How to Manage Time Effectively

Projects creep at sight while deadlines slip and you're getting uptight. In the meantime, TO-DO lists seem to be getting longer week after week — these phenomena are a reality both in life and workforce.

How often do you get the sense that time flies, or that 24 hours are just not enough to cross out all the checkpoints that comprise your agenda? Many of us (or is it just me?) seize those early morning journaling hours with the following aspirations:

1. “Manage time better”

2. “Be more productive”

3. “Prioritise on what matters”

TIME IS MONEY, they say in the corporate world. Indeed, time lost equals bucks thrown out of the window. To prevent this from happening, I loaded my researching guns and shoot 5 tried-and-tested techniques that will help you manipulate time for the win.

Before I delve into how you can sharpen your time management skills, let me clarify what the notion actually is.

What is time management?

Being a good time-manager and goal-setter means being able to coordinate activities for optimal results in your attempts. Simply put, time management allows you to cover more ground on your work in as little time as possible.

Why is time management important?

You can expect positive effects on your personal and professional life when you follow the path of time management — especially if you're the type of person who fails to evenly distribute time to tasks. You may be wondering, are there any benefits I can reap from this? Of course! Time management enables:

• More effective project management

• More pronounced work-life balance

• Greater productivity

• Little to no stress or anxiety levels

• Better work quality

Now that you know the benefits, let's take a look at how you can make time, a variable that often seems hard to control or monitor, more manageable.

How to manage time effectively

1. Set S.M.A.R.T goals

When approaching time, make sure you do it the right and accountable way. That said, don't just wish things to be completed — act on them. If your goal-setting ends up in a burnout, this is a sign that you're lacking strategy. By contrast, when you aim to manage time correctly, your productivity could strike the sky.

When I say setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, I mean being intentional on anything you work on — regardless if it's a matter of trivial errands or bigger, operational tasks. This concept stands for:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Realistic

• Time-bound

“Today, I will read 20 pages of George Elliot's novel by 3pm”.

These kind of goals would frame your work life with a concrete and sustainable structure, preparing you for what’s in store on the day.

2. Prioritise by ranking your tasks

Prioritisation navigates you through your daily routine that goes by importance, relevance and delivery date, ensuring that the tasks that matter most are tackled first. When ranking your activities, you should be able to focus on what’s most significant to you rather than having your mind wander or fiddling with urgent-yet-inconsequential activities. Lay out a timetable and figure out which tasks are high-value and will have the most positive impact on you and your work.

Tools such as nTask might be your best bet in this case. The app is a to-do list that helps you organise, prioritise and track deadlines so that to quantify and estimate what should be top of the list.

3. Mute distractions

You might have the best intentions, but, admit it, you also get distracted. From text and email notifications to bubbly co-workers or yelling kids. Oh, don't forget your inherent inclination toward procrastination. This is perhaps the most common culprit of distractive behaviour (don't worry, it plagues just about all of us).

Getting things done is not as easy-peasy-lemon-squishy as it's portrayed in mainstream media, especially when there's 35 bloody degrees outside. Considering that it takes approximately 20 minutes to refocus after a disruption and recover from a short attention span, the productive cost of distractions accumulates like mad. Therefore, you should manage your distractions with a clear communication framework about when to let notifications in if you wish to secure a seamless workflow.

For starters, mute or entirely turn off your email or phone alerts. Set 30-minute blocks to go through your emails instead of taking glimpses on a 10-minute basis. Also, make sure that your non-work-related distractions run on a bare minimum. This may include anything from mindless scrolling on social media to compulsive online shopping.

4. Quality over quantity — say NO to multitasking

If you flex about bouncing between and juggling too many activities at once, I got news for you. A study reveals that as little as 2% of individuals can actually multitask. For the remaining 98% of them, multitasking is nothing more than a time-waste and a blow to their productivity.

Instead of splitting your attention into four different things, it’s advisable to concentrate on one of them and master it. For extra efficacy, try timeboxing them, i.e., allot a timeframe for every task which, in turn, maximises the likelihood of its completion (timing yourself could be much of an aid here).

5. Delegate or outsource

Whoever told you that you need to do everything yourself — whether you're a newbie or a manager — has lied to you. One of the perks of outsourcing and delegating is that it frees enough time for you to focus on vital tasks and minimise your workload considerably. No matter at which professional stage you are right now, it’s always wise to learn to assign tasks to others and let other people lift some load off your shoulders.

What are your time management tips?

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