Time management is an invaluable skill that requires a strong attitude, consistent planning, and discipline. And with the help of a few tech tools, time management will be the superhero cape that will help boost your career and conquer future challenges.
If you’re looking for in-depth tips on how to improve your time management skills, then keep on reading. This article will surely help you become an expert at time management and lead you to eternal success.
Time Tracking To Improve Your Time Management Skills
If you are a business manager, team leader, freelancer, or any other professional, looking to excel in your field, you need time tracking tools. Time tracking tools will help you seamlessly track the time you spend on each task. Therefore, you can figure out exactly how you spend your time. Moreover, some time tracking tools are built to track time for teams, which means that you can also track how your employees spend time.
Perhaps you thought that you spend about five minutes each hour checking and replying to emails from your clients. However, after using a freelance time tracking tool, you realize that you spend 20 minutes every hour. Or maybe you ask your team to integrate time tracking apps to their working hours. After tracking the time you realize that the average response time to a client’s complaint is five hours, which is unacceptable to you.
If you decide to use a time tracking system, you’ll realize that even the most casual pass-time is merely a distraction from your endgame. With the right technology, you can track and collect data such as your efficiency and productivity. Time tracking is the first step towards becoming more productive at an unprecedented level in all your professional endeavors.
Time Management Tips to Boost your Career
So, let’s gear up to become more productive and start this journey. Here are seven time management tips to try:
1. Make a schedule and stay on it
No, the problem is not with your DNA makeup or your personality, but the way you’re building your schedule. Do you put buffer times between each task? Are you keeping track of what you need to do? If you want to stay on schedule, you need to give your undivided attention. Train yourself to avoid distractions and provide a realistic deadline for your tasks. Above all, make sure you add cushion time before switching to a new task.
2. Remember everything is important
Learn how to prioritize your tasks to get more out of your limited time each day. Capture all the tasks you need to do and break it down to master, monthly, weekly, and daily goals. Your monthly list should pull from your master list, while your weekly list pulls from your monthly list. Also, remember to be realistic about how much work you can do in a day.
3. Build and preserve boundaries
Boundaries are essential to building successful careers. Setting and sustaining these boundaries is a skill. First off, start by identifying your limits: physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental. When you are feeling discomfort or resentment during an interaction, this is a sign that you’re pushing yourselves beyond your limits. Always make a direct and clear-cut dialogue. Practice self-awareness and make self-care a priority. Consider your past and present, and always be assertive.
4. Account for good distractions
When is a distraction a good thing? The right kind of distraction can make you stronger and more resilient in your work. Our brains have a limited ability to focus, which makes it impossible to pay attention to everything all at once. However, in some situations, this biological limitation can be leveraged to become a powerful tool to reduce the impact of painful or negative experiences.
This ability to shift our attention from painful experiences can also help us cope with the pain of everyday life. As such, you should set aside a few minutes in a day to incorporate distractions into your schedule.
5. Keep off bad distractions
When is a distraction destructive? Indeed, a distraction can help us deal with pain and become more confident in tackling future challenges. But distractions can also pull us away from our priorities. Whether a distraction becomes a force of good depends on why and how you are using it. Are you using a distraction to escape your real life or to make your real-life better?
6. Use technology to improve productivity
There are tech tools that can make you more productive, more efficient, and more innovative. You can also become more flexible at work and home by using technology to your advantage. You can improve your time management skills by incorporating tech tools into your daily work life. For example, instead of wasting precious time searching through spreadsheets for information stored in large data sets, you can invest in database systems for quick and easy access to data.
7. Stop procrastinating
Instead of getting the job done, you might be tempted to choose short-term pleasures. The best way to overcome procrastinating, plan out your day, and make a list of everything you want to accomplish. Get rid of distractions and reward yourself with time for relaxation, entertainment, and distraction.
Conclusion
Give these time management tips a try and see if they work for you. Your business partners, team, clients, family, and friends, will be much happier when you are on top of things.
About the Guest Author
Lori Wade is a journalist from Louisville. She is a content writer who has experience in small editions, Lori is now engaged in news and conceptual articles on the topic of business. If you are interested in an entrepreneur or lifestyle, you can find her on LinkedIn.
