4 Ways To Improve Your Time Management

Whether you’re working, studying or running a home, time management is always important. If you regularly find yourself missing deadlines or staying up late to get things done, there’s a good chance that your time management skills could do with a little improvement. Similarly, if time seems to fly and your to-do list is never-ending, you could benefit from reassessing how you schedule your time.

It’s easy to assume that some people are naturally more organized than others, but this doesn’t mean you can’t boost your efficiency and productivity by honing your skills. To get started, take a look at these four ways to improve your time management now:

1. Carry Out A Time Audit

Before you start making changes to your routine, carry out a time audit. Simply make a manual or digital note of how long you spend on each task throughout the day, and you’ll be able to see what takes up the majority of your attention. More often than not, people find that they spend more time on non-priority tasks than they do priority activities.

Once you’ve conducted a time audit, it will be easy to see what changes you need to make. Additionally, a time audit can give you the motivation to implement new and workable time management techniques.

2. Rank Tasks By Priority

If you usually add new tasks to the bottom of your to-do list or you simply work through items as they’re requested, you’re probably not making the best use of your time. In fact, you could be spending an inordinate amount of time on low priority issues, while pressing priority tasks take a backseat.

To prevent this from happening, be sure to rank tasks by priority, regardless of when they were requested or actioned. You can do this manually, by adding columns to your to-do list, for example. However, using a digital work management platform can be an even easier way of prioritizing your tasks. With a cloud-based platform, for example, you can update your priorities from any location and link your digital calendar to your work schedule, so that events and deadlines are automatically added to your list.

3. Calculate How Much Time A Task Should Take

Every task you undertake should have an accurate estimate of how long it will take to complete. This will enable you to plan your day effectively and it will also ensure that you don’t spend too long on low priority issues. Furthermore, when you know how long each task will take, you can ensure that you don’t overburden yourself by scheduling too much on one day.

If math isn’t your strong point, an easy-to-use online hours calculator will make it easy to determine how many tasks you can fit into your day. Once you know how long each task will take, you can simply calculate the number of hours you have available and, therefore, identify how many tasks you’ll be able to complete.

4. Learn To Delegate

If you’re implementing time management techniques but there are still things left unfinished, there’s a good chance that you’re simply trying to do too much. If so, delegating some of your responsibilities to other people can be the most effective way to get things done and maintain a high-quality.

If you’re honing your time management skills at work, for example, delegate some tasks to other members of your team or talk to your supervisor about the workload. When you’re running your own business and running out of time, hire additional staff or outsource your needs. Alternatively, if you want to improve your time management when you’re managing a home, make sure every member of the household pitches in and has their own tasks assigned to them.

Why Does Time Management Matter ?

Whether you’re at school, work or home, there’s constant pressure to do more in less time. Making the best use of your time will undoubtedly help you to improve your efficiency and productivity levels, without negatively impacting the quality of your work.

However, time management is also an important way of reframing expectations and creating a work-life balance. When you take the time to rank tasks by priority, for example, you may realize that you need help in order to get everything done. This realization can give you the motivation you need to ask for assistance or to realign your team to better deal with your responsibilities.

Ultimately, time management skills can be used to enhance every aspect of your life, which is why it’s worth making them a top priority.