Time Management Skills
Table of Contents
Introduction
There are different life skills one needs to adopt or acquire that can contribute to life success and time management is one of those skills. Time management is the ability to effectively use time in such a way that you do not get exhausted even if you have a lot on your plate.
Time management is a skill that can only be acquired if practiced. The ability to manage time also takes discipline. When you possess this skill, it tells in everything you do and makes people respect your time even more.
What is Time Management?
Time management can be defined as a process that entails the proper use of time, planning, and deliberate effort to allocate certain amount of time to different activities. Time management is a skill that is always used whenever people intend to achieve a certain goal.
It is usually used to enable effectiveness, productivity and to instill discipline in people, especially a team of people in a working environment. Time management as a skill is also used by individuals who deem it fit to improve on their output and their way of life.
Time management skills involves the act of multi-tasking, juggling between activities to meet a set target. Most times people tend to be more productive when they have a set time target to meet. Having time management skills gives you the ability to respect time and not waste it on irrelevant and less productive activities.
In managing time and planning time, some things are actually necessary for consideration as they help you stay on track. These include;
Drawing a priority list: When attempting to plan and manage time, one has to consider what things are important, and less important in a hierarchical order. With this, time will be spent only on important things. When placing activities on a list of priorities, it can help determine what things can be done in a later time or date. With drawing a priority list, you are sure to spend time wisely.
Creating a conducive environment: An environment where you know can support your productivity within a set time or target is one to have in mind when planning your time. Depending on preferences and personality types, some people are more productive when they work alone while others are more conscious when they have people around them.
Some people have absolutely no problems working in a noisy space while that is a big issue for some people. You want to be sure of what works for you when planning your time.
What are Time Management Skills?
Time management skills are those practices one can indulge in to actually have a productive and effective time schedule.
List of Time Management Skills
Some of the most important time management skills you can actually practice are;
Delegating: To have an effective time management schedule, it is important to learn to delegate things to people, especially when there is a set target to meet and you know a task is not an area of strength for you. Delegation makes work easy.
Decision making: In ever thing we do, we are always stuck at the point where we need to make decisions. The ability to make swift and reasonable decisions can save us a lot of time. Too many times, the time we spend contemplating and counting cost could be used to do more productive things. If we can learn to make decisions, we will be practicing a very important time management skill.
Record Keeping: After time is planned things have been drawn on a priority list, it is of utmost importance that we keep track or a record of the things we have successfully achieved and can check on our list. This way, we can be motivated to complete even more tasks, especially of we notice we are right on time.
Goal Setting: Goal setting is primary when it comes to time management skills. This in particular works hand in hand with time itself. With set goals, one has a set time for a group of activities to be done. Goal setting helps you to pay little or no attention to things that are not on the plan.
Multitasking: A person who is good at multitasking will do a great job managing time and being productive. Multitasking is a skill, it is the ability to be involved in achieving varieties of activities at the same time. When you multitask, you show competence and managing time and can actually save time. What is most important in multitasking is being especially productive in the said activities.
Scheduling: This is equally an important time management skill. Scheduling is allocating different activities to be achieved at different times. It could be to cook a meal at a particular time or to prepare a document within a set period of time.
When you schedule, you want to be sure you do not get engaged in a different activity that is set for another time. If activities are misplaced probably because if distraction, you just might be managing your time wrongly.
In conclusion, time management is an important life skill. With time management, you are sure to not be late for meeting because you would have prioritized activities for the day and set goals for things to be achieved, whether within a year or on a daily basis.
