One of the most important things you can do for your company is making yourself more productive. One way that’s often overlooked is improving your time management skills. In this article, we’ll explore different techniques and thoughts on how you can become more efficient with only five minutes per day.
- Build a Time Budget
You know the importance of a budget for your money, so why not your time? Finding new ways to get more done in less time is important.
It’s easy to say, “I’ll just work harder,” but this approach is unsustainable (and not very effective). Instead, think of it as a budget: you have 168 hours a week and you want to spend your time wisely. Figure out what tasks are important, set goals for a specific time period, and stick to them.
- List Out All Outstanding Tasks
Capture your outstanding to-do tasks in a written list. You can do it on paper or use a smartphone app to collect tasks whenever they come to mind easily. Getting your tasks out of your mind and into a single location is a good way to regain control of your workweek.
- Prioritize Your Tasks
Once you have a list of all the tasks you need to do, categorize them by importance and urgency so that you can remove any doubt about what needs to get done right away. Make sure that this is in priority order from top (most important), using a tool such as the Eisenhower Matrix.
- Estimate the Time That You Need to Complete Each Task
Once you have a list of tasks and understand how important they are, it’s time to estimate the time that each task will take. This part of the process is probably going to be the most challenging.
- Plan Your Work Week Around the Most Important Tasks
Once you estimate how much time each task will take, it’s time to plan out your week. When planning this week, make sure that the top tasks on your list are completed in priority order.
Then, get to work and watch your tasks get scratched off fast!