Tags – Time Management Techniques
You’re working on a project and the deadline is looming.
And, you’re beginning to feel overwhelmed by your tasks and you’re not too sure how you got here.
Perhaps you’ve made a promise to yourself to resolve this issue, but you just can’t seem to break out of this cycle.
Sound familiar?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone, a lot of people struggle with time management.
But the good news is, time management is a skill that can be learned; through practice, you can plan out your time effectively to complete tasks and work more efficiently.
Ultimately, the goal is to help you prioritize your tasks, your workload, produce work of a high quality and maintain a healthy work life balance.
The reason why it’s important to learn how to manage time better, is that it can help to be more productive, maximise your time and perform to the best of your ability.
That said, here are our top 5 time management techniques.
1. Stop Watching the Clock
It’s very easy to keep watching the clock when you have a lot of tasks to complete, but this can be super distracting.
So, stop worrying about the time of day and just get back to your work.
If you follow a traditional working 9-5 day, you may not ever get anything done. For example, let’s say you show up to work at 9am, then you have a morning coffee and check social media. It might not be until 10am that you actually sit down to begin working. Then before you know it, it’s lunchtime, so you take another 45 minute break. A couple hours later it’s snack time, but then you look at the time and think, there’s no point getting stuck into a task now as you’ll be leaving to go home soon.
OK, I know this is a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea.
Instead of constantly checking the clock, keep your breaks short and make sure you have achieved something meaningful in the morning before you sit down to eat – of course, you should take breaks, but within reason!
2. Set Goals
When you set goals for yourself, you’re more likely to become engrossed in your work and therefore get more done.
As such, drawing up a to-do list, whilst may not sound ground-breaking, is a powerful tool to become more productive; the best to-do lists include a variety of tasks, both quick and urgent jobs as well as bigger, operational tasks that are a work in progress.
By having a list, it helps you to remain intentional about what you need to work on, and effectively lays out what you need to complete – any tasks that pop up outside of this are secondary goals.
And, if your mind does begin to wander, simply having a quick glance at your lists reminds you of what you need to be doing.
Lastly, keeping a to-do list and setting goals helps you to enjoy one of life’s simple pleasures: visualising what you need to achieve then crossing it off as you work your way through it.
3. Plan Your Day
A structured schedule is essential for actually delivering what you’ve set yourself.
Simply, by planning your day and time blocking your work, is a productive way to help you to set a healthy pressure to actually complete it.
At the same time, it helps to prevent tasks from overtaking your time as well as stopping you from multi-tasking.
Many people believe that if they juggle multiple tasks at one, they will get more done, but instead, the opposite happens.
On the other hand, planning your day properly is a thoughtful approach to setting a budgeted amount of time between all the things you need to accomplish.
For instance, you can set aside a period of time for admin-like tasks, such as checking emails and returning calls, and then setting larger periods of time for more detailed tasks, such as analytical work.
4. Find Your Productive Space
Your work space needs to be clutter-free; your space is a reflection of your time and if your space is messy, it can make you feel overwhelmed, make it harder to focus and manage time properly.
With this in mind, you must ensure your work space reflects the state of mind you want to be in; get rid of all non-essentials from your desk and replace them with positive affirmations like, “you can do it!”
Moreover, you could even add essential oils to create a calming environment or play soothing music in the background – as long as it doesn’t distract you!
At the same time, you need to find your productivity zone; some people are early risers and others are night owls.
So, if you’re productive in the morning, get up super early and crack on with your day, whereas if you prefer to stay up late, then of course, start your working day a bit later.
5. Establish a Routine
Let’s just say you’re taking a different route on your way to work every day, it would be quite hard to be consistent on what time you’d arrive at work.
Not to mention it can make you feel uneasy and create some sense of stress.
Ultimately, we as humans are creatures of habit and we all crave a level of consistency.
In regards to work, having a routine helps us to maintain productivity.
So, whether you’re working from home everyday or going to the office, it’s important to establish a routine; being consistent about the time you wake up and when you’re going to complete tasks.
By doing this, you will be able to better manage your time, get into the right headspace when you sit down at your desk and feel more productive overall.
The Takeaway
The first step to better time management is acknowledging that you’re not performing as efficiently as you could be.
Hopefully, these techniques above will get you on the right track to complete tasks more effectively without becoming overwhelmed with time pressures.
And if you are still struggling, you must communicate this with your leaders, otherwise this can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings, especially if it’s going to have an effect on customers or clients.
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