Time management is a tricky business. So many things to do, so little time! Whether you're juggling a business and a family, or just trying to find more time for your hobbies, effective time management is crucial.
So, how can you make the most of your day? Check out these time management tips for finding your personal time management style and making the most of your time!
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- What Is Time Management?
1. Set Priorities
2. Make a Schedule
3. Don’t Waste Time Waiting
4. Break Large Jobs into Smaller Pieces
5. Make Efficient Decisions—Even if That Means Saying No
6. Focus On One Thing
7. Keep a Time Log
8. Delegate
9. Automate
10. Set Deadlines for Yourself
11. Review Your Progress
What Are Time Management Tools?
11 Effective Time Management Strategies | Good Time Management Techniques and Tools to Boost Efficiency
What Is Time Management?
Time management is the process of planning and organizing the time you need to divide between specific tasks or activities. To do this effectively, you would have to allocate the ideal amount of time to an activity to get it done.
Time management skills are important because they help you get things done, improve productivity, and reduce stress. Good time management can also help you achieve work-life balance by making time for both work and personal activities.
On the other hand, poor time management can lead to a number of problems. For instance, you may find yourself frequently running late for appointments or missing deadlines. This cannot only be frustrating for you, but it can also adversely affect your professional and personal life.
Additionally, poor time management can lead to increased stress levels, as you feel like you're constantly playing catch-up.
If you're looking to get a better handle on your time, here are some effective time management strategies to turn into habits:
1. Set Priorities
You only get enough time in a day to get things done, so you would need to properly allocate your hours on the most important tasks. But how do you know which tasks you should prioritize?
It may be helpful to refer to the Eisenhower Matrix, which sets guidelines for prioritizing tasks. The Eisenhower Matrix is a great thing to keep in mind when preparing your to-do list. This will help you organize all your tasks by importance and urgency:
- Important and urgent: These are urgent tasks you should attend to first.
- Important but not urgent: You can schedule these tasks for later.
- Not important but urgent: These are the tasks you can possibly delegate to others
- Not important and not urgent: These are the tasks you can skip or attend to last.
2. Make a Schedule
Once you know your priorities, it's time to make a plan. How are you going to achieve your goals? What steps do you need to take? Creating a schedule will help you stay on track and make better use of your time. You may even try to schedule meetings with yourself to plan your day or week!
Tony Robbins' Rapid Planning Method (RPM) is an excellent strategy for managing time. RPM involves setting clear goals, then breaking down those goals into specific actions that can be completed in a certain amount of time. This method can help you to stay focused and use your time more effectively.
Furthermore, when making a schedule, be sure to:
Be Realistic
Don't try to pack too much into one day. If you're realistic about what you can accomplish, you're more likely to stick to your schedule.
Build in Flexibility
Allow for some flexibility in your schedule. Things come up, and you may need to adjust your plans.
Be Specific
When you're specific about what you need to do and when you need to do it, you're more likely to get it done.
3. Don’t Waste Time Waiting
More often than not, a huge chunk of some of the most challenging tasks involves waiting around for others to get back to you, which results in wasted time. While being patient is valuable, waiting around only eats up too much time that could be spent doing other tasks.
That doesn’t mean you should be looking for leisure distractions either. Try filling in your waiting time by checking up on emails or glancing over your schedule to see how else you could be productive.
Pro Tip: If there are really no more task-related things you can do while waiting around, why not listen to podcasts or read articles connected to them? This will help keep you motivated, and may even help you learn something new about what you’re doing!
4. Break Large Jobs into Smaller Pieces
Large projects can be draining, exhausting, and even lead your brain into looking for constant distraction and procrastination. Breaking it up into smaller, more manageable pieces can help you feel more in control and even let you give your brain and energy levels much-needed short breaks.
You can try out the Pomodoro Technique. Translated from the Italian word for tomato, this time management technique was inspired by kitchen timers and consists of focusing on tasks in time blocks of 25 minutes at a time, in between breaks.
When you’re dealing with a large task with many related tasks, here’s how you can apply the Pomodoro Technique to it:
Pick a specific task: The first step is to identify the task you want to work on.
Set a timer: Once you’ve decided on a single task, set a timer for 25 minutes and start working.
Focus: During this time block, focus solely on just one task. This means no checking of emails, taking of phone calls, or browsing social media. If you can’t help but be distracted, make a note of it and move on.
Work until the timer rings: Once the timer goes off, take a 5-minute break. You can stand up, stretch, grab a quick snack, or just walk around.
Repeat steps 2-4: Repeat these steps two more times for a total of three Pomodoros. After the fourth Pomodoro, take a longer break of 20-30 minutes.
5. Make Efficient Decisions—Even if That Means Saying No
You would need to be able to make quick decisions when it comes to your work, not only for yourself but when others are involved as well. This is how you can quickly establish your limits and boundaries, and be able to foresee the outcome of certain tasks.
This could even mean saying “no” and turning down difficult tasks your supervisor or manager comes to you with.
Making decisions quickly and saying “no” tactfully can help you save time and help you from missing deadlines and experiencing burnout from taking on too many things at once.
While we all hesitate to refuse tasks from our bosses, there are effective ways to do it:
Explain
Give a reason, such as citing all the tasks you’re working on at the moment, and how taking on a new task can derail your progress.
Avoid Lying
Made-up excuses are a terrible way to deal with new task requests, and there’s a risk of your boss finding out you’re fibbing. Try to always be open about why you can’t take on new tasks at that time.
Present Your Priorities
Show your boss what you’re working on. This lets them gauge how their new task measures up in importance and urgency from your other projects and understand why you’re turning them down. This could even lead them to help you with some tasks or delegating them to others.
Ask For Postponement
Sometimes, the final deadlines on new tasks aren’t truly set in stone yet. You can ask for the task to be postponed or rescheduled to be addressed at a later date.
6. Focus On One Thing
There may be a lot of praise for multitasking, but it seems to be more counterproductive than anything. Doing many manageable tasks at the same time may look impressive, but it can be inefficient and ineffective. This also robs the human brain of the proper time to prepare itself and mentally catch up in between tasks, which could lead to more mistakes to have to iron out, taking up more of your time.
Try focusing on one task at a time, then make a conscious effort to complete it before moving to another one. This way, your brain can have enough time to transition between different tasks, and you can have some closure before hopping onto another assignment.
7. Keep a Time Log
Keeping a log of your workday involves tracking how you spend your time for a week or two, then looking for patterns and areas where you can improve.
For example, you might realize that you're spending too much time on email each day, or that you need to give yourself more time to complete tasks.
By keeping a time log, you can identify areas where you need to make changes in order to better manage your time.
Pro Tip: A convenient way to do this is to keep a planner or take notes in an online calendar you can easily access on your phone.
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8. Delegate
If you’re working on a lot of tasks with a deadline that is looming ever closer, delegating them could be a good idea. There will be people in your company who have the time and skills to be able to help you out.
Look out for team members who are available and start delegating. This also shows that you value their input, and empowers them into growing professionally.
Remember, no man is an island. Delegating can even strengthen your professional relationships!
9. Automate
There may be some routine tasks that you do on a daily or weekly schedule that could be automated. This saves you the trouble of having to go through the motions and allows you to focus your attention on other more pressing matters.
For example, you can set up automatic payments for your bills or create email templates for responses to common inquiries!
Pro Tip: There are software programs or applications that can help automate some of your tasks. Zapier, for instance, is a great resource for automating tasks!
10. Set Deadlines for Yourself
If there are no external deadlines for a task, set your own. Having some sort of timeline or date by which you want to have something done will help you stay on track and prevent yourself from getting too comfortable with taking your sweet time. Setting deadlines can create a sense of urgency, help you in maintaining focus, and help you avoid getting sidetracked by less important tasks.
Of course, it's important to be realistic when setting deadlines. If you're working on a complex project, it may not be realistic to expect to complete it in one day. But if you break it down into smaller tasks with deadlines that are a few days or weeks apart, it can help you to continue to work as planned without getting overwhelmed.
11. Review Your Progress
You should regularly review your progress to ensure that you’re still on track. Time management is an ongoing process, and there will always be room for improvement.
Every few weeks, take a step back and assess how you’ve been doing. Are there areas where you need to make some changes? Are there new strategies that you want to try out?
Don’t be afraid to experiment and find what works best for you. The most important thing is that you’re always moving forward and making progress towards your goals.
What Are Time Management Tools?
Any time management pro will tell you that one of the most important things you can do is to find the right tools for the job. Different people have different needs, so there's no one-size-fits-all solution. However, there are some time management tools that are widely used and respected:
Time Doctor
Time Doctor is a time tracking software that can help you to see where you're spending your time and make sure you're staying on task. It's also useful for team projects, as it allows you to see how much time each team member is spending on a task.
Time Doctor is very easy to use–all you need to do is start the timer when you start working on a task, and stop it when you're finished. Then, at the end of the day, week, or month, you can see how much time you've spent on each task and how productive you've been.
Time Doctor also has a lot of other features, such as the ability to take screenshots of your screen while you're working, that can help you to further improve your time management skills.
Asana
Asana is a project management tool that can help you keep track of your to-do list, set deadlines, and track your progress on projects. It's also a great way to stay organized and communicate with team members. With this tool, you can create a task list for each project, and then assign tasks to specific team members.
Asana makes it easy to see who is working on what and when tasks are due. This way, you can ensure that everyone is on the same page and that projects are moving along as planned.
Final Thoughts
Just as people management and money management are important, mastering time management is essential, too. After all, time is a finite resource that cannot be replenished; once it's gone, it's gone forever. That's why learning how to manage time effectively is so important.
There are a number of different techniques that can be used to better manage one's time. However, learning when to reach out and ask for help is also one of the best time management techniques you can do.
This is why outsourcing employees such as virtual assistants have been on the rise, as remote work is becoming more common in the digital age.
Outsourcing can help you take on more tasks and get them done in a timely and efficient manner without feeling bogged down.
There are many benefits of having a virtual assistant, but the biggest one is that it can help you manage your time more effectively so you can focus on the things that matter most to you.
If you’re looking for a perfect time management strategy, then hiring a virtual assistant is one of the best decisions you can make!
To learn more about how virtual assistants can help you achieve your goals, check out our Ultimate Guide to Virtual Assistants. In this guide, we cover everything from what services virtual assistants offer to how to find and hire the perfect one for your business.