Employee Productivity is one of the key areas where management focuses and is one of the core factors on which employee is appraised. Time management is the art and skill of organizing, managing and allocating your time to activities and hence meet your desired goals. To cut short, it is nothing but to be more productive.
There are numerous benefits of efficiently managing your time at work. To quote a few key ones:
I. Highest priority goals are achieved.
II. Avoids work stress
III. Improves on-the-job performance
IV. Balances personal and professional life.
V. Boosts your confidence.
Below are 5 key steps you should take to efficiently manage your time:
1. Analyze how you spend your time
Create an activity log. It is nothing but a simple list of activities you do in the day and how much time you spent on each activity. Also rate the activity with either A/B/C in terms of its relevance to your job. Here ‘A’ are high priority activities – the ones which are utmost critical in meeting your work goals. Take up these activities when you are most productive during the day. ‘B’ category are those activities which are important but are not urgent. So you can devote time to these when you are not that productive. ‘C’ category activities are time wasters and can be avoided.
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2. Prioritize your Activities.
3. Learn to say ‘No’
Do you have friends at work who randomly visit your desk for chit-chat? Does your boss have a habit of scheduling unnecessary meetings in the morning? Is your peer asking for your help when you yourself have a lot of deliverables to be met? You have to politely refuse to all of these interferences at work. A ‘Do not disturb’ sign at your desk can help your friends understand that you are available for gossips during tea/coffee breaks. Ask your boss if you can skip those meetings where you do not have much to contribute. Explain him/her your key deliverables that are to be met. Learn to delegate.
4. Avoid Procrastination
5. Avoid Switching Costs
There could be a lot of distractions at work like, addressing a notification on your phone, chatting to a visitor at your desk. Such distractions make you review your work and get the entire context of where you were into your work before the distraction. This is what is referred to as switching costs. Avoid anything that can distract you when you are into some serious thinking or work that requires analysis. This could make you 20-40% more efficient.
Jitu is Co-Founder of Mantras2Success. He has Engineering & MBA degrees to his name, along with 10+ years of corporate work experience in fortune 500 companies. Jitu is passionate about improving the careers of the modern day professional. He would be reading books or watching documentaries if not fulfilling his dreams at Mantras2Success.