“Prioritize your work and be more productive”
Managing time is of utmost importance to be able to conduct projects effectively. We all have the same hours every day. The reason why others achieve more is not only because they work harder, but they also manage their time better. One should make a promise to have effective time management strategies. If you feel anxious about incomplete tasks or no matter how much you cross off your to-do list, there are always more things to get done. You need to follow some time management tips.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, primarily to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves a juggling act of various demands upon a person relating to work, social life, family, hobbies, personal interests and commitments with the finiteness of time. Using time effectively gives the person “choice” on spending/managing activities at their own time and expediency.
IMPORTANCE OF TIME MANAGEMENT
How we manage time can set us up for success or keep us where we are. It’s up to you to make the most of your time. While we can’t add hours to our day, understanding the importance of time management can help you maximize the time you have.
By developing time management skills, you can create a much better work-life balance. The consequence of bad time management can lead to stress, burnout and frustration as you don’t have the time to achieve your goals.
When you manage time effectively, you become more productive and get more of the right work done.
Rather than focusing on time and effort to achieve targets, you become focused on delivering a result. You become focused on working smarter, not harder. Put your mind in a peak state to get the desired results effectively.
When you properly manage time and work using your unique strength, you are always stimulated, motivated and focused. Effective time management is simply about maximising the time you have to produce the results you want.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS
1. Create a time audit
If you want to have more time, the first step is to understand where you are currently spending it.
This time audit will help you identify activities to eliminate and to invest more time in certain activities. List all of the activities you do in a week and time spent on each. Then ask yourself if that time investment is the best use of your time.
Eliminate activities where appropriate and spend more time on the activities, that will help you reach your goals quicker. Focus on results, not time spent.
2. Become a planning master
Start becoming intentional about where you spend your time. It should include quarterly planning, monthly planning, a weekly planning and daily planning.
If you have no direction or focus for your day or week, then you can get distracted and waste time. Each night list the top three activities you want to focus on for the following day and review at the end of the day.
Every Saturday or Sunday, layout your focused plan for the following week, listing the key outcomes you want to achieve.
3. Focus time on your most important activity
Don’t multi-task, get clear on your most important activity and work on just that one project. Multi-tasking can waste hours every day. Choose the one thing and use time blocking to remove distractions.
Work for 45 minutes, take a break, work for a further 45 minutes and then take a long break. It will help the mind and body stay focused and energized.
4. Use the Pareto Principle to manage time
Use the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80:20 rule, to prioritize your time and energy. This rule suggests that 20% of something produces 80% of the results.
Using the Pareto Principle look at how you can focus less time to produce an efficient result.
The Pareto Principle is all about leveraging a small amount of time and effort to deliver excellent results.
5. Don’t worry about being perfect
Trying to be perfect wastes time and lowers productivity. Perfectionists think that nothing will ever be perfect, so they spend too much time tweaking and amending to ensure that a project is perfect. Use your best capabilities to start a project and then work with someone else or delegate the rest.
6. Prioritize your time
By focusing and staying away from low-value work, you can achieve more by working less. This focus comes from being clear on your goals and an ability to prioritize and work on projects in blocks of time until completed.
7. Celebrate progress
There are always things to celebrate, and achievements made every day. At the end of each day, make a record of three things you’ve achieved. This activity will ensure you end every day feeling motivated and energized.
8. Achieve goals faster
You may always have big goals that you don’t achieve. The reason is too short deadlines.
If you want to achieve goals faster, set bigger goals with extended deadlines and smaller goals with shorter deadlines.
Every goal achievement builds progress and momentum, so make it easy on yourself to achieve your goals.
9. Increase energy by freeing uptime
Constantly feeling burnt out and stressed is miserable. It hinders creativity and productivity.
The answer is to take more time out of your business and life for rest and rejuvenation. You can utilize this time just for you or to spend with the people in your life that are most important. More time out increases energy and motivation.
10. Create time to do more of what you love
When you spend more time doing things you’re passionate about with people you want to work with, you can create a greater impact.
In your life, spending more time doing the things that you love is exciting and motivating.
CONCLUSION
Understanding the importance of time management and developing good time management skills improve all aspects of your life. By sharpening your time management skills, you can expect to be more confident, productive and effective at work. Effective time management leaves you energized, which translates into living fully and trying exciting things in the new time you’ve found in your day.
– Adapa Usha Raman
Utkarshini Journal 