It’s difficult to control things with so many distractions around. To be your most productive self at work, manage your time to work effectively.
If you spend your day in a frenzy of activity and still wonder why you have not accomplished your targets on time, then read on-
Sharing below a few constructive time management tips to help you increase your productivity and maintain your calm.
How to Manage Time at Work
1. Establish Routines and Stick to Them
Understandably time management remains arduous given the current work scenario and hectic work schedules. You will be much more productive if you can follow set timetables and fixed routines.
Establishing routines is one thing, and sticking to them all the way is a different ball game altogether, and that is where most of us fail.
It is a significantly important step towards managing time to work your productive best. Prepare a to-do list for the task ahead and stick to that until finished. Don’t even attempt any task without proper planning.
Starting a task without planning may leave you demotivated and disorganized throughout the day.
Before finishing your day, create a list of the most pressing tasks for the next day. It will mentally prepare you for the next assignment before it starts, and you can plan how to increase flexibility to accommodate the most pressing tasks in your work hour.
Putting everything on paper will prevent last-minute delays and confusion. But sticking to the plan is the most significant step towards the successful completion of the project.
Hence, establish a routine, stick to the plan and grow!
2. Set Time Limits for Completion of Tasks
After establishing a routine, set time limits for yourself to complete a task so that it’s easy to prioritize.
For instance, reading and answering emails can consume your whole day if you let it. Instead, set a limit of one hour a day for this task and stick to it.
Assign a solid block of time for a particular task and try to complete it within that time frame, but always be flexible to adjust for tasks on priority.
Setting time constraints helps you recognize potential problems before they arise, in addition to becoming more focused and efficient.
3. Ensure your Systems are Organized
Are you wasting a lot of time looking for files on your computer?
Take the time to organize a file management system so that you can quickly lay your hands on what you need.
Little things make a big difference!
For effective time management, Get organized by creating a filing system for documents. If you have piles of papers scattered all over your desk, finding the one you need will be like finding a needle in a haystack. Not to mention how hard clutter can make it to focus.
A messed-up system can ruin your time to work efficiently and motivation for the completion of tasks. Pay extra attention that your team is not wasting time on managing their documents.
Get yourself acquainted with the latest document management systems and implement them in your team for better efficiency and productivity.
There are many distractions and pitfalls during a project. Make sure documents management or a lack of knowledge in understanding a file organization is not the reason for your low productivity.
Ensure good file management for yourself and your team and provide training to your colleagues if they are not yet comfortable with a new filing system.
4. Find out Time Wasting Loopholes
The next important step is finding out the time-wasting activities that leave you with no time to work your best.
Many of us fall prey to time-stealer activities like internet surfing, reading email, Facebook posting, texting, or making personal calls without even realizing that they are the biggest roadblocks in our way to effective time management.
Eliminate distractions to determine what deserves your time. Removing non-essential tasks/activities frees up more of your time for important things related to work or personal goals like fitness, music, meditation.
A key to personal time management is being proactive about getting rid of them. Shut your door to limit interruptions. Close all tabs except the ones you are currently working on. Turn off messaging notifications and leave your phone calls for lunch.
And remember that getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, and eating healthy can help you stay focused during the workday.
Furthermore, start tracking daily activities to get an accurate picture of how much time you spend on various activities.
For personal goals, you can get any time tracker apps on your mobile devices to start tracking your time spent, but for organizational tracking, use an efficient time tracking application like EmpMonitor.
5. Use Smart Time Management Tool
No other than a project manager better understands the value of time management, who is juggling too many tasks and team members simultaneously. Probably that’s why time management software is a project manager’s best friend.
Many effective project managers use time tracking software to stay on top of their game. Such tools help manage and track the time spent on each task.
A software application like EmpMonitor is a feature-rich tool with activity tracking, time tracking, and project management to help you stay on time always.
If you are struggling with time management for employees and remote work issues, try EmpMonitor to help you keep a record of every minute so that you get enough time to work more efficiently.
A Sneak-Peek Into EmpMonitor’s Efficient Features-
EmpMonitor is a smart time management application that gives you the following benefits-
- Monitors Employees: EmpMonitor captures and records the productivity of every team member working remotely.
- Secure: It is a safe and secure tool that blocks all kinds of insider threats. This tool reviews, records and analyzes threats from time to time.
- Enhanced Productivity: EmpMonitor boosts up your productivity levels by eliminating the rest hours and idle activities.
- Time Management: It tracks the remote team’s working and non-working hours, making it the best choice for remote teams management tools.
- Chat Monitoring: EmpMonitor tracks the amount of time spent by employees on chat applications during their work hours.
- Clients feature: EmpMonitor also monitors time spent on a client and client’s project.
- Powerful Reports: EmpMonitor provides clean and detailed reports and graphs showing your staff’s performance and productivity.
- Web & Apps Usage Monitoring: EmpMonitor also tracks the most visited website URLs and Applications to help you track your staff members if they are using more time on social media during office hours.
- Payments: EmpMonitor automates all the payroll processes and payments with the clients too. It also automates the billing process.
- All Devices: EmpMonitor is a cross-platform tool and is compatible with all devices and operating systems like Windows laptops, MACs, Android Devices, etc.
- Integrations: EmpMonitor can be easily integrated with other popular accounting and managing tools to extend tool functionality, making it a better choice for productivity measuring tools.
- Alerts: EmpMonitor provides regular alerts to help you prevent time wasting activities and increase productivity at the remote workspace.
- GPS Tracking: EmpMonitor also tracks the exact location of your remote team members via their device and lets you know from where they are working.
- Off Track Reminders: EmpMonitor also alerts you to stay away from non-work websites during work time to achieve maximum productivity.
- IP Safelisting: EmpMonitor also safelists IP addresses and allows team leaders to visit specific websites via white-labeled IPs.
- Attendance Logs: EmpMonitor also keeps a record of your remote team members’ exact login and logout time for the last seven days.
- Track Breaks: It also tracks the total amount of time spent away from the working devices.
- Keystrokes: EmpMonitor also tracks the keys pressed by your remote team members while working in real-time.
- Browser History: This tool keeps the device history of your team members safely on the cloud even if your remote team members clear their device history at their end.
6. Create Time Management Goals
Goal setting is essential to create a plan of execution for achieving the end goal. It will help you attain goals faster without wasting time on distractions and more time to work on specific targets.
Set achievable, realistic goals for yourself by analyzing the roadmap very carefully. Use SMART(Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) method to focus on your work priorities.
Sometimes the real roadblock is not the time but your habits and lifestyle that is the actual hurdle in time management.
Remember, the best place to start is by eliminating your own time-wasters.
For one week, set a goal that you will not take personal phone calls while working. This small change will bring a huge difference in eliminating non-important distractions during business hours and will give you more time to work on other crucial tasks.
7. Implement a Time Management Plan
Planning and time management go hand-in-hand with each other. A goal without a plan is just a dream. So set precise goals and track them over time to see whether or not you are accomplishing them as planned.
One thing to note is when we talk about planning, you don’t have to follow a strict routine, instead, make smarter decisions of knowing the right time to do a task.
The idea behind time management is to work smarter than harder and make time to work efficiently.
Make sure you start your day with clarity of goals to achieve that day. Consider writing out your “to-do” list for the next workday to hit the ground running the coming day.
Utilize your calendar for more long-term time management. Write down the deadlines for tasks that are part of completing the overall project. Think about which days might be best to dedicate to specific tasks.
For example, you might need to plan a meeting to discuss cash flow on a day when you know the company CFO is available.
You can make the most of your time by implementing a time management plan.
8. Make Time to Work on Priority
Make time for the work that matters through prioritization.
Prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency. For example, look at your daily tasks and determine which are:
- Important and Urgent: Do these tasks right away.
- Important but not Urgent: Decide when to do these tasks.
- Urgent but not important: Delegate these tasks if possible.
- Not urgent and not important: Set these aside to do later.
Prioritization will help you manage time to work smart, efficiently, and required.
Evaluate your to-do list and understand the importance of a task rather than its urgency. Important responsibilities support the achievement of your goals, whereas urgent responsibilities require immediate attention and are associated with the achievement of someone else’s goals.
We tend to let the urgent dominate when we should really focus on activities that support our business goals.
9. Learn to Delegate And Outsource
Delegation is one of the hardest things to learn, do not try to do every task yourself and burden yourself with unnecessary tasks. Prioritize time to work on urgent tasks first and assign projects according to the specialization.
Delegating/ outsourcing is a smart choice that helps you steer through difficult projects easily. It will bring specialization to the task as you will be handing it to an efficient team or person for better results and saving your best for something more deserving of your attention.
For example, in the middle of a project/ task, you realize that you wouldn’t be able to complete a part of it on time before meeting, so, you may decide to delegate that portion to someone else.
Do not try to complete every task yourself to establish your authority or knowledge.
10. Don’t Waste Time Waiting
Last but very importantly, never waste time waiting for things or a person. It is impossible to avoid waiting, but do not twiddle your thumbs.
Technology makes it easy to work wherever you are; your tablet or smartphone will help you stay connected. You can be reading a report, checking a spreadsheet, or planning your next marketing campaign.
Benefits of Time Management in Workplace
- Deliver Work on Time
- Better Productivity and Efficiency
- No stress
- Improved quality of end result
- More opportunities and time to work on career growth
- More time for leisure and recreation
- Ability to realize goals
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In a Nutshell
At the end of the day, finding time to work for your personal or professional goals is your calling. You are the best judge and master of your time.
Individuals who practice good time management can achieve goals in a shorter length of time.
By implementing practical time management skills in the workplace, you can be more productive and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Time management can also improve your mental health. You’ll feel less stressed, knowing how to allocate your time for each task. So, Power up and be more productive this 2022.
