“Those who make the worse use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness”
Jean De La Bruyere
A Brief Guide to Time Management
Time management is the process of planning and controlling how much time to spend on specific activities. Good time management enables an individual to complete more in a shorter period of time, lowers stress, and leads to career success.
Here are some benefits of managing time effectively:
1. Stress relief:
Making and following a task schedule reduces anxiety. As you check off items on your “to-do” list, you can see that you are making tangible progress. This helps you avoid feeling stressed out with worry about whether you’re getting things done
2. More time
Good time management gives you extra time to spend in your daily life.
List of Tips for Effective Time Management
1. Set goals correctly
Set goals that are achievable and measurable. Use the SMART method when setting goals. In essence, make sure the goals you set are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
2. Prioritize wisely
Prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency. For example, look at your daily tasks and determine which are:
- Important and urgent: These tasks have important deadlines with high urgency—complete them right away.
- Important but not urgent: These items are important but don’t require immediate action and should involve long-term development strategizing. Strive to spend most of your time in this quadrant.
- Urgent but not important: These tasks are urgent but not important. Minimize, delegate, or eliminate them because they don’t contribute to your output. They are generally distractions that may result from the poor planning of others.
- Urgent and unimportant: These activities hold little if any value and should be eliminated as much as possible
3.Practice the ‘4 Ds’
The 4 Ds are: Do, Defer (Delay), Delegate, and Delete (Drop). Placing a task or project into one of these categories helps you manage your limited time more effectively and stay focused on what matters most to you
4. Have a To-Do List
Having a list is always a time saver. If you have a list, you’ll never have to wonder what’s on the daily agenda or what to do next. Indeed, a list keeps you focused and motivated.
5. Use the 80-20 Rule:
The 80-20 rule, also referred to as the Pareto Principle, was conceived by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who observed that 80% of an outcome generally came from only 20% of its inputs.
6.Take advantage of golden hours or biological prime time:
Do you know what time of the day you do your most productive work? Knowing this will help you optimize your workload.
7.Set a time limit to complete a task:
Setting time constraints for completing tasks helps you be more focused and efficient.
how you can improve your time management at work:
According to the studies , employees claim that their biggest challenges to getting work done are:
- Wasteful meetings – 57%
- Excessive emails – 53%
- Use time management apps
- Find your productive hours
- Track your time
How CEOs Manage Time?
in 2006, Harvard Business School’s Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria launched a study tracking how large companies’ CEOs spent their time, 24/7, for 13 weeks: where they were, with whom, what they did, and what they were focusing on.
1.Making time for personal well-being
Given that work could consume every hour of their lives, CEOs have to set limits so that they can preserve their health and their relationships with family and friends. Most of the CEOs in their study recognized that. They slept, on average, 6.9 hours a night, and many had regular exercise regimens, which consumed about 9% of their nonwork hours (or about 45 minutes a day).
2.They Work Face-to-Face
The top job in a company involves primarily face-to-face interactions, which took up 61% of the work time of the CEOs they have studied. Another 15% was spent on the phone or reading and replying to written correspondence. The final 24% was spent on electronic communications.
3.Avoiding the lure of e-mail
In theory, e-mail helps leaders cut down on face-to-face meetings and improve productivity. In reality, many find it ineffective and a dangerous time sink
4.Making meetings shorter and more effective.
CEOs confessed that one-hour meetings could often be cut to 30 or even 15 minutes. Another good way to streamline things is to reset meeting norms: Every meeting should have a clear agenda, and to minimize repetition, attendees should come prepared. Effective CEOs spread these meeting norms throughout the organization.
Time Management and Work-Life Balance
Work and life may seem separate, but what you do in one side of your life will have a profound impact on the other. Keeping healthy life habits will help you achieve more when you get to work.
1.Exercise often.
Physical activity has a major impact on productivity. One study’s participants noted a 72% improvement in time management and work load completion after adding workday exercise to their routines.
2.Sleep well.
Scientists have found sleeping less to create more time for tasks actually has a negative impact in both the short and long run. Tired people procrastinate more and get distracted more easily. Give your brain at least eight hours of sleep every night even if that deadline is coming up soon.
Time management tools:
1.Evernote – Keep All Your Notes in One Place
Evernote is a free productivity tool that allows you to capture all your ideas, thoughts, and images in many different ways (e.g., with voice, notes, or images). You can even record your meetings, interviews, speeches, and ideas, create lists, add voice or text attachments, and share your files with friends.
2.Toggl
Effective time management starts with being clear on exactly how much time you actually spend on your projects and tasks and through analysis – working out how you can manage them more effectively. Toggl allows you to do all this even with its simple design
Resources:
- https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/time-management-list-tips/
- https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/10-tips-for-managing-time-effectively.php
- https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/tips-and-support/time-management-tips/
- https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/time-management-at-work
- https://hbr.org/2018/07/how-ceos-manage-time
- https://www.scoro.com/blog/best-time-management-tools-reviewed/
- https://hbr.org/2018/07/how-ceos-manage-time