As cliché as it sounds, the proverb, ‘Time and tide wait for none,’ can’t be any truer. We tend to take time for granted and end up getting stressed out about not having enough time to finish a particular task or reach a goal.
So, you might be wondering; ‘Why everyone keeps talking about the importance of time management?’
A basic answer to this question would be, without time management you let fate or coincidence to take over your life. If you don’t manage your time properly, someone else will steer your life while you will be spending the rest of your life doing what others want you to do.
When you practice effective time management, you get to be the driver of your own life. You will be the one in control, and you can take your life wherever you want to. Practicing time management has some benefits. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to work more, learn much faster and enjoy more.
Firstly, with better time management, you will gain extra productive hours. Respecting the value of time, you will tend to be more disciplined and focused on your work rather than indulging in meaningless gossips with your colleagues or aimlessly surfing social media sites on the internet.
Just think about it – if you had only 1 extra productive hour in a day, that’s 5 extra hours on weekdays and 250 hours in a year. So, in a year, you get 6 additional weeks of work in total. Now, with all those extra hours you would not only get appreciated by your boss but also win a promotion at work.
Secondly, your efficiency and productivity will increase. Once you start to value time, you will work harder in the same time span than any other man. More work done is equal to more things learned.
Therefore, you will gain way more experience than others for the same time invested. You will also learn how to do your work in a much quicker manner. As you will be really focused on your job, you will pay more attention to it. With time management skills, you will progress more swiftly than without it.
Further, you will gain full control over your life. One of the main advantages of practicing time management is it allows you to control your life the way you want. You will have a better idea about what work you can do and what work will be done. You will be better organized, and deadlines won’t be able to cause worry in your mind anymore.
Deadline emergencies won’t make you afraid; instead, you will spend your time relaxing while your colleagues will be stressing about work. Now, don’t get a notion that you will become stiff with your time schedule.
It will be the exact opposite. You will gain more freedom since you will not be dependent on external factors to control your life. Only you will control your life, not anyone else. You must have heard the popular song title, Work Hard, Play Harder. With better time management, you can do that. So, if you love life, make every minute count.
Time management will enable you to live to the fullest. As your work productivity gets increased with better time management, you will achieve more while working the less amount of time. As a result, you get more free time which you can spend enjoying with your family and loved ones or pursue your hobbies.
By now, you must have understood the importance of time management in your life. At least once in your life, you must have joined a time management class, read about it in a book, and used your phone to schedule your daily activities. But in the end, you still were not able to organize and manage your time properly. Don’t worry as written below are the tips that will help you to become a master of managing time.
- Start with a daily plan:
18 Minutes, a bestselling book on time management authored by Peter Bregman suggests planning as the first thing to do after waking up in the morning. In a Forbes article, he emphasizes on the power of setting priorities up front — before even checking the phone.
How often do we open our computers to check emails or our phones to reply to a WhatsApp chat and get lost in a minute? Some people are so addicted to this habit that they go through their inbox at midnight for getting a jump start in the morning. Our phones eat up a lot of time on our daily schedule.
With a strategic step back, you can set your priorities for the day and decide what will make your valuable time more rewarding. Remember, your attitude will also matter. Instead of feeling stressed by a list, try feeling empowered. Decide what will make your day highly successful. Set realistic goals that you can achieve, so that you end the day feeling like you have been productive and fruitful.
- Learn to say no:
When bombarded with requests, try to be ruthless. Accept the fact that we don’t have an infinite amount of time, and we can do limited things. Remember, what is important is not always urgent.
Always do the critical tasks first. Choose a job and focus on only that. By finishing the most urgent tasks first, you’ll feel less stressed and focus on all the other important works on your list.
- Put everything in the calendar:
You should always schedule. The truth is what gets scheduled gets done. Only making a list is not enough, you need to put those tasks on a calendar. In a study, a certain percentage of groups gave exact times and locations to carry out goals and others did not. The results were striking; those who decided a precise time and place for reaching goals had a lot higher success rate compared to those who did not.
- Embrace waiting time:
Your phone and computer are the main enemies of time management. You go out to carry out a task, and a sudden flood of messages make you diverge from that path, leaving you with more burdens on your shoulder.
When you have an important work that is needed be done urgently, get away from your phone and laptop. Sit in a quiet room at your house. If that choice is not available, take a relaxed stroll along a peaceful road, or you can even go to a coffee shop. Physically separate yourself from all the distractions and focus all your concentration on your work. Don’t get frustrated and use the time to introspect your life.
- Take breaks:
Although, it sounds contradictory, taking a break can help you to manage time in a better manner. Studies have shown that taking short breaks allows many people to make their mind and get motivated.
Your quick break can be a lunch with your girlfriends, five minutes of doing yoga or even going for a bicycle ride. Steady work with short breaks in between might be the key to managing your energy and concentration and thus, better productivity.
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