Time management is an important skill that is essential to your results in every aspect of your life. Part of good work ethic is knowledge of how to manage time effectively.

The whole idea of time management may sound vague, as time itself is an abstract noun; however it is very easy to organise your time. Here are some valuable tips on how to manage your time effectively.

Identify the areas of your life where you waste time and take steps to reduce those:

For example, if you identify that you spend a lot of time in the bathroom, staring at the mirror, you can cut this time in half and have an earlier start on your day.

You can also measure this by documenting all your activities for a week in precise detail, and then check this record to determine how you’ve been using, or misusing your time. This helps you manage your time and develop a regular work routine.

Ensure that your work space is tidy because this helps you work efficiently:

You will get more work done in a tidy work space as you will save time otherwise spent searching for documents or stationery buried under a sheaf of paperwork.

Work ahead of schedule so that you can meet your deadlines with ease:

Leaving tasks till the last minute will most likely result in a rushed and half-done job. For example, if you have a research paper to write, write out the structure or first draft as soon as you can, instead of trying to write the whole paper a few days to the deadline.

Set specific goals for yourself:

After evaluating your present position and your projection of what you want to achieve within a period of time. Make sure your actions are designed to bring you closer to your target. That way, you can measure how close you are to achieving your set goals.

Always have a backup plan for each goal you hope to achieve:

The essence of this is for you to have an alternative course of action, in case of delays, change of plans or to maximize the time spent to achieve said thing.

For example if you apply for a job in an organisation that can take from six months to a year to process recruitments, you can spend this time taking a technical, graduate or postgraduate course that will be relevant to your profession and in your prospective role in said organisation.

Put away your phone while working:

It might be a good idea to keep your phone away while working so as to get more working done. Attending to your phone while working can take a significant chunk of your time, you could end up spending more time replying to text messages, emails and going through your social media accounts than you spend on actually getting work done.

Instead, schedule a time for returning calls, replying emails and interact on your social media accounts without having it affect your work time.

Prioritise and focus:

Yes, multitasking is a skill, but you should also be careful not to try to do many things at once, and then end up getting nothing done. This can be likened to being Jack of all trade, master of none. Instead of trying to handle four things at the same time, you could rather start one and work through the others one at a time.

It would also help to determine what tasks deserve your attention in order of their importance or their individual deadlines. Focusing on the one task at hand without fretting over the others will help you get it done faster, allowing you to subsequently do same for others.

Make a habit of key, recurrent tasks:

There are some tasks that are regular and instrumental to your career and profession, instead of seeing them as tasks, make them habits. For example, if you are an athlete of any kind, running is a task you must do every day and it would be better and easier if you made running your habit.

Or as a student who is studying to be a journalist, you must write a lot, by making it a habit by writing every day, you will find it very manageable to write thousands of work per week, in comparison to someone who has not made writing a habit.

Organising your time is very key in your efficiency and effectiveness in discharging your duties at work, school, and with other aspects of your life. Being a hard worker makes you efficient, however, your efficiency will not generate effects if you don’t know how to manage your time and decide on the exact way to sort them in a timely fashion. You can only be effective if you manage your time and efficiency well enough to generate results.