From the beginning of time, everyone has always had the same 24 hours a day.
However, some folks have achieved so much within this time, while others cannot say the same.
One common theme we hear among folks in different sectors of our lives is the phrase, “I don’t have time.” Well, we all have the same amount of time each day.
Many studies and experts have shown that poor time management is one of the greatest enemies of success.
 |
| Boosting Efficiency and Achieving Goals with Effective Time Management: eAskme |
Time is a resource that is in scarce supply but also equally distributed among everyone.
This article will examine time management, its benefits and how one can improve their grasp of this skill.
At the end of this article, you should be in a better position to get more from your time.
What is Time Management?
While this may surely have a complex answer somewhere, the simple truth is that time management refers to the efficient use of available time to ensure the delivery of optimum outcomes.
This will include properly allocating time to tasks based on their importance and relevance to the desired outcome.
A person’s ability to properly manage their time will affect the results they can get in their life.
The same applies to organizations, as time allocated to the wrong things can result in a less-than-desirous outcome.
Strategies for Effective Time Management:
Getting the most from your time requires a deliberate and strategic deployment of your energy, tasks and skills within the available time frame.
Certain strategies can be employed to help you achieve this, and we’ll be discussing some of these strategies in this section.
Plan and Set Time-Bound Goals:
If you don’t have a destination, you will never get there.
Even when you get to a point that would have been an ideal destination, you will not recognize or acknowledge it because you never set it as your goal.
The first thing that will help you manage your time better is goal setting.
Set goals that need to be achieved within a given time frame and then put plans in place on how to achieve said goals.
Your goal-setting and planning must have two important characteristics:
- It must be SMART
- It must be broken down into small but measurable milestones.
SMART Goals:
SMART is a popular acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Whatever goals you set must have these characteristics.
Small Milestones:
Many folks make a mistake by giving themselves huge tasks that become difficult to manage.
By breaking tasks down into smaller, easily accomplishable units, they become easier to accomplish, and the chances of getting overwhelmed are reduced.
Never fail to celebrate the accomplishment of each small milestone.
This sense of accomplishment is necessary to keep you going.
Create Efficient Schedules:
A Schedule is meant to guide the activities to be completed within a given period.
For a schedule to be efficient and effective, it has to be detailed and realistic.
You can achieve this with the following:
Planning Tools:
These will include digital or physical calendars and planners.
With these, you can effectively schedule tasks to specific time belts.
You can even have notifications to remind you of specific tasks at specific times.
Tools like these are a must-have as part of your time management tool kit.
Buffer and Contingency Plans:
To ensure your schedule doesn’t become a burden, you must create buffer times and contingency plans.
No matter how perfect your plans are, there will always arise a few surprises, delays and unexpected turns.
These buffer times will help you adjust without completely disrupting your standing schedule.
Tools and Technologies for Time Management:
Technology has blessed us with many tools we can use for various things, including effective time management.
Many tools are currently available, including those we can simply install on our phones and start using.
Whatever time management software or technological tool we choose, we must ensure that it offers some important features.
We’ll quickly look at some of these features here.
Time Tracking:
You know that saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun,” right?
If you’re serious about time management, then you don’t want time flying, at least not without your knowledge.
Even when you appear to lose track of time, maybe because you are engrossed in an activity, a time-tracking tool can help you.
Most time-tracking tools will also have alarms and notifications that alert you to a pending change in your time allocation.
Once alerted, you can conclude what you are doing and move to the task for the next allotted time.
At least with this, regardless of how time flies when you’re having fun, you will be pulled back down to earth to attend to whatever needs to be attended to.
Calendar Integration:
We all have calendars on our various devices and systems.
The ideal tool should be easily integrated into your existing calendar tool.
This way, all your activities can sync across the board so that you can remain on track wherever you are.
Integration with Other Tools:
As with the calendar integration, you will need a solution that can easily integrate with other tools you work with.
Some tools you need to integrate with include your calendar (already mentioned above), your project management platform, communication media and email client.
These are just a few examples to give you clarity.
Collaboration:
If you are working as part of a team, then you need a time management solution that will integrate with whatever platform you and your team use.
Since you are collaborating on the project or task, it is essential that you can stay in sync with your time management even as you work with your team.
Mobile Access:
Ability to stay in sync with work even while on the go is something that many professionals do not take lightly.
This explains why much emphasis is placed on mobile-compliant applications and platforms.
This should be a requirement when choosing a tool.
You certainly don’t want to stay on track only at your desk.
Report and Progress Analysis:
Knowing how well you are doing on a project or task is always great.
The same is applicable here.
Being able to see how well you are progressing in your ability to efficiently manage your time is crucial.
Go for a tool that offers you this feature to monitor the progress you are making and know where you are spending most of your time.
If you know the 80/20 rule, you will know that most folks spend a higher percentage of their time on things that add little to their lives.
Being able to closely monitor your time usage can help you fix this.
Conclusion:
Undoubtedly, your output and efficiency will drastically improve if you can manage your time efficiently.
We’ve taken some time to look at ways you can achieve this.
It’s now up to you to begin to implement them. You must be determined to make progress, or else you won’t. The ball is, therefore, in your court.
Still have any question, do share via comments.
Share this post with your friends and family.
Don't forget to like us FB and join the eAskme newsletter to stay tuned with us.
Other handpicked guides for you;
