awareness provides you with a practical understanding of how you use time as a finite resource.
Arrangement allows you to build your job around your life rather than the other way around.
Adaptation sharpens your ability to make judgments and deliver under pressure.
What exactly is time management, and why is it important?
According to IBM’s worldwide skills gap survey, time management is one of the behavioural skills employers consider most important for a productive workforce. It enables one to finish activities quickly without sacrificing quality. This would also promote a healthy work-life balance.
So, how can working professionals improve their time management skills?
How to Improve Time Management Capabilities
1. Create a time log.
Keep track of when you began and finished your duties. This enables you to be more aware of:
- The amount of time it takes you to finish certain sorts of work. This allows you to access your time more accurately – whether you are spending more or less time than intended — and serves as an excellent benchmark for future activities.
- When you are most and least productive. By determining your most productive period, you can pick which tasks (based on point 1) to perform at what time so that you make the most of every minute to provide great work. Remember that the goal is to attain not just efficiency (your speed), but also effectiveness (how well you do the job).
2. Obtain feedback
Ask your coworkers or employer what you can do to enhance your performance. This way, you’ll be aware of any holes that need to be filled. They might range from learning to write more brief emails to how to use internet tools to speed up task delivery.
3. Use Eisenhower’s important-urgent matrix to prioritise tasks.
Dealing with urgent demands, as well as the desire to accomplish them as soon as possible, is not unusual. This is an issue, particularly if you handle such chores every other day, leaving you with less time to complete your responsibilities. Follow the Eisenhower Matrix on significance and urgency to better organise your work based on priority.
Urgency is time-sensitive and necessitates quick action. Importance has long-term ramifications.
- Tasks that are both significant and urgent should be prioritised (i.e. a pitch deck for a big presentation in two days)
- Plan a time to focus on critical but non-urgent chores (i.e. planning a team bonding activity taking place two weeks later)
- Tasks that are urgent but not vital should be delegated or pushed later. (For example, responding to a client’s modification in a document)
- Tasks that are not essential nor urgent should be eliminated or delegated. (Forming documents from the prior year)
4. Make use of the Pomodoro Technique
Procrastination and diversions are the most dangerous enemies in high-pressure circumstances. Train your brain to be adaptable and to accomplish tasks with precision. Here’s how you can go about it:
- Set a timer for 25 minutes and get a timer.
- Work just on your work until the timer goes off, then take a five-minute rest.
- Repeat.
The Pomodoro Technique has been a game-changer for millions of people all over the world because it efficiently addresses the requirement for brief pauses to minimise mental tiredness while also driving persistent attention.
5. Make contingency plans
Coming up with contingency plans is critical, especially for crucial and time-sensitive jobs. When there are hurdles, such as a big rework that needs a substantial amount of time or an unanticipated personal situation that must be addressed, you want to get back on schedule. Adapting to such situations may be as simple as attempting to accomplish chores one or two days before the deadline or collaborating with colleagues on a project to cover you when necessary.
