In every part of life, time management is a valuable skill, but it's much more important in some situations than others. Even if you're kicking back with a book, you can't completely forget about the clock. At some point that day, you need to start dinner. If you want to make it a certain number of chapters before then, you need to consider how much time you can afford to spend on each. It's not the end of the world if you're struggling with time management while reading. However, once you understand why time management issues, you'll start spotting situations where it's important to do it right.
Why is Time Management Important?
Time management is not a difficult concept, but it is hard and practice. Psychologists define it ((Psychology Today: time management)) as “the ability to plan and control how [one] spends hours a day to effectively achieve her goals”. People who have time in their time are good planners. They look at their goals and decide how much time to spend each in a certain hour, day, week or month. It may sound simple, but all too often, life gets in the way. The client calls while you are in the middle of deep work. In the middle of reading your hour, your son or daughter spills food all over the floor. Even though you set aside time for something else, you get up and fight the distraction. In most cases, it won't do much harm to take a detour from the task at hand. However, if you do it in the wrong circumstances, you might regret it.
What are the consequences of poor time management?
Poor time management can come back to bite you. If you can't seem to get control of how you spend your time, you may be struggling with:
being late
One sign that you are not very good at management time is that you are always late for meetings. If you're late for one appointment, chances are good that you'll have to push back later by a few minutes. Constantly late and all sorts of side effects. It can hinder your ability to work in a team, make you rush through your own work, and upset others who rely on you.
Poor performance at work or school
When you don't budget your time well, your time management problems can show up as poor performance at work or school. If you spend too much time writing the perfect email, you may not have time to decide what budget analysis your boss has asked you to do. If you can't stop watching TV to study for a test, you're probably not doing well on the actual exam.
procrastination
Procrastinators - like the student who can't bring himself to study - know where they should spend their time. The root of their time management problems is that they don't follow through with their plans. In some cases, procrastination is worse than not allocating time to everything. Procrastinators make commitments, they fight for honor. When this happens repeatedly, the procrastinator's relationship tends to suffer. If you want to learn about the types of procrastination and how to fix them, this article might help: Types of Procrastination (and How to Fix Procrastination and Start Doing)
Damaged Relationships
Your boss may get angry if you struggle to turn projects on time, but the effects of poor time management on your relationship run deeper than that. People want to know that they can count on you to do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it. If this is not the case, family members may hesitate to ask you for help, and friends may think twice before inviting you.
When Time Management Is Most Questions
You might not face the consequences if you manage your time by reading badly, but if you let bad time management turn into other areas of your life. At home and at work, there are several situations where time management is critical:
When others are counting on you
Time management is what you should want for yourself. Then it can make you more productive and keep your stress levels low. With that said, this is especially important when you're on a team. Say you're a sales development rep. Your job is to develop a sales funnel that allows senior salespeople to join your team to focus on closing deals. If you spend too much time on some leads, you may have high levels close but low volume. If you give a lot of leads little attention, your volume can grow - but the leads you pass probably won't close. Good time management means giving just the right amount of time to lead everyone on your list. Even when you're not at work, you still have to work on teams. If you're making meals with your family, you might be able to drop this entire schedule if the veggies you agreed to the Chop aren't ready to cook along with the stir-fry. Eventually, others come along and build personal connections.
When Your Schedule Is Full
Why time management during crunches is obvious: when you're busy, you'll struggle to get it all done if you don't manage your time effectively. People who manage their time well know exactly how much they can get done in the allotted time. They use structure and technique to get the most done. Structurally speaking, they do things like book appointments back to back. They will make time in their calendar for deep work. If an interruption occurs, they either ignore it or explain gently when they are able to resolve it. What time management techniques can you use to make more time? We recommend tomato. Named after the timer used by the inventor of the system, the tomato has several cycles of rest and work. Pomodoro can consist of a 30 minute sprint followed by a 10 minute break, repeated until the person is ready for a long rest. Other methods such as block time ((destinations: Time Block 101: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Your Daily Schedule) are also effective. Blocking time involves segmenting according to the schedule in 15 minute chunks and assigning something specifically to each of them. Every day, every minute counts, so there is no doubt that the time blocker task must work.
When you are learning something new
Learning new things takes time, so it takes time. If you want to learn a foreign language, for example, you will need a long-term plan. Language learning experts suggest it takes up to 44 weeks ((BBC: language learning secrets - fast)) to reach the middle level. Few, if any, useful skills can be mastered in a day. Their development means putting aside a small amount of time every day to practice, realizing that the fruit of your labor will not be ripe for months to come. Decision of the planned boundaries. One can plan, for example, to know how to conjugate the present tense of verbs after the first week. But it may not be until the fourth week when you learn the last-perfect conjugations. To stay on the track, give yourself small rewards. If you are learning Spanish, you could go to a Mexican restaurant after you have learned common words related to cooking and eating. Once you have mastered past, present and future tenses, you could reward yourself with a trip to Spain.
When you're stressed
Stress makes problems seem bigger than they really are. If you're stressed about a task, be serious about time management. The best way to calm yourself down is to make a plan. Let's say you're worried that the first conversation with a new client will be good. You know that preparation is essential to a positive customer experience. What does this mean in terms of time management? Go ahead and block time to study the score. Make an appointment to speak with an account manager. Give yourself half an hour or more to strategize. Professional psychologist Cary Cooper suggests ((HowStuffWorks: professional psychologist Cary Cooper: lack of control over the impact of stress)) Stress is often associated with situations you can't control. Before you get to this point, be active. Think about how time management can help you avoid a bad outcome, and adjust your schedule to help you get there.
When the likelihood of rejection is high
If you have ever found yourself in a situation where you are likely to fail, you may have heard the saying, “do your best and forget everything else.” Doing all this is actually a euphemism for effective time management. If you develop a plan of action and stick to it strictly, you can forget everything else. Failure happens, and some things are just out of your control. With that said, it is also important to manage time in case of failure. Take time to do a post-mortem: what did you do well? Where do you give time to get away from you? If you find yourself in a similar situation, what would you do differently? Time management is like water conservation: Water may seem like a lot, but you know better than to waste it. Practice being a good steward of your time. When the decisive moment comes, you'll be glad you did.
Additional tips for processing time
- 18 Best Time Management Apps & Tools (2020 Updated)
- 12 Effective Time Management Skills for Executives
- The importance of time management: 8 ways and its questions,