The extra push that you need to reach your fullest potential in the professional world may lie in your ability to manage your time. Time management is not as simple as setting aside some time to complete a task at hand. It embodies all aspects of your life and requires that you plan ahead to dedicate plenty of time for your professional life as well as your personal life. We’ve all had days where we feel like 24 hours just isn’t enough to get everything done. Starting with these 5 simple steps could make all of those responsibilities seem much more approachable while still staying on top of your game.
Buy A Planner
Having a weekly planner to help map out your week to week responsibilities will allow you to see where each of your assignments fall into place. Being made aware of project deadlines with a couple of days to spare truly can take the stress away, but only if you can remember when those deadlines actually are. A time management planner will allow you to write each deadline in and allocate time each day to finish your assignments so you aren’t cramming at the last minute.
Set Time Limits
Estimating how much time each of your assignments will take you will help you to know when it’s the right time to do each of them. If you know a something may take 3 hours and you don’t want to take a break while you’re doing it, don’t start it an hour before lunch and end up skipping a meal. Instead, start with the task that may take an hour to check something off of your list and start your longer assignment after.
Do One Thing at a Time
Although it may seem like a better option to try to do everything at once when confronted with a tight schedule, it really just makes it worse. Multi tasking will not only reduce the quality of your work, but it will actually take longer to complete what you sought out to do. A great tip for time management is to focus in on one thing at a time. This will enable you to get your work done efficiently and to the best of your ability.
Make Time to Relax
Regardless of how packed your schedule is, leaving time at the end of the day to relax is a must. Whether its 30 minutes or 3 hours, giving yourself time to cook a quality dinner or hit the gym will ease your mind and reduce your stress. In turn, you will have an easier time focusing on what needs to be done when you are working, rather than taking time to worry about how exhausted and stressed you are.
Give Yourself Breaks
It sounds counterintuitive to step away from what you’re doing, but taking short breaks to clear your head could be the missing part to your workday. Of course we don’t mean stop what you’re doing during your most productive moments, but take a break if you feel like you’ve hit a dead end. Taking a 5-10 minute break will clear your mind and allow you to recharge.
