Time Management Skills for Busy Professionals

When you become aware of the different “parts” to your work day, you also become more aware of your time, and how you spend your time in each of these areas. To maximize your time management skills, harness control over these five components of each work day:

Assignment and task completion – When you have an overall plan and work with focus on an objective, you’ll complete more tasks in less time. To take it a step further, when you begin to understand how long tasks should take, you’ll be able to implement time blocking.

Go-bag and workspace set up – When your work space is organized, you’ll be more productive because you won’t lose time looking for objects and supplies. Plus, you’ll have fewer distractions. If you’re a road warrior, it’s critical to have your mobile office set up.

Electronic communication – If you let email and text drive your day, you will never get anything done. Ernest Hemingway once said, “Never confuse movement with action.” How true! Just because your eyes are moving and your fingers are typing doesn’t mean you’re accomplishing anything important.

Notes, file and paper management – Even though we’re a digital society, much of what we encounter each day is on paper. That’s why it’s important to have a system in place for your papers. The same concepts can be applied to your digital documents.

Time protection – This is absolutely critical. If you don’t tell your time what to do, then other people will. Protect your time by understanding what your goals, priorities and targets are. Make a conscious effort to review your calendar on a daily basis. When you work with focus, you get more done in less time.