How do you improve your time management skills? Come on, follow the full description and the following 7 guidelines!
Have you ever felt that there is not enough time in one day? We and other people together have 24 hours, but how come it seems like people can be so productive, huh? Not only because the workload is indeed a lot, poor time management can also be the cause.
We really can’t control time. In one day there will always be 24 hours, what we can control is ourselves and how we use the time we have.
Then, how can we manage our time better? Come on, follow these 7 time management guidelines!
What is time management?
Time management is our way of dividing and managing the time we have for various activities in order to optimize productivity to achieve the goals that have been set. Good time management skills allow us to get many things done each day. This skill is one of the soft skills that is very useful in the world of work and is also liked by recruiters.
With good time management skills, you can complete various activities or work in a shorter time. This will get you used to focusing when working and being disciplined with the time you have set for each task.
Take the class: Time Management for More Productive Work
Time management benefits
Skills for good time management are very important. This can increase productivity, reduce stress, and more success in life. Here are some of the benefits that you can have with effective and effective time management:
1. Lowering stress levels
Having a task plan can reduce stress and fear. Every day, you know what you have to live and accomplish. When you successfully tick a to-do list, you can see clear progress. This will reduce stress and fear of not being able to complete something.
2. Have more free time
With good time management, you can complete various activities on time. Time management will allow you to have extra time to do other activities such as hobbies, going to the gym, resting, quality time with your family, and having a peaceful weekend.
3. Increase productivity
Good time management will make you try to focus and be disciplined so that work can end on time or more quickly. That way, you can quickly complete other tasks or carry out other productive activities and not stress about deadlines.
4. Building a positive image
If you always complete your work on time, then your image in the eyes of superiors, clients and co-workers will be positive. You will be known as a person who does not like to procrastinate and can be relied upon. A positive image can increase your chances of advancing your career in the future.
Effective time management guide
Just like learning other skills, learning to control time effectively also requires time and process. Here are 7 guidelines to make your time management more efficient!
1. Create a to-do list
Have you ever wondered what to do when you wake up? To overcome this problem, you can make a to-do list at night before going to bed. This to-do list contains notes on tasks that you must complete tomorrow. Why make it at night? So that when you wake up you don’t worry anymore and know what to do. The process doesn’t take long, really. You can make to-do lists in notebooks, sticky notes, or applications like Notion, Trello, Any do, and others. Choose a method that is very safe and that you enjoy. The to-do list or planning that you make may not go smoothly, but at least you don’t have a reference every day.
2. Complete work according to priority
After making a to-do list, maybe you are still confused about which work needs to be completed first. Have you ever heard of the Eisenhower Matrix or the Meaningful Matrix? This matrix helps you divide the tasks that must be completed from the most important to the least important. The matrix divides tasks into 4 quadrants like the following:
Eisenhower Matrix
From the matrix above, we can divide the tasks into:
Important-urgent tasks: are tasks that must be prioritized and must be completed first. This task is meaningful and could possibly affect your life or career. Take advantage of the time you have in the morning to get it done.
Important tasks- not depressing: these tasks are meaningful, but not depressing. Until then, you can reschedule to do this task. You can do this task after the important-urgent task ends. Even if you don’t press it, don’t delay doing it so it doesn’t pile up.
Unimportant-urgent tasks: although they are insignificant in nature, these tasks are pressing. You can delegate or you can ask your co-workers to do it.
Unimportant task – do not press: the keyword from this quadrant is to eliminate or delete this task from your to-do list. Because it is not pressing and meaningless to do.
Organizing tasks based on priorities not only makes it easier for you to prioritize important tasks, but also helps you allocate time and energy for the things that are important.
3. Set a time limit for completing each task
So that you can work more focused and disciplined, learn to set time limits for each task. You can try time boxing, a time management method that can make us more disciplined and focused on getting work done.
What is meant by time boxing? Time boxing is blocking how much time is needed to complete the job. For example, you block the time to finish the report from 9-10 am. Until the task is completed, you must try to complete it during that time.
Time boxing is divided into 2 namely: soft time boxes and hard time boxes. The soft time box means that you give tolerance or bonus time if until the time limit ends, it turns out that your task is not over. On the other hand, in a hard time box, when the time limit is over, you will stop and take a break from work first.
4. Take between breaks
Working very long hours without taking breaks makes you feel tired and hard to focus. Therefore, don’t forget to take a short break, OK? Rest is important so that your brain and eyes are not tired.
For those of you who often work in front of a laptop or PC, try using the 20-20-20 rule for overcoming tired eyes. This rule is useful for preventing computer vision syndrome (CVS), a collection of symptoms in the eyes and neck due to activities in front of a laptop, cellphone, or electronic device for too long. Symptoms include: tired eyes, headache, neck and shoulder pain, blurry or double vision, and others.
The way to practice this rule is also easy. After looking at a computer or cellphone screen for 20 seconds, take a break to look at an object 20 feet (6 m) long for 20 seconds.
5. Stay away from multitasking
Some of us can think with multitasking, then there are many jobs that we can complete simultaneously. However, quoted from startuptalky. com, in fact multitasking can lower productivity by as much as 40%. When doing multitasking, we tend to frequently change tasks to complete everything. This makes the task not completed optimally and makes us more easily tired. Our brains want to be more focused when completing one task at a time. So, multitasking isn’t always good, okay? Try to focus on completing your work one by one with discipline so that the results are optimal.
6. Limit distractions
When working, there are many things that can make the focus disperse or get stuck. For example, push notifications, email, chat in the WhatsApp group, and others. For the Harvard Business Review, the average worker finds interruptions 50-60 times a day, and 80% of these interruptions are meaningless.
Time management guide
Distractions that come continuously not only reduce productivity but can also increase stress. The lack of control over a job is one of the triggers of stress at work. To avoid distraction, you can do the following things:
Turn off push notifications.
Don’t check things outside of work too often, such as social media, WhatsApp chats, or work email. Take some special time to check everything at once on a regular basis.
Activate airplane mode or do not disturb when you need big focus.
Do other activities during breaks.
7. Use time management tools
Currently there are many tools or applications that you can use for project and time management. You can try some of the time management apps below:
Any do and Todoist: make notes containing daily tasks or activities and reminders.
Trello and Notion: to manage project management and activity tracking on a daily basis.
Time planner: to control and create agendas and analyze productivity every day.
Google Calendar: create time blocking or time boxing so you can view each day’s agenda in detail until it’s time to finish it.
Remember the Milk, Slack, TickTick, and other time management apps.
With the support of the various tools above, you can build habits to become individuals who are focused and disciplined with time.
That’s a review of time management ranging from interpretation, efficacy, to guidelines for better time management. In order to manage time well, you must be steadfast, not changeable, and disciplined. It’s not easy at first, but you can definitely do it!
If you want to learn more about good time management methods, you can read novels about time management or take courses at Skill Academy. Apart from time management classes, Skill Academy also has hundreds of other classes that can help you learn various skills needed in the world of work or to start your own business. All classes are certified and can be accessed forever. Click the banner below to see the best classes! Pst, there are many interesting promos, don’t miss it!
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