Top tips for effective time management

Time management is one of the most crucial skills you can develop to increase your efficiency and productivity, no matter what industry you’re working in. Here at Everything Counts, we realize that optimizing your work style in the little things can lead to big changes for you and your team. That’s why we’re here to give you a few tips to help you work on your time management.

Schedule some regular short breaks. Many people looking to up their productivity have turned to tricks such as the Pomodoro Technique for decade. The Pomodoro Technique involves setting a timer to break your work into twenty five minute intervals, with five minute breaks in between. This can turn even huge tasks into manageable chunks, and programs in breaks just long enough to reset and recenter yourself without losing your progress.

Be careful about multitasking. Multitasking can be very tempting when your to-do list starts looking a little long. And sometimes it’s even necessary. But more often than not, you’re better off taking a deep breath and taking down your tasks one at a time. Juggling too many things at once can shatter your focus and momentum. No matter how many fires it feels like you need to put out, sometimes it’s counterproductive to let yourself get pulled in too many directions.

Know your limits. Don’t bite off more then you can chew and get burnt out. Learn to say no when someone approaches you with a new task when your plate is full. You know best what you have time for. Learn how to politely decline tasks or delegate them to your coworkers in order to be able to handle your most important tasks efficiently and without wearing yourself thin.

Make a schedule and stick to it (if you can). Planning can help you keep on task and on schedule. Setting yourself up for success before you even get started can be key to working effectively. But then again, we all know that plans that sound great on paper don’t always work in practice. Have a structure, but don’t be rigid. If something urgent comes up, don’t sweat deviating from the plan too much.

Improving your time management means not only boosting your productivity, but also making sure you’re attending to your wellness. You can’t have one without the other when it comes to making your time at work count.