5 Helpful Time Management Tips

To effectively manage your time, you should manage yourself, identify your time wasters, avoid being idle while waiting, write down your tasks and set your priorities, and allocate appropriate time for each task.



Do you often find yourself swamped with work all at one time? Do you wonder why you end up not accomplishing anything in the end? Or do you wish you could finish more work? Time management might be the solution to all these problems. Time management is very crucial in completing tasks at the right time and in the right way. It also helps people perform better at work, school or at home. Here are some helpful time management tips to help you become more efficient and effective with your time.



Manage yourself



You should first realize that the term time management is somewhat inappropriate. Nobody can actually manage time. It flows on twenty four hours a day whether or not you finish the tasks you are supposed to do. Time doesn’t wait for anyone. What you can manage is yourself, your habits and how you spend your time.



Identify your time wasters



All of us have activities or habits that scrape at our productivity. One teenager find herself glued to the TV set when she is supposed to be finishing homework. An employee might be surfing the internet when he is supposed to be working on a business proposal. These bad habits can be small or big. What is common about them is that they keep you from doing what you’re supposed to be doing. You can keep yourself from falling prey to these time wasters by being conscious of your behavior and identify what activities distract you or make you unproductive. The moment you find yourself doing these time wasting activities, stop and say to yourself, “Should I really be doing this now?”



Avoid being idle while waiting



There might be some periods during the day when you find yourself waiting. You could be waiting your turn at the dentist’s office or waiting for an important call. You don’t have to be just sitting and doing nothing. Bring something that you can work on while you wait: a report that needs reviewing, some notes that you need to go over. There’s always something that you can do while waiting.



Write down your tasks and set your priorities



It is important to realize that sometimes multi-tasking can have adverse effects on the quality of your work output. It might be better to devote your time to a few urgent tasks than trying to accomplish everything all at once. You will end up with less stress and, more importantly, the quality of your output will be much better. It will help if you write down your tasks for the day and arrange them according to urgency. The work at the top of the list will be your priority, and you can devote your time to finishing those first.



Allocate appropriate time for each task



This tip also corresponds to setting priorities. Once you have listed your tasks for the day, estimate how long it will take you to finish each task and allocate time accordingly. Doing this will be like setting your own deadline for each task and will help you keep track of your work. Constantly remind yourself of the deadlines you set while you are working so you will not lose your grip on all the other tasks waiting to be done.



You don’t have to sacrifice the quality of your work or how much you can accomplish just because you have limited time at hand. Managing your time well will help you become effective and efficient in everything you do.