For many of us, life is lived on a schedule – whether it’s work, school runs or social engagements. While some people seem to be able to effortlessly manage their time, research by Zippia suggests that 82% of people don’t have a time management system.
And with so much to do and so little time to do it, it’s easy for us to lose focus, miss important deadlines, or feel stressed and overworked. But how do we know whether it’s at least in part down to ourselves?
Well, we all feel busy, but not everyone is productive – and there’s a big difference between the two! This is where testing your time management skills can provide valuable insights. By evaluating how you prioritize, plan, and execute your tasks, you can identify areas for improvement and regain control over your schedule.
A simple way is to test your skills, which will give you a heads-up on whether you’re approaching things in the right or wrong way. And for the sake of a few minutes spent answering questions, you’ll be able to assess your current habits and get a roadmap for building a healthier work-life balance.
Once you’ve done this, you can also take a look at some common problems that you may not have thought about before.
1. Dear Diary
When starting to test your time management skills, the first step is to physically figure out how well you manage to complete all your daily tasks … and when you need to.
To do this, each day for a week, make notes about your time-keeping including:
- Was I late at any point – for example; getting to work, taking kids to school or meeting a friend?
- Were there any tasks I failed to complete resulting in a loss or disappointment?
- Were there any tasks I failed to complete that I had to move to the following day?
- Did I find I needed to delegate a task – for example, at work – because I ran out of time?
2. Cause and Effect
Now you’ve identified the cases where you haven’t been ason top of your time as you wanted (or needed), take a look at the reasons for each. Such reasons might include:
- I take on too much and therefore struggle to complete everything
- I get distracted easily by things like social media and lose track of time
- I don’t properly calculate how long something – a journey or a task – will actually take to complete
- I put off unpleasant tasks until I no longer have enough time to complete them
3. The People Problem
Often, our time management skills are directly influenced by others! So make a note if any of the following sound familiar:
- I often help other people with tasks even when I have lots to do myself
- I have a habit of allowing others to distract me
- I prefer to complete tasks myself instead of delegating to others
- I find it difficult to say no to others
4. Time-Sucking Routines
Our routines are often formed over a long period and, as a consequence, will sometimes include activities which, quite frankly, are unnecessary. Maybe they were some time ago, but not any more. Some examples might be:
- Having lunch with a colleague each day when you could, perhaps, spend your lunch break catching up a bit
- Doing busywork around the house that could be done more efficiently just once or twice a week instead of daily
- Daily visits to the shops to pick up ad hoc items
All these things can add up to chunks of time which could be better invested elsewhere.
5. The Reward System
Often, we fall into a habit whereby we feel that we need to reward ourselves for completing small tasks. For example; we may decide to treat ourselves to a coffee break after having completed the laundry. This is usually a very good idea, but it isn’t always too productive! So make a note of how many times you do this during the average day … and you may be surprised at how much time is wasted here.
Improving Your Time Management Skills
We’ve talked about some of the things that may be contributing to your time management issues and, now, we’ll tackle some ways to make improvements:
Invest in a day planner – Putting the things that you need to do in writing can help to solidify them – as can creating proper schedules. A day planner will help you to structure your day; and give you the satisfaction of ticking off completed items.
Be strict with yourself and others – Nobody is saying that you shouldn’t make time for your loved ones but this shouldn’t be to the detriment of your own responsibilities. Be firm about allocating specific times for chats rather than allowing others to monopolise your time when you’re busy.
Invest in yourself – While the tips highlighted in this article should help get your time management on the right track, you may want to take your skills further. A time management course can help you to understand your habits and routines – and then fix them. Even if you feel that your time management skills are pretty good, a course can fine tune them to make your days more efficient.
All In Good Time
As time goes on, our lives seem to get busier than ever before, and it’s easy to let time get away from you. Although this is normal at a basic level, it can cause problems if it’s allowed to build up. In fact,constant time management issues will lead to stress, anxiety, missed opportunities and = yes – relationship or career issues if not reined in.
While some people may dismiss bad time-keeping as “just the way I am”, it doesn’t have to be – in fact it shouldn’t be – that way. By learning new habits and perhaps taking that online course we mentioned, it’s more than possible to take back your time – and your life!
