Time Management: Tips & Tricks (a practical approach)

“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend” Theophrastus.?

The first and most important soft skill to learn is “Time Management”. A skill that involves Planning, Organizing and Controlling your tasks. It helps you optimize your schedule and supports you to be more efficient and effective in your professional career.?

What’s Time Management??

“practices intended to maximize intellectual productivity (Britton and Tesser, 1991).

“behaviors that aim at achieving an effective use of time while performing certain goal-directed activities (Claessens, 2007)”

When you start organizing your time and use tools and techniques to utilize time better, you will be more productive and efficient in both your personal and professional life.?

The tools are very simple and easy to use. However, they are very effective to optimize your time. Let us go through some of these tools together:

1) To Do List?

“To Do List” is a basic tool in Time management yet very effective and easy to use.?

The tips and tricks of To Do List are:

• Write all needed tasks in it. Writing them down will make you focus on finishing them and you will never forget any task. There is an old Chinese proverb that says that “the faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory.”
• Write it daily, to be always updated with any new tasks. Make it a habit in your daily practice and you will find how easy and effective it is.?
• Use a Digital one, a Digital to DO List enable you to find all the tasks in your phone, tablet, laptop that makes it easier to follow and monitor?
• Adhere to the To Do list and don’t get distracted by other non-important things that did not reach your list.
• Use a check box or simple mark and never delete a task from the list unless you have reported it. Keeping the completed tasks is excellent documentation for easier reporting.

2) Priority Matrix?

"Priority Matrix" is a sorting and organizing tool for your tasks to optimize your time management.

What are the tips and tricks to use it:?

• Use it after writing all the tasks in your "To Do List"
• Assess every task according to urgency and importance factors.
• Any urgent and important task has to been done immediately by yourself?
• Scheduled urgent but less important tasks to be done after finishing the urgent and important tasks.
• The not urgent tasks but yet important have to be delegated (ask someone to do it for you or use a service to get it done).
• If you find a task that is not urgent and not important, you have to ignore it or remove it from your To Do list.?

3) Calendars?

Your “Calendar” is an excellent time management tool, you can review your day, week or month in seconds and it supports you to adhere to your To Do list and scheduling recurring daily routine.

"Calendars" Tips & tricks are:?

• Use your email calendar as your primary Calendar.?
• Add all appointments, meetings, reminders to it.?
• Add national holidays, annual leave and vacations.
• Add work and personal related tasks, so you can take control of your time around the clock.?
• Preset time slots like emails review, weekly planning, daily or weekly reporting, .. etc should be set.?
• Calendars should be the first thing to review in the morning before your emails.

4) Plan Your day ahead

You need to plan what needs to be done and when it will be done. In addition, you need to avoid distractions and time wasting behaviors.?

Some tips to help you:

• Schedule and organize your day ahead, Start with your morning routine then review your calendar and create your To Do list.
• Have time slots for the recurring daily or weekly tasks on your calendar.?
• Put time slots or windows for emails, meetings, requests and work tasks.?
• Take phone calls during committing to and back from work.?
• Use the digital wellbeing controls on your phone to restrict app time and? their usage.
• Always keep Focused and avoid distraction or wasting your valuable time.

5) Virtual PA (Hey Google)?

Technology brings to your desk a PA around the clock.??

Just you need to say "Hey Siri" for team IOS or "Hey Google" for team Android.?

Every morning set a morning routine through your PA.?

I wake up and say “Good morning Google” and it starts a preset actions

• Weather forecast?
• Driving time to work?
• Appointments on my calendars
• Reminders of the day?
• Tell me a joke (a funny one 70% of the time ??)
• Play a News channel

Your PA can also make reminders, meetings, send text, make calls,...etc. You have to integrate its usage along your day.

There are alot of tools, applications and techniques that can help you to manage your time, but consistency is the name of the game.?

Planning, prioritizing and performing is the aim, steps and actions to reach effective and efficient time management.

To learn more on this topic, contact me.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/mahmoud-abou-bieh/??

Aboubieh Academy - Empowering humanity, one person at a time.