Find out how effective your time management skills are—and how they can be improved.
Do you think you have good time management skills? Or do you have this never-ending feeling that there are never enough hours in the day?
Here are 15 ways you know you are good at managing your time.
1. You have rated each of your tasks which you are working on with a scale of high, medium, or low importance.
2. When you receive a new assignment you analyze it to start with to determine the level of importance and prioritize it accordingly.
3. You don’t find yourself stressing about deadlines and commitments you have to complete.
4. You work on the tasks of the highest priority first.
5. You aren’t affected by distractions that keep you from working on critical tasks.
6. You have time set aside in your day for schedule planning.
7. You don’t need to take work home with you to get it done, or save it to complete another day.
8. You set goals for yourself to help you prioritize the activities and tasks you should work on first.
9. You are able to put off interruptions and deal with them after you have completed your tasks.
10. Before you begin a task you make sure that the results are going to be worth your time.
11. You have prioritized your to-do list or action plan which helps you complete your tasks in a much more timely manner.
12. You go over your priorities with your boss or members of your household to make sure you’re on track and everyone is on the same page.
13. You have time set aside in your schedule to deal with unexpected things which might arise.
14. You know how much time it takes you to complete various jobs that you have to do.
15. You complete tasks in a timely manner and don’t need any extensions.
If you do all of these things all the time, then you are a rare diamond in the rough. Most people do have difficulty achieving everything on the above list. There’s also always something you can do better, so check out some areas that you still might need improvement in.
Areas Where You Can Improve Your Time Management
Goal setting
It is important to set goals for yourself and whatever projects you are working on. This will help you know the order of importance in which you need to do things in and also determine how long it will take you to complete them.
Prioritizing
Knowing what is of the utmost importance to complete in any given task will help tremendously in time management. To-do lists are a great tool, but only if they are put together by order of importance. So make sure you spend time figuring out what you must complete first and then do it.
Manage interruptions
You can’t get anything done if you’re constantly getting interrupted. That’s why it’s important that you have tools to manage interruptions. If that means shutting off the phone for an hour or so a day, then do it, but be sure to use that hour wisely.
Scheduling
This is what time management is all about. Create your schedule by anticipating interruptions. This way you hopefully won’t end up getting off schedule ever, therefore avoiding a whole lot of stress.
Procrastination
Putting off work leads to far too many incomplete tasks and far too much stress. It’s important that if you’re a procrastinator, you work on improving that.
Working on these areas of time management will make you much more effective at work and home and you’ll feel much less stressed. So now how good is your time management?
About the Author
Ian Miller is editor of CSM, the website and community for customer service professionals.
