Prioritizing and Using Time Management Skills to Get More Done Every Day

These days, everyone is busy. They’re spread too thin, they have too much on their plates, and they’re overwhelmed. Regardless of why there are more tasks to complete than there are hours in the day, one thing remains certain. Prioritizing and incorporating time management skills into your workflow can help you get more done in less time.

Prioritizing: Using Time Management Skills to Increase Productivity

Life is full of distractions. Whether personal concerns steal your focus during work time or the flurry of interruptions throughout the day keeps knocking you off track, you’ll never gain control of your day if you don’t set your priorities and then manage your time appropriately. I’ve identified four key components for success around getting things done. Together, they help you identify what’s important and then treat it that way.

Identify Actions

It’s not enough to simply have an idea what actions you might need to take. Rather, you must identify each step in the process. Understanding how they align with the goals of your organization can help you weed out the unnecessary or less important tasks. This step is critical to prioritizing and implementing time management skills. As a leader in your organization, it’s also important to recognize what an be delegated to others and expect that team members handle what they can.

Prioritize

Once you know what you need to do and why it’s important, you can start to prioritize. You’ll want to tackle the most urgent items first – those things that will have major repercussions if you don’t tackle them today. Next, see what’s important to get done soon. Everything has a deadline, and you may feel pressure from others to handle their priorities as your own. Squeaky wheels can’t always get the oil. Remember that your priorities and how you use your time must support the goals of your position and organization. This article provides practical advice on how you can start this process.

Publicize

If you don’t tell people what your priorities are, they tend to think you don’t have any. This isn’t to say you have to announce every little thing you do, but keeping your team members in the loop on what your priorities are will go a long way toward them understanding how your time is used. As mentioned above, some people will try to push themselves and their needs up on your priority list. However, it’s harder for them to make a case for themselves when you’ve already made clear what you’ll be working on.

Evaluate Constantly

Just because something’s always been done a certain way, it doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it that way. As technology continues to improve, our processes should naturally be re-evaluated to make certain we’re doing things the best way. This means that something that used to urgent may not be any longer if you can automate it or find a simpler way. It’s possible you can cut steps or otherwise change things up to lessen the strain on your time management. Don’t be so busy that you forget to take a step back and make sure your priorities are still in line with your goals.

What Rocks Can Teach Us About Prioritizing and Time Management

Sometimes you need a visual example to really drive a point home. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but it’s what we choose to prioritize that determines what we get done. This video shows how when you simply rearrange what you do first, your time management becomes easier. By putting the most important things ahead of everything else, you ensure you have the time to get things done. The trick is to understand what’s important!

A Word About Email

Earlier on, I mentioned how distractions can rob you of your focus and blow up your entire day. Technology, for all it’s benefits, can sometimes become a giant time suck and, as much as we all rely on it, email is a perfect example. Every time you get a notification of a new message, you pull your focus away from the task at hand. This can range from a quick diversion to a complete derailment as you begin putting out fires.

It’s been estimated that we spend up to one-third of our work week dealing with email. It’s no wonder we can’t get anything done! This article from Forbes provides a number of ways you can cut that time in half. By changing the priority level of email and reducing the time you spend, you free up plenty of extra hours to tackle more to-dos!

If you’re looking for ways to make the most of your day by simplifying your HR tasks, check out my book HR Hacks. In it, you’ll find many time-saving tools to help you run an efficient and compliant HR department. You have a thousand things to do, and this book can help you prioritize them all. Time management has never been easier!