With ever increasing workloads and fierce competition to land that dream role, time management is an essential skill whether you are just starting out in your career, or moving to a new company or position. Learning how to successfully manage your time can determine your success in both career progression and a balanced home life and work life.
When you are just starting out it can be rather stressful taking on a new role and responsibilities. And sometimes the stress can be too much, that you end up seeing your work life slowly encroaching into your personal time too. This is why learning some essential skills, that will enable you to manage your time and responsibilities more effectively, will quickly have you on the road to success in no time at all.
A key component for time management is understanding the role and responsibilities expected from you and those colleagues around you. Understanding what duties you should be performing and what key decisions you will be responsible for will enable you to quickly get on with the tasks in hand. Ideally, a thorough scope of your role should be provided at the outset, but if not, then it is best to clarify these points with your immediate manager.
This may sound obvious, but the next point is to do the urgent and most important tasks first. It some cases it can seem easier to put off those tasks that seem more complicated and difficult, but if they are deemed as urgent then they should become your highest priority. And, by creating a priority list, that only contains those task that are pressing, will mean that you remain focused and less time spent procrastinating.
Remember that your time is precious. When creating your list of things to do, try to allot each task a set amount of time that you wish to spend on it, ensuring that you only allocate more time on those tasks that actually warrant it. You’ll soon realise when to stop taking on tasks that don’t actually contribute to your aims for the day.
I am also a firm believer in the ‘measure twice, cut once’ school of thought. Insofar as you should really be doing things right the first time. Silly mistakes can often mean a lot of backtracking, which will ultimately cost you precious time. And working smarter is always better in the end, that working faster.
Why not check out these time management apps on the marketplace: