10 secrets for effective time management

Which is more valuable: time or money? Of course, time. And time is running out irrevocably: you can neither borrow it nor buy it. But you can organize your day so as not to waste it in vain.

Time management is not a superhuman superpower, but a skill. He can be learned. Moreover, it is the most demanded skill in the labor market by employers. Regardless of the position. People who excel at managing their time are less stressed, perform better, and always meet deadlines. If the organization is not your forte yet, follow our 10 tips and you will be considered the superman in the office.

1. Set realistic goals

It is very important to understand what you are striving for. Are you planning to take over the company? Break this goal into several specific actions distributed over time.

For example:

• Update resume
• Improve the level of English (courses, classes with a teacher)
• Learn the topic of personnel management (courses)
• Communication with the right people (conferences, corporate parties, team building)
• Proposal to the management of their candidacy for a vacant position.

Always reward yourself when you reach any link in the goal chain!

2. Make a to-do list

Don’t rely on memory: you risk forgetting an important meeting or missing a task deadline! Use apps like Google Calendar, Todoist, or Evernote to manage your lists. Some people find it convenient to use a color system to rank their tasks.

3. Turn your goal into a habit

To develop a habit, repeat the same tasks every day, at the same time in the same place. For example, you want to improve your written English. How to achieve this? Try reading Jan Eyre in the original every night before bed. Then describe your impressions of the book for half an hour at lunchtime.

4. Prioritize

Use the Eisenhower Matrix to classify tasks by urgency and importance:

• Important and urgent tasks: do it right away.
• Important but non-urgent tasks: consider whether they can be postponed or delegated.
• Unimportant urgent tasks: do them or delegate them right away.
• Useless and non-urgent tasks: forget about them.

5. Accept help

You must know your limits. Don’t take on too much. Under the unbearable burden of tasks, rapid burnout sets in. This will not benefit you or the company. Therefore, learn to say “no” and delegate your tasks.

6. Calculate the time spent on each task.

Try every evening to evaluate how your time was spent during the day. Productive or not? Based on the conclusions made, plan the schedule for the next day.

7. Avoid distractions

During working hours, hide your smartphone somewhere far away. Do not monitor mail every half hour. Believe me, in urgent cases they will find you.

8. Take frequent breaks

After working hard on a task for an hour, take a break to clear your mind.

9. Avoid procrastination

Are you one of those who wrote a thesis the night before the exam? Many people work well under the pressure of last-minute projects. Stress motivates you to be more productive. Trick your brain by dividing the task into its component parts. Set a short time frame for each.

10. Don’t give up!

Our life consists of small and big victories and defeats. Failure is just experience. Don’t focus on them. It is not important how many times you fell along the way, but how quickly you got up and how many times you went later.