Time management tips

Do you often struggle to finish your work on time?

Improving your time management skills can help you do more in less time.

Here are some tips for managing your time effectively.

Set goals.

The first step towards managing your time effectively is to set clear goals for what you want to accomplish.

These goals should be organized by how urgent and important they are.

Once they have been ordered, you will know what you need to do first.

Set time blocks.

Time blocking arranges your day into periods of time based on different tasks.

It shows you how much time you have and what you should spend it on.

Take breaks

A break is a short rest taken from work.

After you have been working for a long time, you should take a break.

Otherwise you may get tired and have trouble focusing on your work.

Delegate your work.

If you are a manager, knowing how to delegate can help save you time.

Delegating work frees up your time and allows you to concentrate on what's most important.

If someone on your team can do a task, you should consider delegating it to them.

Taking even a 5 minute break can help you focus on your work.

Taking a break will boost your energy and help you focus on your work.

Delegating tasks allows you to concentrate on your highest priorities.

Common mistakes

Here are some factors that can make it difficult to manage your time.

Stress.

Stress can cause people to become anxious.

Instead of focusing on their work, they may worry about what could happen if they fail.

As a result, they may get distracted and rushed through their work, which leads to mistakes.

Procrastination.

Procrastination is the act of putting off doing something until a later time.

People may procrastinate because they think their work is unpleasant or boring.

But if you have waited too long to do your work, you may get stressed and rushed through it.

Employees may be motivated by a little stress, but too much stress can be distracting.

Worrying about what could go wrong if a project things can cause someone a lot of stress.

He had a week to finish his project, but he procrastinate until the last day. 

Her work has greatly improved since she learned to stop procrastinating.

Multitasking.

To multitask means to work on more than one thing at the same time.

Multitasking causes you to divide your attention between tasks rather than focus on each one.

As a result, it may take you longer to finish individual tasks.

Perfectionism.

Perfectionism means to want everything to be as good as possible.

It can cause people to focus on minor details and ignore more urgent or important work.

By splitting your attention between tasks, you'll probably make mistakes because you aren't focusing.

You need to stop multitasking and focus on completing one thing at a time.

Perfectionist have high standards, but sometimes they can be unrealistic.

She has gotten frustrated with his perfectionism because he spends too much time on unimportant detail.

Can cause people to confuse their priorities and waste time on minor details.

You need to stop multitasking and focus on completing one thing at a time.

Time management terms

Vocabulary.

Interruption.

An interruption is something that stops work from being done.

Frequent interruptions prevent you from staying focused. 

Priority.

A priority is a task that should be completed before others.

If a task is important and needs to be finished as soon as possible, it is a high priority.

He was being interrupted by too many notifications. So he put his phone on silent.

She had been concentrating on her work when she was interrupted by a colleague.

He had two weeks until the report was due, so he didn't think it is a priority.

He has put off his team meeting since the upcoming meeting with his clients is a higher priority.

He had two weeks until the vegetables do so. He didn't treat it is a priority.

Reminder.

A reminder is a message that helps you remember to do something.

If you have something important to do, you should leave a reminder. So you don't forget about it.

To do list.

A to do list is a list of tasks that need to be completed.

Making a to do list of your work helps you set priorities and organize your time.

Why should you outline the work you need to do in a to do list?

Before she goes to bed, she adds her work for the next day on her to do list

His to do list is an unstructured mess since he never organizes it.

She had noticed a reminder on her desk before she left the office.

Related actions.

Vocabulary.

To schedule.

To schedule something means to plan when and where it will happen.

Scheduling your work makes it easier to manage your time.

To focus.

To focus on something means to concentrate on it.

When you focus on your work, you are less likely to make mistakes.

If you get distracted, you lose focus.

He scheduled a meeting for tomorrow morning and invited the whole team.

The appointment with their client has been scheduled for Friday afternoon.

If you want to do a good job, you should ignore distractions and focus on your work.

He can't focus on his work. When the office is noisy.

Employee is good at ignoring distractions and focusing on their work.

To simplify.

To simplify something means to make it less complex and easier to do or understand.

If a process is too complicated, it should be simplified so people can understand it.

To implement.

To implement means to put something into action.

After a schedule has been created, it should be implemented.

After the workflow had been simplified, it became easier to follow

Our presentation was complicated, so we decided to simplify it.

The routine has been recently implemented, so it may take a while to get used to.

After the new rule has been implemented, it took longer for employees to Complete their work.

Managing her time

Dialogue.

So how have you been? It's been such a long time since we last caught up.

Yeah, I think it's been over a year since giving birth to my son Edward. I found it difficult to manage my time at work and haven't been out socializing much.

Don't worry. I understand how you feel. I felt the same when I went back to work after having my daughter Isabella. Back then I used to miss a lot of deadlines at work.

Yes, I never used to miss deadlines, but now I miss them all the time. I don't like missing them, but I can't exactly work late as I have to take care of Edward. How did you cope with work after Isabella was born? 

Well, it's not as hard as it seems. One thing that helped me was keeping a schedule and setting time blocks for specific tasks. For example, on a Monday, I know block out the morning to work on my reports and I make sure the afternoons are Free to call my clients.

Having a child has made it harder for her to meet deadlines.

Managing your work while raising a child is easier than it seems.

That's a great idea. But what happens if you need to do some urgent work that was not scheduled?

Just remember to be flexible. It's important to be able to change your plans if circumstances change. I also try to avoid as many distractions as possible at work. I find this allows me to focus on the things that are important. 

You're right. Putting my phone on silent would definitely help me concentrate. This is all great advice. I'm looking forward to getting back to my old self. 

It won't be exactly the same as before. 

What do you mean? 

You have a baby now. So you probably won't spend as much time at work as before. Just concentrate on doing as much as possible, and the time you have, rather than trying to do everything. 

Thanks, Helen, you always make me feel better. That's what friends are for. Just don't leave a year until we see each other next time.