How To Better Manage Time At Work: 12 Tips (and What To Avoid)
It has happened to all of us that we have a lot of work to do and it seems that there are not enough hours to finish it. “Buff, I don’t have time…” we say to ourselves but, let’s be honest, we all have the same 7 days with 24 hours each. The problem is not that there is no time, it is that we planned it poorly.
How to better manage time at work is a question that all of us in a hurry have asked ourselves and below we are going to see strategies to achieve this, as well as how to prevent our hours from disappearing as fluidly as the grains do in an hourglass.
How to better manage time at work and perform better
Our weeks have 7 days and each of them has 24 hours, not one more nor one less. Time is the same for everyone in terms of quantity, but not in its use. Some manage to do all the tasks they must without missing time to dedicate to their leisure and family, while others finish their obligations very late Because? What differentiates one from the other? The key to all this is how differently we manage our work time.
In the society in which we live, it is essential to manage time, since with the slightest lack we begin to overload ourselves, feel stress and notice how everything we wanted to do has to be cancelled.
Work obligations come before our hobbies, family, friends and other pleasant activities, which means that the longer it takes us to do our work, the less we will enjoy leisure. Poor time management frustrates us and makes us feel like we are wasting our life.
How to better manage time at work is something that many want but few achieve. There is no incomprehensible mystery, it is simply a matter of learning to organize Of course, unforeseen events can always occur, but the majority of the hours that we see passing are time that, well spent, will allow us to finish our work tasks as soon as possible.
Ways to manage time better
Below we will see several tips and strategies to make the most of your time at work, in order to have more time for those pleasant activities that we want to do once we have finished our work obligations.
1. Use an agenda
Agendas allow us to manage time in the medium and long term by setting important dates and keeping them well in mind. Whether in digital or physical format, The important thing is that we have one to organize tasks and plan well when we have to deliver reports or meet our deadlines We must always have it at hand, to write down all our commitments and consult it frequently. Let’s not trust our memory because, no matter how much we believe it is infallible, it is not.
If we work without rest and continuously, sooner or later physical and mental fatigue will appear, which will prevent us from performing properly. For this reason, it is necessary to assign a certain time to each activity and leave some free time between tasks, even if it is very short. This may seem contradictory, but taking into account that beyond 50 minutes it is difficult for us to remain focused, a short break can recharge us and make us continue working satisfactorily.
The ideal is to put in our schedule when we start doing each of the tasks that have been assigned to us and when we should take a short break We can base it on the Pomodoro method, working for 25 minutes (1 pomodoro) or 50 (2 pomodoros) and then taking a 5-minute break between periods. This way we will be able to move forward without feeling exhausted, adequately carrying out the functions that we have to develop.
3. Set goals
It is highly recommended to set daily, weekly and even monthly goals. This strategy is a very good option to carry out short jobs correctly, plus it motivates us to see how much we are achieving. These objectives must be ambitious, but also realistic and achievable since, otherwise , seeing that we are not complying with them we are going to become demotivated. The objectives to be set must be short, medium and long term.
4. Prioritize tasks
Not all tasks have the same importance. We must start with the most important ones, the most priority ones. It doesn’t matter the order in which we prioritize things, The important thing is that we do it since finishing the most important things sooner will mean that we will have free time sooner
Anything that is small or that is not urgent to solve can wait. In relation to this, it is essential to know which hours of our best performance are, those in which we concentrate best, in order to be able to do the tasks that require the most resources from us with the greatest possible efficiency and without errors. The least important thing is better to leave it at times when our performance is not very high usually after eating or at the last hours of the work day.
5. Start at least pleasant
On many occasions we leave what we least want to do until last and that is a big mistake. The best thing we can do is do what is a pain for us as soon as possible because, this way, we will get it out of our hands sooner and we will be able to enjoy the rest of the day. If we get rid of what stresses us first, the rest of the things to do will be easier to do.
6. Divide time into blocks
A very good strategy to take advantage of and efficiently manage time is to divide the work day into blocks. If we have to do complex tasks, which at first glance make us not want to start them, we can always break them down into simpler tasks, organized in such a way that each small step is progress. By converting complex tasks into several simpler ones, we can optimize resources, save time and organize our time better
Although we should not abuse it, we can reward ourselves for doing tasks. We can give ourselves small rewards such as, for example, having a chocolate bar when finishing a report, reading a book we like for half an hour, watching a video that interests us… These small prizes will encourage and motivate us to do and finish the tasks we have to do
8. Organize a good work environment
The place where we work is very important, more than we think. To the extent we can, we should work in a place with a good desk, a comfortable chair, good lighting and without many distractions We can give it a personal touch to make it cozy but always making sure it is tidy and well organized. A table full of paperwork, with office instruments completely disorganized, is an environment that prevents us from concentrating on our tasks.
9. Set limits
Spending several hours in a row doing the same thing, without getting up from your chair or even stretching your legs a little, is very bad for our health and productivity. By working more hours we are not going to do things better. If we see that a task is taking too much time or that we are easily distracted, let’s take some time, either changing tasks for a while or directly resting. It’s not that we are abandoning what we were doing, it’s that we needed to leave it on stand-by for a while
10. Avoid multitasking
But in the same way that it is okay to leave a task half done for a while, we should not think that we are going to work well if we constantly jump from task to task. Concentrating is something that takes time, so we cannot dedicate ourselves to doing two tasks alternately at the same time, since the only thing we are going to achieve is get tired very quickly and it will take twice as long to do them. Multitasking is the worst enemy of efficient management weather. Performance is much higher when we focus on a single task.
11. Don’t be afraid to say no
It is essential to learn to say no when we cannot do something because we already have a lot of work Sometimes our colleagues try to burden us with their obligations, or even our boss abuses his situation and gives us tasks that it is impossible for us to finish today without sacrificing part of our free time. Sometimes it can be accepted, but it is always overkill. If we see that they are asking too much of us, we should not be afraid to say no.
12. Delegate to third parties
Sometimes we can feel that the situation is overwhelming us, especially if we have been given many tasks, more than we expected. It is important to avoid stress and delegate some of our tasks to a colleague or subordinate, without abusing trust or going overboard or giving them a task for which they have not been hired. The point is not to make someone else do our part, but send activities that it is difficult for us to do completely on our own
What takes up our time: errors and distractions at work
Now that we have seen 12 tips to learn to better manage time at work, the time has come to see what takes up our time. There are several errors and distractions that hinder our good performance while at work, time thieves that, if detected, will allow us to manage our work day in the best way.
1. Interruptions
It is clear that interruptions are what ruins our time organization the most. The slightest thing that interrupts us, our concentration fades , making us need a few valuable minutes to be able to concentrate on what we were doing again. The longer it takes us to regain concentration, the longer it will take us to become productive again, and we also run certain risks of making more mistakes.
2. Mobile phone
The telephone takes up a lot of our time. Whether it is to gossip about the latest thing someone has posted on Instagram, what our friends write to us on WhatsApp or a call from a family member, the cell phone distracts us and prevents us from being efficient and of course, the longer it takes us to do things.
A good idea is to turn off your cell phone However, given that we live in a hyperconnected society and that we depend a lot on it, the best thing we can do is remove it from our field of vision so that we only remember it when we see it. It is also very important to leave it in silence and tell our family and friends very clearly that if it is not to notify us of a real emergency, they should not call us.
3. Postpone tasks
Postponing unpleasant or complex tasks is the worst thing we can do because the more time passes, the less desire we will have to do them and the more it will cost us to do them well when we decide to do it. The best thing we can do, as we have mentioned before, is to do them right at the first moment of the day because this way we get rid of the bad news as soon as possible.
Summary
If we want to manage time at work better, it is essential that we know what we have to do, structure tasks into small activities that are easy and quick to do and start at least pleasant. It is very important to take into account what times of the day we are most productive and put the simplest and least important activities in those when it is more difficult for us to concentrate, such as after eating or at the end of the workday.
Distractions, especially interruptions and cell phones, are what do the most damage to our time management because the more times we lose concentration, the less productive we will be It is essential to work in a comfortable room, where we are isolated from any non-urgent distraction and we are very clear when is the most appropriate time to use the cell phone. Our loved ones should know what time we work, telling them that during that time they should not call us unless it is for something very important.
