Easy Time Management Tips
Create a daily plan
Create a daily plan. Plan your day before it unfolds. Do it in the morning or even better, at the end of the previous day. The plan gives you a good overview of how the day will pan out. That way, you don’t get caught off guard. Your job for the day is to stick to the plan as best as possible.
Make a list
A common time-management mistake is trying to remember too many details, leading to information overload. A better way to stay organised and take control of your projects and tasks is to use a to-do list to write things down. Keeping a list will help you work out your priorities and timings, so it can help you put off the non-urgent tasks.
Work smarter, not harder
Good time management at work means doing high-quality work, not high quantity. Spending more time on something doesn’t necessarily achieve more. Staying an extra hour at work at the end of the day may not be the most effective way to manage your time. You may feel resentful about being in the office after hours. You’re also likely to be less productive and frustrated about how little you’re achieving, which will compound your stress.
Prioritise important tasks
Tasks can be grouped in four categories:
urgent and important
not urgent but important
urgent but not important
neither urgent nor important
When the phone rings, it seems urgent to pick it up but it’s not necessarily important. It may be more important to continue with what you were doing rather than be distracted by a phone call. When it is appropriate, it may be more effective to let your voicemail pick up the message. People with good time management create time to concentrate on non-urgent, important activities. By so doing, they minimise the chances of activities ever becoming urgent and important.
Practise the 4 Ds
We can spend up to half our working day going through our email inbox, making us tired, frustrated and unproductive. A study has found that one-in-three office workers suffers from email stress.
Making a decision the first time you open an email is crucial for effective time management. To manage this burden effectively, practice the 4 Ds of decision-making:
Delete: half of the emails you get can probably be deleted immediately.
Do: if the email is urgent or can be completed quickly.
Delegate: if the email can be better dealt with by someone else.
Defer: set aside time at a later date to spend on emails that require longer action.
Know your deadlines
Know your deadlines. When do you need to finish your tasks? Mark the deadlines out clearly in your calendar and organizer so you know when you need to finish them.
Learn to say No
Learn to say “No”. Don’t take on more than you can handle. For the distractions that come in when you’re doing other things, give a firm no. Or defer it to a later period.
Focus
Are you multi-tasking so much that you’re just not getting anything done? If so, focus on just one key task at one time. Close off all the applications you aren’t using. Close off the tabs in your browser that are taking away your attention. Focus solely on what you’re doing. You’ll be more efficient that way.
Prioritise
Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People suggests putting the important things first before anything else. And why does this matter? That’s because there are 24 hours a day. There are about a million different things we can pick to do. Some will be important things that make a difference. The rest will be unimportant things that actually don’t make any difference at all. Out of this million things, we have to pick and choose, otherwise we’ll forever be drowning in work and never get anything done. Focus on the important and deprioritize the latter.
Delegate
If there are things that can be better done by others or things that are not so important, consider delegating. This takes a load off and you can focus on the important tasks.
Cut off when you need to
One key reason for why things overrun is because you don’t cut off when you have to. Don’t be afraid to intercept in meetings or draw a line to cut-off. Otherwise, there’s never going to be an end and you’ll just eat into the time for later.
Have a lunch break
Many people work through their lunch break to gain an extra hour at work, but that can be counterproductive. As a general rule, taking at least 30 minutes away from your desk will help you to be more effective in the afternoons. A break is an opportunity to relax and think of something other than work. Go for a walk outdoors or, better still, do some exercise - You’ll come back to your desk re-energised, with a new set of eyes and renewed focus. Planning your day with a midday break will also help you to break up your work into more manageable chunks.