7 Keys to Manage Your Time Well
We’re constantly exposed to countless distractors that can affect our performance, and this is why it’s vital to make good use of certain keys to manage your time well. You have to be aware that the day only has 24 hours, and only usually 8 are working hours, so it’s good to take advantage of them.
It’s normal for problems of a personal, financial or work nature to affect us and prevent us from staying focused on our duties or obligations. However, not fulfilling these responsibilities on time can become a stressor that increases your problems and leads to anxiety.
But this is not all, not managing your time well can lead you to feel that you can never do other things, affecting your physical and mental health. In fact, studies have indicated that many factors can prevent stress, including the realization of physical exercise, time planning, and a good use of free time.
What is procrastination?
You’ve probably heard of the term procrastination and its association with wasting time. One of the main keys to manage your time well is not to fall prey to it. But what is procrastination? Some articles have described it as the postponement of our responsibilities voluntarily or involuntarily.
So, be aware of this bad habit and you’ll realize how your time can be so much more productive.
7 keys to manage your time well
As you can see, it isn’t just about taking time to fulfill your duties to show that you are a good employee or student. Behind this action is the opportunity to devote time to the things that generate pleasure and tranquility such as looking after yourself and carrying out leisure activities.
Here are the seven keys to managing time that can be very useful and turn your life around:
1. Identify what leads you to waste time
What makes you procrastinate? That’s the question you must answer in order to identify everything that wastes your valuable time. Scientific studies have agreed that screens such as cell phones and tablets are a great distraction factor, especially during different learning processes.
Currently, these devices offer us a lot of information that could be useful to carry out our tasks. However, we must also control the amount of time we use them, especially if they’re linked to our social networks, as notifications can be a constant distraction.
2. Prioritize your tasks and accomplish them
This is one of the most important keys. If we start to count all the tasks that we have to accomplish in a certain period, then we would need twice as long to do them all. However, making a list of tasks in which the urgent and the important are prioritized will allow us to fulfill everything on time and without investing more time than necessary.
So, every day, make your list in hierarchical order, starting with the urgent tasks – ones you need to do almost immediately. Follow this with the important ones – tasks which you have to complete by a certain date. Remember to remove the completed activities from the list as you complete them.
3. Establish execution times
As we touched on in the previous key, it’s important to establish the length of time that each task will take. It will be pointless to make a list if the first task is going to take you all day, unless absolutely necessary.
Additionally, if you have suddenly freed up time due to a meeting being canceled, don’t use this time to immerse yourself in social networks – don’t waste the time! Use these dead times to perform tasks that you have identified that won’t require too much time – these are also called micro tasks.
4. Manage your emails properly
Depending on your position, profession, or trade, email can become your biggest distraction. If the amount of emails increases faster than you can read, use labels and folders that allow you to identify the priority of each one, so when the time comes to review it, you’ll be able to solve the requests according to their character.
5. Schedule your commitments and respect them
Don’t procrastinate! In your list of daily tasks, you should consider commitments such as meetings, visits to clients, or academic tasks, depending on your occupation.
If these commitments are already scheduled, you must respect them, postponing them will only be a sign that you haven’t been able to manage your time well enough to respect what you have proposed.
This schedule of commitments should also be used to write down your meetings with friends, time for sport, and other activities.
6. Don’t do everything at once
They call them the multitasking generation – all those people, especially young people, who perform more than one task at the same time. Sounds seductive, right? Yes of course! We all wish we had the ability to multitask and finish our to-do list in no time.
Although it sounds very tempting, few people have the ability to ensure that all these things they do at the same time work out well. The mind wanders, not knowing what to focus on, nor recognizing what to finish first. Ultimately, if you jump from one task to another, you’ll start several different activities and never finish any of them.
So, as we already said, take care to carry out each of the tasks and do it in the best possible way. In this way, you’ll avoid setbacks, and having to go over things that were supposed to have been completed well.
7. Avoid organizing too many meetings
Meetings tend to cause the same problems as emails. They come one after another, and, for that reason, it’s vital to learn to identify the meetings that are essential to carry out your work efficiently. If you see that you have been included in a meeting that has nothing to do with you, or that you know won’t be a productive use of your time, then learn to say no.
If you’re a leader, boss, or manager, then it’s a good idea to delegate participation to your teammates or collaborators. The same applies to other activities that you should be aware of, but that don’t actually need your attendance. Of course, you need to be careful that you don’t overload your team and put obstacles in their time management.
Identify your own keys to manage time
So, what did you think of all these keys to manage your time well? Put them into practice every day and you’ll see that, little by little, you’ll be managing your time in the most efficient way possible.
In addition, you can establish your own keys and keep the ones that help you to avoid procrastination best, and leave you with quality free time for yourself.
- Wallis, C. (2006). The Multitasking Generation. [Versión electrónica], Time, 167(13), 1-5.
- Naranjo Pereira, María Luisa (2009). UNA REVISIÓN TEÓRICA SOBRE EL ESTRÉS Y ALGUNOS ASPECTOS RELEVANTES DE ÉSTE EN EL ÁMBITO EDUCATIVO. Revista Educación, 33(2),171-190.[fecha de Consulta 14 de Marzo de 2021]. ISSN: 0379-7082. Disponible en: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=440/44012058011
- Araujo Robles, E. D. (2016). Indicadores de adicción a las redes sociales en universitarios de Lima. Revista Digital de
Investigación en Docencia Universitaria, 10(2),48-58. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.19083/ridu.10.494 - Paredes, Nivia & Pantoja, Silvia & Malpica, Dinora. (2018). Uso del teléfono celular como distractor del proceso enseñanza – aprendizaje. Enfermería Investiga: Investigación, Vinculación, Docencia y Gestión. 3. 166-171. 10.29033/ei.v3n4.2018.02.
- Carranza, Renzo, & Ramírez, Arlith (2013). PROCRASTINACIÓN Y CARACTERÍSTICAS DEMOGRÁFICAS ASOCIADOS EN ESTUDIANTES UNIVERSITARIOS. Apuntes Universitarios. Revista de Investigación, III(2),95-108.[fecha de Consulta 14 de Marzo de 2021]. ISSN: 2225-7136. Disponible en: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=4676/467646127006
