This post was originally featured on KnowledgeHut at the following URL: https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/career/how-time-management-skills-can-affect-your-career
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Time management is worth it. It will make your life better in so many ways. What’s more, it isn’t that hard to start. Just take that first step.
There is only so much time in your day. If you don’t use it correctly, then how are you ever going to have enough time for the important things, like the big tasks, your life, and your family? Time management is such a vital part of ensuring that you get the things you need to do done that it seems like a no-brainer.
And yet, many people still resist learning it. Why? Because it takes time to learn time management. That means that the very people who need it the most are going to have the most trouble finding the time to actually learn the necessary skills to define your work to manage your time
Of course, that creates the problem that they then don’t get any better and they end up running after the facts instead of being on top of them.
Why Time Management Skills are Important?
To give them a boost, here are some of the most important reasons why you need to learn time management skills.
- No more bad work
Quite often, because we’re low on time, we don’t end up handing in the best work we’re capable of. We’re running late, we’ve got a thousand other things that need our attention, and we really don’t have the energy to do better than we’re doing.
- No more staying late nights in the office
A lot of people believe that saying their incredibly busy and don’t have time for anything else makes them look good in the eyes of the boss. It doesn’t. Instead, they just think you’re bad at time management. And that is, in fact, the case. So they’re not far off.
Besides, staying late in the office ends up costing you valuable time with the people you love and means that you can’t take time off. And that’s decidedly bad for your career, as people who go on holiday do better career-wise.
- Greater creativity
People that are on top of the facts have more time to invest in activities that make them creative. They have the time to look at problems and projects in ways that allow them to see new ways of doing things and realize the new opportunities to be found there.
And you don’t have to be in a creative industry in order to benefit from being more creative. After all, if you have a creative solution to a problem, then it might very well become an opportunity instead. In fact, there are often great opportunities for promotion for people who have insightful ways of solving problems.
- Less stress
If you can do the same amount of work in far fewer hours, then naturally that will mean that you’ll be less stressed out. After all, you’ll have opportunities to go do other things, like go to the gym and hang out with friends – both things that are exceptionally useful for people who want to get their stress under control.
What’s more, it will let you live longer and enjoy life more, which has to be a nice little bonus for managing your time correctly, wouldn’t you say?
Okay, you’ve convinced me already; what can I do to manage my time better?
I’m glad you let me talk you around to my way of thinking. I know it might seem daunting to control your time management problems, but you’ll find that some of these things don’t take a huge investment of time and will almost directly boost results.
Then, when you’ve got the easy time management skills up and going, you’ll have a bit more time in your life that you can then use to embrace the more time-consuming strategies that I’ll discuss here. And before you know it, people will look to you to tell them how to manage time better!
Tips for Better Time Management
Here are some things you can start to do to manage your time better.
- Make it harder to access distractions
Most of us think that we’re being productive when in fact, we’re doing a lot of things that are anything but. For example, we’ll spend far too much time on our emails, checking the news, or reading things like stock market tickers.
So you’ve got to stop yourself from doing that. How do you do that? It’s simple; just make it harder for you to do so. Don’t have your email open up automatically and don’t have it auto-recognize your login details. In this way, you’ll need to take several extra steps in order to open it, which will make it far less likely that you will do so. And that will allow you to work uninterrupted for much longer stretches of time.
Similarly, turn off the auto fill-in function in your browser. In that way, you’ll find it a lot harder to go to the sites that eat your time, like the news sites. The more steps (And keys) that you need to hit in order to get there, the more time you’ll have to realize that you’ve got better ways to spend your time and that you should get on with those things instead.
- Delegate
The biggest time eater is often tasks that you shouldn’t be doing anyway but can’t do because you don’t think other people are capable of them. Stop that! Get other people to participate and do things. The best managers make sure that everybody else is doing their work for them. That way, when there is some kind of problem, they’ve actually got the time to deal with it.
So, delegate and don’t micromanage. Instead, trust people to do a good job.
Don’t you have people that work for you? Then there are still plenty of opportunities to delegate. For example, there are services like Hello Alfred, where you can get a butler to take care of a bunch of your tasks for you. Or you can ask a writing service to write first drafts of texts for you, particularly if they’re run-of-the-mill and boring.
- Learn to say 'No'
A lot of people don’t have enough time to do the things they have to do because they end up doing things they don’t have to do – like other people’s work or running errands for people who are perfectly capable of doing these tasks themselves.
In these cases, there really is only one thing you can do, and that is learn to use the word ‘no’. It’s a liberating word, actually. It opens up oceans of time if used correctly. It’s just a matter of knowing what to do. Start with the people who shouldn’t be asking you to do stuff anyway. Then work your way up.
Sometimes saying ‘no’ to your boss can actually benefit your career. They will realize that they’re taking you for granted and will gain more respect for you as a person.
- Find your most productive time
Most people are at their most productive first thing in the morning or late in the evening. During these times, ensure that you’re actually doing something important, like a big task or something that requires a lot of concentration. That means don’t spend these hours working your way through your email or answering phone calls.
One good idea is to get into the office and not engage with any of the new tasks until you’ve got whatever you set yourself to the task to do out of the way. By doing that, you can make sure that your mind isn’t constantly being pulled towards other tasks and distractions. Even better, when you do hit the other tasks, you’re going to feel like you’re doing well, as you’ve already got something important out of the way first. That will make it much easier to stay productive.
Conclusion
Time management isn’t a pipe dream. It is possible to get done what you’re supposed to and to still have a social life, time for your family, and the ability to go to the gym. In fact, if you’re not doing these things, it will take a toll on you in the long run. You’ll run yourself down faster, be less healthy, and deliver sub-par work.
Now, why would you want to do that?
So, stop making up excuses for why you’re in the office from nine to nine (or even later) and start taking control of your life. Yes, it will be hard. Yes, it will be a struggle. But if you don’t do it now, then it will become harder and harder to do moving forward.
Besides, if you do manage to pull it off, your future self will be eternally grateful to you for having done so. And that is probably the best person to have to be thankful to you for anything. After all, you’ll be able to enjoy that gratitude.
So don’t hold back. Stop making excuses. Start managing your time better and make the best of your life and the opportunities coming your way. What have you got to lose?