Time is arguably the most important asset that each and every one of us has. All your physical and mental skills can be improved by training and repetition, but time is the only asset that cannot be extended beyond the 24 hours that each day offers. Therefore it takes well-structured time management skills to make the most of your 24 hours each day.
But what is time management?
A good definition would be this one:
“Time management is the ability to plan and control how someone spends the hours in a day to effectively accomplish their goals.”
Psychology Today
So, if you really want to get ahead, focusing on time management best practices will be hours well spent.
First of all, let’s focus on the positive outcomes that well-structured time management brings you:
More time
The first one is pretty obvious. If you handle your time management right, you will have more time to spend on your hobbies or other personal pursuits.
Stress relief
Well-structured time management will also allow you to feel more relaxed and therefore will help you to relief stress.
More opportunities
By trying to get the most out of the 24 hours you will realize that you can see new opportunities flying right across your way. Because once you can get the trivial tasks off your to-do-list faster., you will have more time to focus on more impactful factors in your private and professional life.
Ability to realize goals
And that leads to the next direct outcome: Individuals who practice good time management are able to better achieve goals and objectives and do so in a shorter length of time.
How to structure your time management?
In order to get all those positive outcomes for yourself we created a list of tips that might help you to achieve it.
Create a schedule and routines
By creating a schedule and develop routines and habits for your daily tasks, you create a predictable day for yourself which helps you to get work done faster, which used to block time for more important tasks that might have way more positive impact on your life.
Set your goals right
After creating a schedule or a plan you have a goal and with a goal on your mind you know where you want to be at the end of the day, week, month or even year. It is important to make sure that your goal is achievable. When choosing a goal, it is important to choose something that motivates you to give it your best every day, but on the other hand does not overwhelm you.
Split big tasks into smaller ones
It is helpful to set a big main goal which is divided into smaller sub-goals. This way the small successes will help you to push yourself further and stay motivated.
Creative breaks
Breaks are actually the most important part of working for many reasons. In the 19th century it was normal that workers were driven forward like racehorses with whip and shouting until they exchanged you after 5 years completely used up.
Today, however, we know, that properly placed breaks help us to stay focused.
In work psychology there is a term for this feeling that you have when your creativity reaches its peak: Flow. This is a state we can experience at work, when we forget time and space, and everything seems to run like clockwork. Of course, it is not advantageous to take a break at this point. But between those flows you have to refuel your mind and relax a bit to stay productive.
Therefore, in moments of stagnation it is always good to take a short break, just walk a few steps and try to calm your mind.
Say “no” to multitasking
As mentioned above, the world of work is often about getting into the flow experience. But what keeps us from getting into that flow experience despite goal and motivation? It’s all the tasks that occur out of thin air and drain our attention away from more important tasks. Those attention drainers are often work emails, social media update or other outside influences.
Who doesn’t know it today? We are concentrating on a task and suddenly an email pops up in which we just want to have a quick look, because something important might be there.
Since we have now read it, we can also answer quickly. Otherwise, we would have to read it again the next time.
After answering, you are twice as motivated to do the original task, because you have to make up for the time you lost. But then another message appears, which we also only want to read briefly.
Seven messages later, we’re stressed out trying to get our original task done before lunch. If we don’t make it, we cancel the break. But we just described how important breaks are to keep a clear head.
A solution for this could be to structure your working hours so that you answer messages only on certain points in your daily schedule. So, you could say a reduction of multitasking will benefit your time management for sure.
Bonus Tipp:
Use timeghost to track your time 😉
When you start to track your time, you’re more aware of how you spend your time. But tracking your working hours can be a real hassle. Nevertheless it will have an immense impact on your company’s productivity. And with that in mind we created our own time tracking web app timeghost as a solution for our own needs within our company structure. That’s why timeghost is developed to be a very intuitive and flexible time tracking tool for companies or freelancers who want to track their working hours spent on projects and increase their productivity by learning about their efficiency.
Besides that timeghost will be a real productivity assistant to and ready remind you about all your Office 365 activities in its Feed. So especially if you are looking for a time tracking solution that integrates perfectly to Microsoft 365 and offers a native Microsoft Teams App, timeghost is definitely worth your time.
Try it yourself
We really appreciate all the feedback we can get, so please feel free to contact us and tell us what needs improvement or what you are missing in timeghost.
If you need any help in setting up timeghost, please don’t hesitate to visit our Support Center or send us an email to [email protected].