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Good morning! Here's how you can have a productive day!
5 really simple time management tips to enhance your productivity at the workplace
Employees stuck in a 9 to 5 job often complain about working long hours and not being left with time to do other things. Working in the office requires a professional to manage time judiciously so that s/he can complete her/his work and socialise to develop a professional network while also taking healthy breaks to remain rejuvenated.
In order to take out time for additional tasks you need to juggle between chores for which you must prioritise work and most importantly, manage your time effectively!
All employees are given equal number of hours to work. While some manage to show their calibre in the stipulated hours, others may barely touch the borderline or may even fail to accomplish the tasks in the same duration.
The following points will offer helpful tips for those who wish to learn the art of time management.
1. Prioritise to complete most crucial tasks first
The golden rules of time management include prioritisation and scheduling. Make sure you spend the first 30 minutes of your day to plan it out.
You must identify a couple of tasks that are important, assign them a specific number of hours and finish them off one by one.
The first step towards this is to create a list of things to do. Keep it short with only three to four items.
It will prevent you from getting intimidated by a long list of things on your agenda.
Once these tasks are completed, you can move on to the less important things. The main objective is to eliminate the non-essential.
Devika Arora is a professional writer and blogger with special focus on career building and job search. She is currently working with Naukrigulf.com, a job search portal addressing employment needs in the Middle East.
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2. Muster the courage to say 'No'
Making several commitments can create unrealistic perceptions and lead to disappointments.
Even if you want to excel and give your 100 per cent, you will someday have to learn to say ‘No’ to extra work.
It is okay to decline a few opportunities if it helps you take the burden off and helps you focus on more important tasks (prioritise, remember?). Your ultimate aim should be to take on commitments that you truly care about and are sure you can finish in time.
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3. Focus on the task at hand
If you find it difficult to get your work done because of disturbance you can begin by discouraging disruptions. This is a useful technique when you require deep concentration for a couple of hours.
Transfer your phone calls to voice mail and temporarily turn off your email notifications.
Check the messages only in the morning, post lunch and in the evening.
This way you will be able to address significant issues and yet have quality time to do real work. It is also important that you shut the browser windows that are currently not being used or have social networking sites opened on them.
And most importantly, sign out of that instant messenger.
If you find it difficult to shut people out, wear earphones so that they think you are listening to music and don’t try to strike unnecessary conversations with you. This way you will also be dealing with the ambient noise.
The trick is to immerse yourself in work until you finish what is important.
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4. Turn regular tasks into habits
As an employee, you would have been assigned certain tasks that are recurring in nature and have been doing over a period of time. Things like these that you do every day should become regular habits.
Once you start viewing them as a habit, the task will instantly become manageable as you are accustomed to it and it rarely breaks the routine or surprises you. It will come naturally to you and you shall begin to do it fluently without taking any pressure.
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5. Pause and take buffer-time between errands
When you rush from one task to another, it becomes difficult to give quality and appreciate what you are doing.
Allow yourself downtime between two tasks and take a breath of fresh air to rejuvenate and refresh yourself.
Take a short walk, talk to people around, meditate or perform some mind-clearing exercises.
The given tips will help you get organised and wrap up work in time. You can then make good use of the available time to do activities that you enjoy or educate yourself in hope of professional growth.