Was managing your time more effectively one of your new year resolutions that have fallen by the wayside? Don’t worry, you won’t be the only one! If you are looking to start the month afresh and be more organised and productive then you have come to the right place. In this article, we will be taking you through our top time management tactics that will help you to increase your productivity and stay cool, calm and collected.
Be sure to carry on reading to find out more!
Be Realistic
Sometimes, one of the hardest parts about trying to be more organised with our time is simply being realistic with how much time we even have. Most people can tend to beat themselves up if they have a big long list of things to accomplish that day yet they only get through X amount of them. However, we simply have to face the fact that there are only so many hours in a day and that we cannot change this. This means that there is always going to be limitations to how much we can really do and we have to be realistic about managing the time that we have and what we do within that time.
Where Am I Wasting the Most Time?
One of the first steps to effective time management is to see where exactly it is during the day that you are wasting the most time and could be doing some far more productive. Are you someone who spends a lot of time reading emails? Posting on social media? Replying to text messages? This can quickly eat away into your day and a recent survey even found that a massive 31% were wasting roughly one hour a day. As you can see, this all quickly adds up to hours upon hours of wasted time that you could be more productive with.
Set Yourself Goals
When you are trying to improve your time management skills, it is important that you focus on actually trying to change your behaviour for the long run and not just as a short-term thing. The first goal, for example, that you could set yourself could be to avoid personal time wasting. So, this could mean not answering personal calls in work or responding to personal text messages.
Create A Time Management Plan
Carrying on from the last point, when you are trying to make better time management part of your overall behaviour then you will not only need to set yourself goals but you will also need to create a time management plan so you can track these goals and ensure that you really are meeting them.
Use Time Management Tools
The Kanban method is commonly used to track how quickly a project is being completed and this also allows you to see whether or not it will be completed on time and where any bottlenecks are that will stop the project from being completed on time. Kanban boards will allow you to visualise how you are going to effectively manage your time in the future. You will also be able to set deadlines and see when projects are due far in advance so that no nasty surprises creep up on you. You can look to Kanbanize if you want Kanban explained for beginners – this article will walk you through its history, it’s principles and how to use it.
Delegate and Outsource Work
As a manager, it can sometimes be extremely difficult to delegate work. When a business is your baby, you want to make sure everything is perfect! However, if you take on too much yourself this is when deadlines can be missed and the carefully planned time management of your project can be thrown into disarray. You should try to make sure that you are delegating work appropriately and if you are starting to fall behind with projects, then it may be time to look at outsourcing your work.
Stick to a Routine
If you want to effectively manage your time, then it is important that you establish a routine and then, more importantly, you stick to that routine! When you create a routine, this will allow you to get straight to work at the start of the day, rather than wasting lots of time trying to work out what to start on first.
Set Yourself Time Limits
When bettering your time management skills, it is vital that you get yourself into the habit of setting the time limit for tasks. We’ve all been there where we have a day in the office that has been consumed just by answering emails and calls. To get yourself out of this, try instead to put a limit on how much time you are going to spend doing this and then once that time is up, move onto the next task.
