Time Management

9 Reasons Why Time Management is Important

Time is limited Everyone gets the same amount of time each day, and it's limited, therefore it's important to make the most of your time if you ever want to be more than average at the workplace.
Accomplish more with less effort By taking control of your time, you're able to stay focused on the task at hand. This leads to higher efficiency since you never lose momentum. Imagine running a mile where you stop every 5 seconds, this would cause you to become exhausted very quickly and take much longer to complete the run.
Make better decisions There are many choices in life and often-times we're faced with many choices to choose from at the same time. When you practice good time management, you have more time to breathe; this allows you to determine which choices are the best to make.
When you feel pressed for time and have to make a decision, you're more likely to jump to conclusions and not fully consider the different options; this leads to poor decision making.
Be more successful Time management is the key to success; it allows you to take control of your life rather than follow the flow of others. You accomplish more, you make better decisions, and you work more efficiently; this leads to a more successful life.
Learn more When you control your time and work more efficiently, you're able to learn more and increase your experience faster. There's a reason some students graduate earlier than others, so imagine implementing time management throughout your entire career. You'll not only stand out from the rest, but you'll gain experience must faster and be able to move up in life a lot sooner.
Reduce stress One of the main causes of stress is due to people feeling rushed. The phrase "I have so much to do and so little time to do it" is generally spoken with frustration which leads to stress. With good time management, you know how much time you have, how long it will take to get your tasks done, you accomplish more, and have more free time. This gives you more breathing room, which reduces the feeling of being rushed, which in turn leads to less frustration and stress.
Higher quality work We all need some free time to relax and unwind but, unfortunately, many of us don't get much free time because we're too busy trying to keep up with our daily activities and work load. By implementing time management skills, you are able to get more done in a shorter period of time leading to more free time.
Creates discipline When you practice good time management in your life, you are less likely to procrastinate. Time management leads to higher productivity and leads to a disciplined life.
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Mistake #1. Failing to Keep a To-Do List
Do you ever have that nagging feeling that you've forgotten to do an important piece of work? If so, you probably don't use a To-Do List to keep on top of things. (Or, if you do, you might not be using it effectively!)
The trick with using To-Do Lists effectively lies in prioritizing the tasks on your list. Many people use an A – F coding system (A for high priority items, F for very low priorities). Alternatively, you can simplify this by using A through D, or by using numbers.
If you have large projects on your list, then, unless you're careful, the entries for these can be vague and ineffective. For instance, you may have written down "Start on budget proposal." But what does this entail? The lack of specifics here might cause you to procrastinate, or miss key steps. So make sure that you break large tasks or projects down into specific, actionable steps – then you won't overlook something important.
You can also use Action Programs to manage your work when you have many large projects happening at once. (Action Programs are "industrial strength" versions of To-Do Lists.)
Mistake #2. Not Setting Personal Goals
Do you know where you'd like to be in six months? What about this time next year, or even 10 years from now? If not, it's time to set some personal goals!
Personal goal setting is essential to managing your time well, because goals give you a destination and vision to work toward. When you know where you want to go, you can manage your priorities, time, and resources to get there. Goals also help you decide what's worth spending your time on, and what's just a distraction.
To learn how to set SMART, effective goals, read up on Locke's Goal Setting Theory . Here, you'll learn how to set clearly defined goals that will keep you motivated.
You might also enjoy our Book Insight into Long Fuse, Big Bang by Eric Haseltine. This book teaches you how to focus on your long-term goals without overlooking your short term priorities.
Mistake #3. Not Prioritizing
Your assistant has just walked in with a crisis that she needs you to deal with right now, but you're in the middle of brainstorming ideas for a new client. You're sure that you've almost come up with a brilliant idea for their marketing campaign, but now you risk losing the thread of your thinking because of this "emergency."
Sometimes, it's hard to know how to prioritize , especially when you're facing a flood of seemingly-urgent tasks. However, it's essential to learn how to prioritize tasks effectively if you want to manage your time better.
One tool that will help you prioritize effectively is the Urgent/Important Matrix . This helps you understand the difference between urgent activities, and important activities. You'll also learn how to overcome the tendency to focus on the urgent.
The Action Priority Matrix is another useful tool, which will help you determine if a task is high-yield and high-priority, or low-value, "fill in" work. You'll manage your time much better during the day if you know the difference.
You might also want to go through our Bite-Sized Training session How to Prioritize, to further enhance your skills.
Mistake #4. Procrastination
Procrastination occurs when you put off tasks that you should be focusing on right now. When you procrastinate, you feel guilty that you haven't started; you come to dread doing the task; and, eventually, everything catches up with you when you fail to complete the work on time.
Start by taking our procrastination quiz to find out if procrastination is a problem in your life. If it is, then learn the strategies you need to beat procrastination .
For instance, one useful strategy is to tell yourself that you're only going to start on a project for ten minutes. Often, procrastinators feel that they have to complete a task from start to finish, and this high expectation makes them feel overwhelmed and anxious. Instead, focus on devoting a small amount of time to starting. That's all!
You might also find it helpful to use Action Plans . These help you break large projects down into manageable steps, so that it's easy to see everything that you need to get done, and so that you can complete small chunks at a time. Doing this can stop you from feeling overwhelmed at the start of a new project.
Mistake #5. Multitasking
To get on top of her workload, Linda regularly writes emails while she chats on the phone to her clients. However, while Linda thinks that this is a good use of her time, the truth is that it can take 20-40 percent more time to finish a list of jobs when you multitask, compared with completing the same list of tasks in sequence. The result is also that she does both tasks poorly – her emails are full of errors, and her clients are frustrated by her lack of concentration.
So, the best thing is to forget about multitasking , and, instead, focus on one task at a time. That way, you'll produce higher quality work.
Our Expert Interview with Dave Crenshaw, looking at The Myth of Multitasking, will give you an enlightening look at multitasking, and will help you explore how you can manage simultaneous projects more effectively.