5 Tips For Successful Time Management

Chances are that at some point in your life you’ve wasted your time. Who am I kidding... you will definitely have wasted time but what are the best ways to manage your time effectively. I’ve read books and watched videos about how to effectively manage the hours in your day but if I’m honest I think they were a waste of time.

All you need for effective time management is these 5 simple steps;

1. Create a daily time schedule.

Plan your day before you do anything else. Take up to 30 minutes doing this because the most important time of your day is the time scheduled to schedule time. You could do it first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee or even better, the night before you sleep. Your job for the day is to stick to the plan as best possible.

2. Allocate time to each task

You should be clear how long you have to finish each task. For example be clear that you need to finish task A by 10am, task B by 12pm, and task C by 5pm. This prevents you from spending too much time on one task and running out of time to complete the others.

3. Learn to say “No” or at least “Not right now” 

One of the hardest things for me personally is to say “No”. I used to find that I was often asked to complete additional tasks on top of my work as a result, but eventually I had to admit to myself I could not handle that much work. My tip for the distractions that come in would be to give a firm no, pass it on to a colleague, or defer it to a later period.

4. Focus

You might think this is a bit of a waste of a tip because we often like to think we remain focused at work but the point I want to make is to ensure you are only doing one task at a time. Often you can be multi-tasking so much that you’re just not getting anything done. I recommend closing off the tabs in your browser, closing open applications and focussing solely on what you’re doing. You’ll certainly be more efficient that way.

5. Block Out Distractions

Practice not answering the phone just because it's ringing and e-mails just because they show up. Disconnect instant messaging. Don't instantly give people your attention. Instead, schedule a time to answer email and return phone calls. Block out other distractions like Facebook and other forms of social media and get to work on the tasks at hand.

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Alex Henderson is a Marketing Executive and Business with Marketing Management Major.

Other articles by Alex include;

- 4 Marketing Tips For Small Businesses 

- 5 Tips For Effective Digital Marketing

- Best 8 Tips For Dealing With Procrastination

- 3 Sustainable Packaging Trends To Watch In 2016

Twitter: @ThisIsAlexHendo