Let’s Talk: Time Management
I’m absolutely horrific with my time management at the moment. For the past few weeks I’ve struggled to find time to write, read, or do pretty much anything. Which is pretty out of the norm for me. I’ve always liked having my hobbies, my ways to relax or detach from the rest of the day. It’s the price to pay for being a relatively ‘go with the wind’ sort of girl the rest of the time.
Lack of time-management is common issue for many, yet mastering it seems the key to success. Whilst researching this article I found many corporate articles or entrepreneur’s on Forbes preaching about it. If you master effective time management, you can take control of your time and get on top of your to-do list and work towards your goals.
Whether it’s in your job or your lifestyle as a whole, learning how to manage our time effectively can help you feel more relaxed, focused and in control. The aim of good time management is to achieve the lifestyle balance you want.
Here are some top tips I’ve found to help us manage our time management.
Work out your goals
Work out who you want to be, your priorities in life, and what you want to achieve in your career or personal life. That is then the guiding principle for how you spend your time and how you manage it. Once you have worked out the big picture, you can then work out some short-term and medium-term goals. Knowing your goals will help you plan better and focus on the things that will help you achieve those goals.
Make a list
To-do list are a good way to stay organised. Try and see what works best for you.
I prefer to keep a single to-do list, to avoid losing track of multiple list. Keeping a list will help you work out your priorities and timings. It can help you put off the non-urgent task.
Make sure you keep your list somewhere accessible. if you always have your phone, for example, keep it on your phone.
Focus on results
Good time management at work means doing high-quality work, not high quantity. I think it’s best to concentrating not on how busy you are, but on results.
Spending more time on something doesn’t necessarily achieve more, staying an extra hour at work at the end of the day may not be the most effective way to manage your time.
Have a lunch break
Lots of people work through their lunch break, but that can be counter productive. As a general rule, taking at least 30 minutes away from your desk will help to be more effective in the afternoon.
Go for a walk outdoors or, better still, do some exercise. You’ll come back to your desk re-energised, with a new set of eyes and renewed focus.
Planning your day wit ha midday break will also help you break up your work into manageable chunks.
Prioritise important tasks
Tasks can be grouped into 4 categories:
Urgent and important
Not urgent but important
Urgent but not important
Neither urgent nor important
People who manage their time well concentrate on not urgent but important activities. That way they lower the chances of activities ever becoming urgent and important.
The aim is to learn how to become better at reducing the number of urgent and important tasks. Having to deal with too many urgent tasks can be stressful.
Practise the ‘4 Ds’
One study found that 1 in 3 office workers suffers from email stress. Making a decision the first time you open an email is crucial for good time management.
Delete: you can probably delete half the emails you get immediately.
Do: if the email is urgent or can be completed quickly.
Delegate: if the email can be better dealt with by someone else.
Defer: Set aside time later to spend on emails that will take longer to deal with.