What is Time Management: Skills, Importance, Benefits, Tools, and Strategies

Time management skills play a crucial role both in your personal as well as professional life. It helps you accomplish your goals efficiently. It is almost impossible to control every minute of the day, with distractions and emergencies popping up. But there is still a way to manage your time effectively.?

In this article, we are here to tell you everything you must know about time management, its benefits, and more. Read ahead!

What are Time Management Skills?

Time management is a process of efficiently planning your time and ensuring you spend only the allotted amount of time on each task to ensure you work smarter and not just harder.?

When you master the art of time management, you are easily able to juggle various tasks and also strike a work-life balance.?

?Why are Time Management Skills Important?

Now you have an idea of what time management is. But when you make it a part of your life, the improvement is almost instant. You will no longer feel stressed about work. That nagging feeling sometimes we have as if some important chore has been missed? Well, you will be able to prevent such stress from your life.?

With the help of robust time management skills, you will be able to enhance your performance and meet your desired goals with little effort. And what happens when you don’t manage your time well? Missed deadlines, procrastination, lack of professionalism, unwanted stress and more become the norm!

?What are Time Management Tools?

Today, there are a myriad of time management tools that can boost your productivity and lead to better outcomes.?

• Calendar: Your time management starts with proper scheduling and organisation, which can be effectively conducted with an online calendar.?
• Project Management Software: Active Collab combines billing time and project management and makes it a lot easier to plan and track projects. It also allows real-time communication and collaboration.?
• Time Tracker: Time tracker tools help you work on a project without too many distractions.?
• Notes: Note-taking apps are good to make a note of your long-term and short-term goals and also help you jot down your thoughts or ideas. Some examples are Evernote and Notion.?
• Another one is ProofHub which eliminates the need to have too many tools around and is a versatile project management software.?

What are Time Management Strategies?

With the best time management strategies, you will be able to focus more on achieving your desired goals. Some of the best time management strategies are;

Make a list of all the things you must do?

Before you start your day, it is essential to make a list of all the tasks you must accomplish for the day. Whether it is a meeting you must attend or a report to file, make note of everything.?

Next, make sure you prioritise the tasks and start with the most important ones first. Here, you can use apps or your good old notebook.?

Know how you spend your time

A time log can be an efficient way to help you understand how you spend your time in a day. It will also help you understand;

• Which task takes more time
• What time of the day you are most productive
• What tasks you get done on time

Plan your time wisely

While organising your time is essential, doing it the right way becomes crucial.?

Let’s say, you have started managing your time every day and make use of all the strategies. But for the tasks that would only take 15 minutes, you end up allocating more time than necessary. You perform tasks, such as checking emails during the most productive time of the day.?

So, even if you can complete your chores for the day, you are not doing them effectively. Therefore, plan your time wisely.?

Use your time well?

When you are high on energy, make sure you accomplish the most energy-consuming chores of the day and learn to utilise your time well. For instance, let’s say the first half of the day is when you are high on energy. Plan your chores in such a way that you can get them done within the first half of the day. And after lunch, you can simply focus on small and easy tasks. Do small tasks, such as replying to a mail, reading, listening to a webinar or creating a grocery list when you are waiting for an appointment or a call or when you are commuting. Small adjustments like this help you save a lot of your time.?

?What are Time Management Techniques

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular time management techniques that actually work!

80/20 rule or the Pareto analysis?

Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist created this technique where the idea is that 20% of our actions are responsible for 80% of results. So, this is how it works;

• First, identify all the problems you are facing
• Make sure you understand the root cause of each problem
• Score each problem where the highest number is given to an important problem?
• Group problems as per their cause?
• Add the score of each group
• Start working on the group with the highest number of points?

Pomodoro technique?

Created by entrepreneur and author Francesco Cirillo, this technique is when you break your work into intervals.

• Choose the task you need to accomplish?
• Set a timer for the same?
• When the timer rings, mark the task as completed and take a 5-minute break?
• Repeat the process?

Parkinson’s Law?

Well, this is not exactly a technique but a law, which when understood and applied can yield beneficial results. Parkinson’s law was created by Cyril Northcote Parkinson and here the idea is to work efficiently during short bursts of time.?

For instance;

• Work without a computer charger so you can finish your work sooner than later?
• Set a deadline and cut that time in half
• Set a time limit for each task?

?Time Management Skills at a Workplace

Time management skills are crucial in the workplace. It helps you manage your time well and complete your to-do list for the day efficiently. It also helps you plan the projects in a better manner and delegate them well. Time management helps you balance your time between a variety of essential activities, where you can give each task your complete focus.?

Now you are aware of what time management is and how you can take up this art to make a difference in your life. However, there are a few strategies and techniques that only experts know how to make use of.?

We at iSkillBox bring you a solid Time Management course that tells you about all the effective tools, apps, strategies, techniques and more that you can customise as per your preference. And our veteran trainers are here to help guide you in the right direction. Want to know more? Click Here!