What is Time Management ?
“Time management” is to improve your work performance in order to make you capable of completing your tasks in a timely manner. Time management is the process of planning of time spent on the particular activities. to increase the productivity and effectiveness. time management is usually referred as a work or business activities. It is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. Good time management enables you to work smarter – not harder – so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressures are high. Failing to manage your time damages your effectiveness and causes stress.”
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What is Time Management Skills?
A time management skill is any skill someone thinks helps them manage their time.
Time is money. Every business person knows that. And if you can’t manage your time wisely, and if you do not respect the time of others, you have no chances to build strong partner relationships.
If you do not want to lose your business partners and to doom your company to failure, you should improve your time management skills. It’s your task to show others that they can trust you and rely on you fully even when deadlines are really tight.
Why it is Important?
Time management skills, like other soft skills, are in demand. Interviewers will be asking questions to assess your ability to manage your time, and the time of your team if you’re in a supervisory role.
Due to too much of workload you often feel stressed especial when have more tasks on hand than you have time to do them or you could have effectively use your time to complete all the given tasks?Sometimes it may seem that there isn’t enough time to do everything that you need to. This can lead to a build up of stress.
When revising for examinations, or during your final year when you have to combine the pressures of intensive study with finding time to apply for jobs good management of your time can be particularly important. Once we have identified ways in which we can improve the management of our time, we can begin to adjust our routines and patterns of behavior to reduce any time-related stress in our lives.
How you can you improve ?
You can improve time management by following ways.
- Prioritizing
- Scheduling
- Delegation
- Goal setting
- Avoid Multitasking
- Strategic thinking
- Organize
- Avoid Time Wasters
- Do It Now
- Set Deadlines
- Positive Thinking
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Effective Time Management skills to improve your efficiency
Prioritization
Assessing each of your responsibilities for priority is key in being a good time manager. There are many ways to prioritize what you need to accomplish. You might decide to complete fast, simple items followed by longer, more involved ones. Alternatively, you might prioritize your tasks starting with the most time-sensitive, or a combination of both.
Schedule Tasks
“A schedule defends from chaos and whim,” says author Annie Dillard. If you are a morning person and find you are at your most creative and productive early in the morning, schedule high-value tasks in the morning at your peak creative/productive time. If your creativity and energy picks up when the sun is setting, schedule high priority tasks then. Your “down” time can be scheduled for less important tasks like checking e-mail or returning phone calls.
Delegate Tasks
The old adage by 17th century author John Donne that no one is an island still holds true today. You can’t manage everything on your own. Sometimes it is prudent to let other people help you with tasks, especially when you are swamped. You save time, reduce stress and accomplish a lot more when you assign tasks to the right people.
Relinquish your grip on the wheel and grant authority with responsibility to qualified people. Delegating is not dumping. Give tasks with consequences. This way you promote accountability and ensure goals and deadlines are met.
Set Goals
Goals give you a vision, focus and destination to work towards. They help you have a clear mind on where you want to go and how best to manage your time and resources to get there. By setting goals, you are able to identify what’s worth spending your time on and what’s a distraction to avoid.
Start by asking yourself where you want to be in six months time. You can go further and look at where you want to be in the next year or even decade from now. Set personal and professional goals that are realistic and achievable. This is a crucial step toward ensure you manage your time better.
Avoid Multitasking
Although many people think that multitasking will help them accomplish more tasks in a shorter amount of time, the opposite is usually what happens. Having your attention divided between several tasks will make it more difficult to complete the tasks correctly. Multitasking works against productivity, so focus only on one task at a time
Organize the work
In order to have your priorities lined up for each workday, make a list of things that you have to do the night before and evaluate the importance of those projects. By committing your priorities to paper, you psychologically enter into a contract with yourself because it creates a greater responsibility in your mind to get these things done.
Avoid Time Wasters
Remember you can not do everything in the world. Politely refuse to accept additional tasks if you think that you’re already overloaded with work. Take a look at your ‘To Do’ list before agreeing to take on extra work. Easily the hardest thing to do all day at work is to be able to focus at all times. We all struggle with distraction, but being able to get back on the horse and stay focused is a great talent. Especially in our world of social media and growing communication technology, it’s easy to get off the working path. Strive to stay off Facebook, Twitter, or anything else that will keep you glued to a screen. There are more important things to be done at work. Put up a “Do not disturb” sign when you absolutely have to get work done.
Practice not answering the phone just because it’s ringing and e-mails just because they show up. Disconnect instant messaging. Don’t instantly give people your attention unless it’s absolutely crucial in your business to offer an immediate human response. Instead, schedule a time to answer email and return phone calls.
Do it Now
Never procrastinate. Procrastination is the largest enemy along the way. Do things immediately when you decide to do it. It’s the most effective way. I can safely say that the root of all evils is laziness. That one hurdle in your way which pulls you from getting to the top is indeed laziness. Time is money and once you realize its importance, no one can stop you from getting to the top. Time Management is a pretty important thing that one needs to make use of. The better you shall manage your time, more the productivity of your company will be.
Set Deadlines
If you’re not into daily routines like me, setting deadlines for each task is a good alternative. It has the same concept of making sure you divide your time fairly for different activities. The big difference is that it’s not listed as overwhelmingly as a schedule. You simply get started with the task and set a deadline right there and then. It can produce a slight adrenaline rush that’s guaranteed to keep you energized and motivated to do the same for the other tasks you have for the day.
Positive Thinking
Positive thinking can change our life. Our brain is too sensitive. We need to acclimatize it to get the best out of it abilities. If we continue to fill our mind with thoughts like ‘I don’t have time for this.’ ‘I wish there were more hours in the day’ and similar other ones, then the mind automatically starts to enter a state of negativity.