In today’s fast-paced world, where tasks often outnumber available time, effective time management is essential for achieving both professional success and personal satisfaction.
Modern work environments are full of distractions. Studies reveal that 43% of employees struggle to stay motivated, while 29% find it difficult to maintain focus. Add to this that 71% of business leaders feel pressured to push their teams to be even more productive.
Know How You Spend Your Time
If your productivity depends on your output over a specific period, wasted time can translate to lost revenue. Similar to budgeting, tracking how you spend your time reveals habits and areas that may be hindering your progress.
To track what you do during the day, you can keep a simple log or use an app like Toggl Track which works on your phone, desktop or online.
It’s important to track your hours across various categories. This will show you how much of your day is spent on productive tasks versus distractions like checking facebook every hour or watching kitten videos.
Use The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that facilitates short bursts of productivity followed by brief rest periods. You work for 25 minutes (one “Pomodoro”) followed by a 5-minute break. After completing four Pomodoros, you take a longer 15-30 minute break.
This technique is highly effective for maintaining focus while avoiding burnout. It requires nothing more than a timer, making it one of the simplest and most effective minimalist tools available. It can be implemented using a physical kitchen timer or a basic app on your phone, keeping the setup minimal and hassle-free.
Prioritize tasks
To-do lists and projects are useful, but you must also prioritize. It’s easy to add things like, “Get Coffee”, but does getting coffee move you towards your goals? The Eisenhower Matrix helps you prioritize tasks by importance and urgency. To begin, you will draw a Box and divide into 4 quadrants/categories. Here is the original/traditional way to label:
- Urgent and Important: These tasks require immediate attention and must be completed promptly.
- Important but Not Urgent: These tasks contribute to long-term goals but do not need immediate attention.
- Urgent but Not Important: These tasks demand attention but do not significantly contribute to long-term goals.
- Neither Urgent nor Important: These tasks are often distractions and should be minimized or eliminated.
Or…..here is another way to label:
- Do immediately: Important tasks with deadlines or overdue items.
- Schedule for later: Important tasks without immediate deadlines.
- Delegate: Tasks that can be handled by someone else.
- Delete: Non-essential tasks that don’t align with your goals.
Do the Hardest Task First
Distractions are inevitable, from phone calls to people stopping by your office to chat. Before you know it, the day is gone. It’s time to “eat that frog
The “Eat That Frog” method, coined by leadership expert Brian Tracy, is ideal for people who procrastinate. It suggests starting your day with the most challenging and important task—the one you’re most likely to avoid. Only move on to other tasks once you’ve tackled that.
Batch Batch Batch
Batch processing involves grouping similar tasks to complete them in one go. This can be done by type or objective.
Examples:
- Schedule all meetings into one day if you can and between certain times. (Even better, is if you can eliminate meetings altogether)
- Respond to emails at the end of the day (if you are in a role that can facilitate this).
- Make your calls between certain times every day (2-3 pm).
Lose the Multi-Tasking Mentality
Despite all the hype of how important it is to be a good multi-tasker, this is not a good strategy. In the book, The One Thing, Gary Keller states that “Multi-tasking is a lie”. People accept this as an effective method and no longer question the validity of this approach.
He says that when you try to do two things at once, you either can’t or won’t do either well. Multi-tasking originated from the 1960’s- and was used to describe the function of computers. Even this was misleading though because computers can process one code at a time according to Keller. It is not possible for people to focus on two things at the same time.
If you question this- try it for yourself. Use the Pomodoro technique to keep you focused on ONE task at a time and work w/out answering emails, etc. My guess is that you will quickly become more productive with less stress.
Get & Stay Organized
You might need to get more organized if you can relate to any of the following:
- Always arriving late to meetings or work
- Spending time every day looking for projects, reports or information
- Asking IT for your username or password more than once
Don’t fret if you checked all these boxes. You can get organized!
- Keep your workspace tidy. According to several different studies, psychologists and neuroscientists have found that clutter affects cognition, mental health, and behavior. Visual clutter can raise stress levels and trigger anxiety, activating a fight-or-flight response. To improve decision-making, throw away or recycle unnecessary papers, clear out items you no longer need, and keep the tools you use most within easy reach.
- Organize your files. Effective file naming is key to managing computer files and shared drives. Establish a system that makes it easy for both you and your co-workers to locate documents quickly.
- Make the most of your calendar. Use your calendar to organize your life into categories like “personal,” “professional,” and “commitments.” Consider color-coding to easily differentiate between categories or urgent versus non-urgent tasks.
Summary-Improving Time Management at Work
Okay, we we discussed various ways to improve your Time Management at work. These include: keeping track of your time, use the Pomodoro technique, prioritizing, working on your hardest task first thing in the morning, batching meetings, emails, etc, focusing on one task at a time and getting organized.
Like any new habit, it may take some time. But keep at it, and before you know it you’ll be less stressed, more productive, and always on the right track to reaching your goals!