Do you feel like you never have enough hours in a day to accomplish what you need to? Do you often feel stressed and overwhelmed by the amount of work on your plate? If so, you might need to review your time management skills.
As someone who previously struggled with poor time management skills, I decided to conduct a self-assessment to help me identify areas I could improve on. In this article, I’ll share the process I went through to complete my time management self-assessment and the results of that assessment. Here are eight key takeaways from my experience:
Define Your Priorities
The first step in identifying how to manage your time appropriately is understanding what activities contribute most to achieving your goals. I started by defining my priorities in terms of both work and personal life. This enabled me to allocate the appropriate amount of time to the most important things.
Use Time Management Tools And Techniques
There are hundreds of tools and techniques available to help improve time management skills, from simple to-do lists to sophisticated software such as Asana or Trello. I used a mix of these during my assessment, including the Pomodoro Technique, which involves breaking work down into 25-minute intervals with short breaks in between.
Eliminate Time-Wasting Activities
We all have habits and activities that don’t add value and instead take up valuable time, such as aimlessly scrolling through social media or watching excessive TV. I found taking part in activities like this tended to have a domino effect on my time, causing me to be less productive. Therefore, I established specific rules to help me reduce (and in some cases eliminate) these time-wasting activities.
Establish Deadlines And Set Limits
We often feel under pressure when we have deadlines to meet, and these can sometimes cause stress and anxiety. However, I found that if I simply established deadlines for myself, I was more likely to complete a task on schedule. Setting limits for the amount of time I spent on any one activity also helped me stay productive.
Recognize Your Body’s Natural Rhythms
Different people have different natural rhythms – some may function best in the morning, while others work better at night. I spent some time observing my own rhythms – and that of my team – to identify when we performed best. This helped me schedule tasks accordingly, avoiding the less-productive periods of the day.
Collaborate And Delegate
One of the biggest challenges I faced when I started my self-assessment was that I often felt like I had to do everything myself. But I’ve since learned the importance of delegating tasks to other team members or outsourcing to virtual assistants. I’ve also made an effort to collaborate more with my colleagues.
Evaluate Your Progress
It’s important to track your progress as you work towards improving your time management skills. One of the ways I did this was by conducting a daily review of my activities, and I also took time out to evaluate my performance over a longer period. This step helped me identify areas of improvement and track my progress.
You might find these FREE courses useful
- Free Time Management Tutorial – Effective Time Management for Employees
- Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity
- Strategic Career Self-Management
- Engineering Project Management: Scope, Time and Cost Management
Maintain A Work-Life Balance
The most important factor in good time management is maintaining a balance between your work and personal life. This, in turn, can help reduce stress and burnout. I made a concerted effort to ensure I prioritized my personal life just as much as my work, from planning family vacations to scheduling self-care activities.
Final Thoughts
Conducting a time management self-assessment is a crucial step in improving your productivity, and it’s something I would highly recommend. With the right tools, techniques, and strategies, it’s entirely possible to manage your time effectively, reduce stress, and achieve your goals. While it can be a challenging process initially, the benefits are worth it in the end. Remember, self-reflection is an essential exercise for growth and progress.
