I was recently sharing with a friend about her frustrations at work and she felt overloaded, oftenly having to work late to hit her deadlines. Her days seem to go from one crisis to another, and this was stressful and demoralizing to her. As we shared her disappointments, I came to think of a very important thing called time management.
How well do you manage your time? Many people’s answer may not be completely positive! Many of us know that we could be managing our time more effectively; but it can be difficult to identify the mistakes that we’re making, and to know how we could improve.
When we do manage our time well, however, we’re exceptionally productive at work, and our stress levels drop. We can devote time to the interesting, high-reward projects that can make a real difference to a career. In short, we’re happier!
Here are some common time management mistakes and tips that you can use to overcome them
1. Failing to Keep a To-Do Lit - The trick with using To-Do Lists effectively lies in prioritizing the tasks on your list. Make sure that you break large tasks or projects down into specific, actionable steps – then you won’t overlook something important.
2. Not Setting Personal Goals- Goals give you a destination and vision to work toward.Do you know where you’d like to be in six months? When you know where you want to go, you can manage your priorities, time, and resources to get there. Goals also help you decide what’s worth spending your time on, and what’s just a distraction.
3. Not Prioritizing - Sometimes, it’s hard to know how to prioritize, especially when you’re facing a flood of seemingly-urgent tasks. Prioritizing tasks effectively requires one to understand the difference between urgent activities, and important activities. You’ll also learn how to overcome the tendency to focus on the urgent. Also prioritize tasks depending on its values; high-priority, or low-value, “fill in” work.
4. Failing to Manage Distractions- If you want to gain control of your day and do your best work, it’s vital to know how to minimize distractions and manage interruptions effectively. E.g from emails, chats, colleagues in a crisis, or phone calls from clients, distractions prevent us from achieving flow.
5. Taking on too Much – If you have a hard time saying “no” to people then you probably have far too many projects and commitments on your plate. Taking on too much is a poor use of your time, and it can get you a reputation for producing rushed, sloppy work. Learn the subtle art of saying “yes” to the person, but “no” to the task . This skill helps you assert yourself, while still maintaining good feelings within the group.
6. Multitasking - Truth is it can take 20-40 percent more time to finish a list of jobs when you multitask, compared with completing the same list of tasks in sequence. The result of multitasking are poorl due to lack of concentration. Always focus on one task at a time to produce higher quality work.
7. Not Taking Breaks - It’s nice to think that you can work for 8-10 hours straight, especially when you’re working to a deadline. But it’s impossible for anyone to focus and produce really high-quality work without giving their brains some time to rest and recharge. Breaks are not a waste of time, they provide valuable down-time, which will enable you to think creatively and work effectively.
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