Time management is the ability to use your time productively, effectively, and efficiently to achieve the desired outcome. When you learn how to prioritize time management you become the key to achieve the best results out of your daily responsibilities. Time never changes. Everyone has 24 hours in a day; no one has more than that and no one has less than that. Why is it that so many people struggle to manage their time and achieve so little? Conversely others manage to achieve so much in one single day. Those who achieve the most out of their days attain that because they simply learned how to prioritize time management! It is therefore important to learn ‘why’ it’s essential to prioritize time management and most importantly how you prioritize time management.
Benefits of Time Management
Accomplish greater results at work in a short period with the help of good time management. You have more free time available to take on more opportunities to do other activities you may want to do for career growth or other activities. Prioritize time management to enhance focus, lower your stress, and deliver work on time. When you prioritize time management you provide a better quality of work, capably handle more responsibility, procrastinate less and enjoy work life better.
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How to Prioritize Time Management:
1.Identify your Time-Wasters
Time wasters are people, habits, or activities that distract you from achieving your desired goals within a specific time. These time-wasters could be too much socializing, poor planning, perfectionism, lack of skills, trying to do everything yourself. They also include poor delegation, not valuing your own time, being indecisive, saying yes to everyone’s needs, interruptions and distractions.
Once supervisors identify time-wasters they must simply train workers to delete or at least defer them. That is, workers should complete lower priorities only after they accomplish the most important and urgent tasks first. Habits are other time-wasters which result from personality flaws. Hence. you must learn how to overcome bad habits. That will help you to know how to prioritize time much better.
2. Follow Pareto’s Principle: the 80/20 Rule
Pareto’s 80-20 rule is an aphorism that asserts that 80% of outcomes (or outputs) result from 20% of all causes (or inputs) for any given event. So this means you can identify and put your efforts (20% actions) where they will make the most difference (give you 80% results). This is certainly a very effective method to save time. And you must invest your efforts only in things that foster greater results than the amount of time you spent accomplishing that work.
3. Avoid Procrastination
Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of the less pleasurable ones. It also entails carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones. This results in putting off impending tasks to a later Not wise!
Ways to Overcome Procrastination:
Depending on the nature of what needs to be done, to overcome procrastination, these are options to consider:
- either delete the task if it’s not that important
- delegate
- set a reward for yourself for motivating you to complete the task
- remove distractions
- set a deadline to get it done and practice discipline in completing it
- break it down into smaller manageable tasks to avoid being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task.
4. Create your Productivity Time Log
Prioritizing time management is almost impossible without having effective ways to plan well and be organized. A productivity time log is simply a record for the day-to-day work activities you have to do until the time you’re finished work for the day. It’s actually best to have a professional journal and a personal journal. Use these two daily to achieve the best results. Include the date, time, and day before writing what the time log consists of. Always prioritize at least the first three most important tasks each day. When you don’t prioritize important tasks, they become unnecessarily urgent tasks. They will end up stressing you as you try to rush to complete them.
To maximize the power of your productivity log, always plan it the night before. This way you also help your subconscious mind to prepare you to get it done soon the following day. Next, never forget to prioritize your tasks. After completing each task, cross it off. This is very motivating as it helps you to see your progress and have the energy to complete the rest. Carryover unfinished tasks and complete them before tackling new ones for a new day.
Tips for Making a to-do List:
- Capture everything you need to do.
- Prioritize the most important and urgent tasks first.
- Determine how long each task or activity takes.
- Cross-off the action when done.
Conclusion
“Time management is a misnomer – the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves. The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.” Stephen Covey