Parlor Talk: Time Management Mastery

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Do you find yourself looking up at the clock during work? Counting every tic, every minute until you can clock out, if so then it sounds like you need to master the art of time management. This column will help you find the best ways to make the most of your time while avoiding common pitfalls that will waste your time, after all, time is money.

First, here are some common pitfalls to keep an eye out for when trying to conquer time management. The most common and simplest one to avoid is staring at the clock, while time is relative, staring at the clock will not make it go any faster and at worst it will make you perceive that time as going slower. Instead, find another task to do or fill the time with some mindful rest. 

Another one of the most common ways to not manage time well is procrastination. Now overcoming procrastination can be a whole other article in itself, but here are some ways to get you out of the procrastination hole. Consider dividing your daily work into smaller more doable tasks that will still garner the same amount of work. For example, if you need to reach out to ten clients, organize a few spreadsheets, and also answer a few emails, Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the weight of everything, divide your time into smaller tasks like first filling out emails, secondly filling out spreadsheets and so on. This helps you get the same amount of work done more efficiently, since smaller tasks are easier to start and less daunting. The faster the work gets done, the more time you will save.

Lastly, another thing to avoid is going to be avoiding multitasking. While it might sound shocking at first, recent research has shown that multitasking can actually hold you back when it comes to being productive by reducing your comprehension, attention, and overall performance. This might be due to the fact that our brains have to keep on switching from one task to another, which our brains are just not wired to do. The best practice is to focus on a single task at once to put all of our brain power behind completing it efficiently and error-free. 

Now that you know what to avoid, here are some strategies to implement into your routine in order to make the most of your time spent. One of the biggest core strategies to get started would be to get organized. Organization is key to doing things neatly and in an orderly manner. 

Organization in itself could also be its own article, but here is an example to give you an idea of how it might work. Say you have a really cluttered email, it takes you longer than you should find your work-related matters and all of the other hundreds of emails you may be receiving. A simple way to organize would be to folders and sort everything out. Work contacts go into the ‘work’ folder, read and unread emails go into separate folders, important contacts get starred. Simple things like this will help out tremendously in saving time.

An additional time-saver is to take breaks when needed. This might also sound a bit controversial, while you are resting you aren't working and when you aren't working things don't get done leading to time wasted. The concern is duly noted, but consider this if you are constantly overworked, overwhelmed, and overstressed while working is the time going to be spent better working yourself into the ground? Or would your time be better spent in taking a quick break, decompressing and relaxing a little and then tackling on your work feeling motivated and refreshed? 

Lastly, another way to save some time, is again to organize, in the sense of scheduling and keeping a time log of your duties for the day. Scheduling your day will again keep you focused on getting things done and also can give you some flexibility to schedule some leisure time. Scheduling with a purpose will have the most impact on your time management skills since it allows you to directly have time slots for your tasks and after having your days blocked off in this way it will have your days going by quicker and have you have more work done. A true win-win situation.

In order to obtain time management mastery, remember to not stare up at the clock, no matter how hard you might stare, the time will not go any faster, instead use the time to organize your work for tomorrow or give yourself some time to rest. Try your best to not fall into a procrastination cycle where nothing gets done and you are just staring at the computer, instead divide up your major task into smaller tasks and get started. While it may be tempting to multitask to get your work done faster this scientifically doesn't seem to be the case, focus on one task at a time. 

Remember to always organize in order to do your work more efficiently and faster. Schedule out your work day and make sure to give yourself a break once in a while so as to not overwork yourself. The organization is king in becoming a master at managing your time effectively.