Do you ever find yourself carrying out an activity and while at it, you suddenly realize that you have spent too much time on it while neglecting other relevant responsibilities?
Do you ever feel as though 24 hours are too short for you, simply because you can’t get a good number of your tasks done in a day?
Do you have an urge to learn how to spend your time wisely?
I’m happy to inform you that you are not alone and I have a solution for all from my personal experience.
For a long time, I also struggled with getting a good number of activities done daily because time never seemed enough. I wasn’t able to complete my work at the right time and I often spent too much time in completing a single task. I had to learn time management the hard way.
WHAT IS TIME MANAGEMENT?
According to Wikipedia “Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity”.
From this definition, we can see that time management has a lot of benefits. It allows you perform duties without stress and also gives you more time to perform other duties. How amazing!
Here are five essential tips for effective time management
Set your work priorities and goals
Setting priorities and goals makes it easier for you to eliminate unimportant and less important activities. It also guides in creating an activity-log for achieving these goals.
Create an activity log
Before commencing on any project or job, it is important to note all the activities that will be involved in achieving the set goals. Personally, the visualizing method works perfectly. I envision myself carrying out the task and note the process involved. That way, I am able to get a complete list of the tasks to be done.
Set a time frame for each task
Now that you have a list of what needs to be achieved and the process involved in carrying them out, set a time-frame for each of these tasks, and ensure you work within the time-frame you allocate to each.
Keep your work area tidy
Keeping a tidy work area helps you maintain focus on the task at hand. An untidy work area serves as a distraction. Also, being tidy enhances order in the mind.
Take breaks between tasks
This is important because undertaking a lot of tasks without breaks hinders motivation. It is important to allow yourself a moment between tasks to relax your brain and get yourself refreshed. This will help clear your head of irrelevant activities and also help enhance productivity.
One’s inability to effectively manage time can pose some undesirable consequences. Part of which – inefficient work flow, missed deadlines, poor work quality, increased stress levels, among others. All of these go a long way to prove one’s reputation as a professional and can end up leading to stalled career growth.
Spending a little time learning and gaining a mastery of these time-management techniques will have huge benefits now and throughout your career.
