Why is time management important?

Introduction

Something I have learned here in Proakatemia is time management and its importance of it. We, people, are very busy in our day-to-day lives. We have twenty-four hours in a day, and we certainly cannot achieve all of our goals in one day, sometimes it feels impossible to manage our time and it might feel like chaos. Time management plays a huge role in our professional and personal life. Time management creates great discipline, it is a crucial skill for students to learn, and learning it as a student will simplify your professional life later on.

Tools and strategies

Starting the day off by making a plan or making it the night before could improve the amount you get done in a day. A physical to-do list on paper is the simplest way and a great technique but it makes a huge difference in your motivation.

Prioritizing your tasks on the to-do list. There are many tools you can use to prioritize tasks, one of my favorites that I have learned here in Proakatemia is that Toni Lehtimäki has taught us about The Eisenhower Decision Matrix. If it is urgent and important do this task first, if something is important but not urgent it must be completed before becoming an urgent task.

Personally, when I have a lot of large projects to accomplish it makes me feel overwhelmed by the amount of work there is to do and it makes me procrastinate. Dividing large tasks into smaller ones is very helpful because it makes the task feel easier to start and the large task as a whole does not make you feel overwhelmed when you are starting with smaller tasks.

Multitasking makes you less productive, make sure you do one project at a time. If you have a lot of tasks that are similar in a way you should try doing them at the same time. It takes a lot of brainpower to switch from one task to another that has no similarities.

The most challenging thing about getting things done is distractions. We constantly want to check our social media or what our friends have sent us on TikTok, that’s a problem when you are trying to get things done. Turning off our phone or putting it in airplane mode or nowadays phones even have a do not disturb button. Let’s say you want to work for 2 hours straight with no distractions from your phone. You can set a timer on your phone and put it somewhere you cannot see it. Once the timer is up, you can check your phone again.

Email is also a distraction when you are trying to get stuff done. Set a specific time for when you check your emails during the day or check them when you have completed your urgent tasks. Let your co-workers know you have a set time when you check your emails so there aren’t any misunderstandings.

Review your day

At the end of the day, it is time to reflect on your accomplishments and how you managed your time. Look at your to-do list or your Eisenhower chart and see what you managed to do. You can self-reflect on how you managed your time and did you get done what needed to be done.

Looking at the bigger picture- Take a look at how your schedule and due dates look like in your calendar, you can easily overload yourself with work and projects and that will cause burnout.

Relaxing and recharging

We, humans, need rest, at some point, you need to drop your work and take a break, go for a walk, or just sleep. Being exhausted brings down your motivation and you won’t be able to give 100% of yourself to the tasks. You could give yourself a time every day when you take a longer break for a recharge.

Conclusion

Time management is an effective way to get stuff done! There is nothing but benefits to time management, it decreases stress, increases productivity, clear goals to help reach your goal faster improves the quality of work, improves self-discipline greatly and lastly you have better workplace relationships.

References

https://www.upwork.com/resources/time-management-strategies

https://www.brainbridge.be/en/news/10-reasons-why-time-management-is-important

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/benefits-of-time-management

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBM2k2zp-MQ