Have you ever felt that your day runs so slowly, or conversely, passes so quickly by that you cannot complete all work assigned to you on the same day? Everyone could easily argue on the lack of time, or days to chase their deadlines and end up in a burnout workflow. In fact, time is the one you can’t actually blame on (unfortunately), as it always has the same amount of hours, minutes and seconds per day. It is now clear about who actually has the problem.
Good time management is one the rare skills not all employees and leaders at the top possess. For employees who manage time well, their productivity increases to successfully accomplish all tasks for the day. It is not about you can or you can’t, but it is all about ‘ what you want’ or ‘what you do not want’.
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Time management requires great amount of self-disciplined habits to be inculcated. Good time management is result of working in a conducive environment in collaboration with other departments and the team to meet the employer demands and those of the clients within a stipulated time frame. Let’s have a look at some of these interesting time management tips to sort out your days better:
It is not always impossible to finish a great amount of tasks at a certain period of time if you can prioritize them in the most effective order. There can be an urgently important task and a common important task.
The urgently important task refers to those which need prompt attention to be handled in a short span of time. Hence such tasks should be listed at the top of your priority lists. Meanwhile the other ones, that could be attended to at the later part of the day(s) could be listed right below the top priorities. Bear in mind to also make a note of the least important tasks, as they need to be accomplished too.
Do not always count on your memorizing ability to accomplish your assignments and tasks for the day on time. This could be calling disaster at work soon with unattended commitments, impending work backlog and so on. Just go ahead and grab a pen to make a small note of the things to be done in the form of a to-do list for your day.
First things first, differentiate between urgent and important things to do such that it makes it easier to prioritize. Cross off those which have already been done and provide asterisk marks to the most important ones. By doing this activity, you would clearly know what to do in a day and can easily overcome the temptation to procrastinate.
Just by viewing the enormous piled-up tasks on your work desk could often make you fear to start the day. Instead of starting off to clear the backlog, some pleasant distractions at work such as to catch up on a fun chat with colleagues, checking the social media for updates or discussing the next office trip or personal problems with one seated next to you – are some ways opted by employees who fear clearing the backlog. Such procrastination never helps as you would have much greater amount of tasks to accomplish within shorter deadlines in the days to come. Get over the urge to procrastinate and execute tasks timely. This would further be bad not only for your health but also the career itself.
It is always good to start your day by with a to-do list to accomplish, as during the early morning hours you haven’t filled your brains with any tasks and orders from the employer. Stick to the best routine that works for you and make a schedule. For instance, while leaving from work, tidy up your documents on the desk such that it would be clean the next morning as you get to work.
Clearing up the mess on your work desk also helps to easily find sheets and avoid misplacing the important documents. Also, set your social media applications to busy or do not disturb to minimize the disturbance and politely refuse all kinds of unimportant issues from your friends out there. Set to available when all the tasks are done and you are ready to leave the office.
Emails would pop up almost in every hour but keep the concentration to do the important tasks first. To not opening emails at all is also not good, as those could bring essential information related to your job.
So does your calling time as you might ultimately end up wasting your precious time discussing unimportant matters over lengthy conversations on call during the work hours. Set time discipline times to respond to emails and receive calls in the morning, during lunch breaks and in the afternoon. By setting a time discipline for yourself, you can successfully complete all the tasks and keep in touch with relatives and family at the same time.
Time management is one of the factors that employee has to successfully deal with. A good time management results in a good working performance, productivity and achievement at work. However, bad or poor time management could easily result in productivity burnouts, poor performance and disengagement. HR professionals and employers should work towards inculcating basic time management skills in the minds of employees such as to get most of their work days and have a relaxed time post work hours.
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