How to improve your time management skills
Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? Or that you seem to run out of time when trying to finish your daily ‘to-do’ lists and work duties? If so, you might find it helpful to work on your time management skills.
But what's time management? How does it work? How do you improve it? And why is it such a beneficial skill for any job? Read on through our guide to find out all you need to know about managing time effectively.
What are time management skills?
Time management is the ability to use the time you have as effectively and efficiently as possible. It’s all about being as productive as you can with the hours and minutes available to you.
At work, you have a set number of hours a day. Learning to use those hours in the most efficient and productive way can help you develop time management skills.
Having strong time management skills can also help make you more influential, effective and productive, and more likely to achieve more in your day.
Understanding time management
Understanding the process of time management is a little more complex than it may seem.
It's not simply about making a schedule or setting a deadline. It's a series of skills, involving many different elements, like the ability to prioritise your goals and plan, schedule and organise your tasks .
There are different approaches to time management. You might like to make use of planning and scheduling tools, while others might focus on aspects like cutting out procrastination and minimising the amount of unproductive time.
There are several time management skills and techniques to consider to get your schedule under control and become more efficient and productive. Experimenting with different techniques and tools is often a great way to find the best solution to suit your needs.
Time management skills to list on your resumé
Time management isn’t just a single skill, there are many different time management skills to master for your resumé and share with prospective employers, including:
Task prioritisation
The ability to prioritise the tasks that matter more and decide which duties are most deserving of your time and attention at any specific moment.
Schedule management
The ability to not only make a schedule, but stick to it. It’s also helpful to be able to make changes to your schedule, as needed, if priorities or circumstances change.
Time blocking
A time management method that involves dividing the day into blocks of time and assigning tasks to each block.
Multitasking
The ability to tackle more than one task at the same time. This can be very effective for boosting productivity.
Delegation
Delegation is all about handing out tasks and duties to other workers or team members, ideally assigning each role to the best possible person.
Goal setting
The ability to set clear goals and objectives that you aim to achieve. These could be on a daily, weekly, monthly or even annual basis.
Attention to detail
High level of focus on individual details. People with this skill tend to make fewer errors and don’t let important pieces of information pass them by.
Proactive planning
The ability to make and adjust plans on the fly, at short notice, or in preparation of possible eventualities.
Time tracking
The ability to keep track of time and monitor the passage of minutes and hours while going through the average day and completing tasks.
Identifying time wasters
Regarding how to improve time management skills, one of the first things to do is focus on identifying ‘time wasters’. These are things that take valuable time out of your working day.
Common time wasters include things like procrastination and distractions. In today’s connected world, with smart phones and easy access to the internet, it’s easy to get distracted and lose track of time.
By identifying time wasters, you can start to get rid of them. There are various strategies to do this. For example, blocking websites that tend to distract you, or setting aside key rest and break times during the day.
Setting goals and priorities
Setting goals is another big aspect of time management . Many people find that they tend to become more efficient and productive when they have goals to aim for. But simply setting a vague or unrealistic goal might not have much of an effect.
Instead, it pays to be ‘SMART’ - The SMART goals system involves setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Try getting into the habit of making SMART goals to give yourself more chances of success.
It’s also important to master the art of prioritisation. Each day, you might have many different things to do or targets to hit. Trying to do too much at once could confuse you or lead to wasted time and energy. It’s important to identify the tasks that matter most and focus on them first.
Planning and scheduling
Scheduling is the foundation of good time management. People who have good time management skills all tend to be people who are fully capable of not just making schedules and plans but sticking to them.
If you find that you tend to waste time or don’t get everything done each day, having a schedule could help. It gives you clear timeframes, boundaries, targets and motivations.
There are various scheduling methods to try. You might like to make standard daily or weekly schedules with everything you want to do each day. Others might like ‘to-do’ lists with a series of objectives.
There’s also the ‘time-blocking’ method. This is where you divide a day into blocks of time and decide which tasks you’re going to focus on in each block.
Delegation and outsourcing
A big part of time management is understanding that you don’t have to do everything by yourself. One of the most important time management skills is the ability to hand work and tasks over to others, when you need to.
Delegation allows you to ask other colleagues and team members to help with your tasks at work. But it’s no good to simply hand out tasks at random. To be an effective delegator, you need to assign the right task to the right person.
A great way to do this is to learn the key strengths and skills of each person. Then, you’ll find it easier to fit the task to the worker. If you need someone to help with a data entry task, for example, pick someone with good organisation and an eye for detail.
Overcoming procrastination
Procrastination is ‘enemy number one’ for effective time management. Too often, even when you are trying to get on top of things and keep your schedule in order, it’s possible to still find yourself procrastinating and spending time on less important things.
How can you deal with it? You could use the ‘pomodoro technique,’ for example, where you work for 25 minutes, then have five-minute breaks.
Others prefer to break down big tasks into smaller steps. This allows you to see each step as an objective, giving yourself more energy and motivation to get through the day.
Time management tools and apps
These days, there are apps for almost everything, including those that can help with time management. If you're wanting to look at additional resources and tools to help you become more efficient with time management, apps are a great place to start.
There are different types of time management apps. Some of them can help with time blocking or the pomodoro technique, for instance. Others make it easier for you to create your own schedules. Some of them issue alerts and notifications to keep you on track with your tasks.
With so many preferences, you may not know where to start. It’s a good idea to try out at least a couple of different tools or apps to begin with. Then see which ones tend to work the best for you. Gradually, as you find the right tools, you can start to integrate them into your daily life.
Managing distractions
Just like procrastination, distractions are road blocks if you want to develop or improve your time management skills. And, sometimes it can feel like there are so many distractions around you, it’s almost impossible to avoid them.
Common sources of distraction include your favourite websites, messages, colleagues wanting to talk about projects . But there are ways to minimise these distractions and stay focused on your priorities.
Techniques to minimise distractions may include using apps to block certain sites or apps on your phone. You could also try switching off your devices entirely or having a clear schedule with set times. Then you could allow yourself a few minutes to take a break and respond to messages. Then finally, allow yourself to check your phone once you’ve achieved your goals.
Developing time management habits
The good thing about time management skills is that they you can develop them over time, through learning how to develop great habits. Through repetition and having the right systems in your life, you can ingrain time management habits into your routine.
If you want to get better at scheduling, don’t just make the odd schedule now and then. Get into the habit of making working schedules every week, and even create schedules for personal time, too. For example, planning out what you want to do on the weekend.
Consistency and repetition are important here. The more you practise time management techniques, the more they’ll start to become second nature for you. There may be setbacks and difficulties along the way, however it’s important to simply keep on doing your best and practising these techniques as often as you can to get the results you want.
Time management for specific situations
Time management might look different depending on the type of situation you find yourself in. At work, time management is mostly goal-oriented. It’s all about allocating your time in the best way to get tasks completed and be as productive as possible.
The key is to define your objectives and work out why you’re trying to manage your time in the first place. From there, you can start to set yourself goals and devise the best methods and techniques to achieve them.
Effective communication and time management
There’s a strong link between communication and time management. Often, people who have strong communication skills also tend to be excellent at time management. So, if you can improve one of these aspects, you should also simultaneously be improving the other.
Communication can help you when delegating tasks to other people, or understanding precise goals, plans and objectives. It can also be helpful for any kind of team-oriented work where you and your team members need to keep each other on-track and organised.
There are various strategies to manage communication effectively and help with time management at the same time. Active listening is key, as it can help you understand other people’s needs and aims.. Empathy and understanding of others are also useful skills when it comes time to delegating tasks to members of a group.
Managing work-life balance
Work-life balance is something that many people strive to achieve, but often struggle with. It can be challenging to find the right amount of time and effort for either their personal life or their professional life. Often, one overwhelms the other.
It’s important to think about how to get the best out of your career, while also enjoying family time and personal hobbies. Time management skills can help greatly with this, as they can make you much more productive at work, freeing up time for your personal life.
By incorporating more time management tools and techniques into your life, you can get much more control over each day. It allows you to make more of every hour, hitting your deadlines, and granting yourself the freedom to achieve a fair and healthy work-life balance.
Tracking progress and making adjustments
Developing time management skills is a long-term process, and it may not go smoothly at first, but that’s normal and OK. There may be things that you struggle to adapt to or techniques that don’t quite work out the way you expected.
That’s where time management comes in. It could help you to keep track of progress and allows you to check in with yourself and monitor your performance. You can see what’s working well for you and what isn’t working quite as well. This allows you to identify strengths and weaknesses and make the necessary changes to become even more efficient.
You can use various techniques to track your progress. For example, weekly reviews to see how much you’ve achieved with the time you’ve had. You can also look at how much free time you scheduled and how stressed or relaxed you felt. From there, you can go deeper, assessing different techniques you tried to see whether they worked.
Conclusion
Time management skills can make a massive difference, not only to your professional life, but your personal life, too. By learning effective time management skills, you can benefit from both increased productivity and feeling organised. It will also give you much more free time to enjoy your favourite things.
FAQs
What are time management skills?
Time management skills are abilities related to using and managing time in an effective, efficient and productive way. It's all about making the most of your time and not wasting it.
How do I know if I have poor time management skills?
A common sign that you have poor time management skills is if you consistently work late and run out of time to do the things. Another sign is if you feel excessively stressed about hitting deadlines and being organised.
What are the benefits of effective time management?
There are many benefits of effective time management. The biggest benefit is that it makes you a more productive, efficient person. You end up with more free time each day to relax or do what you like.
How can I improve my time management skills?
Having plans and schedules is a good way to start improving time management. Plan out your tasks and make to do lists with clear priorities to focus on. Set yourself deadlines and break times to keep on-track with your tasks.
What are the common time wasters and how can I eliminate them?
Procrastination is one of the big, common time wasters for many people. Getting easily distracted by devices or other people can also lead to wasted time. To avoid this, try to concentrate and have a fixed schedule, with goals and objectives to aim for.
What is the importance of goal setting?
Goal setting is a huge part of effective time management. With goals and deadlines, you have clear objectives to aim for and should feel more motivated and focused on hitting your goals.
How do I create a schedule that works for me?
The key is to understand your pace of work and the typical things you need to do each day. Try to develop a reasonable schedule with fair deadlines and time for breaks if you need them. It may take some fine-tuning to improve and perfect your schedule.
How do I delegate tasks effectively?
The key to effective delegation is understanding which tasks are best to delegate and who to delegate them to. You'll need to understand your team members' strengths and weaknesses to make sure everyone gets the right tasks for their skills.
What are the causes of procrastination and how can I overcome them?
A common cause of procrastination is boredom or overestimating your abilities to get things done in an amount of time. To overcome this, organisation strategies, scheduling and a clear focus on your objectives are all recommended.
