Do you find yourself not having enough time to get your things done?
Do you tend to procrastinate, till the last minute?
Do you often stress about deadlines?
If you are a person with some sort of characteristics mentioned above, you have come to the right place. In this blog, we cover effective time management tips that really works.
Why some high achievers like Kobe Bryant, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are able to accomplish so much more and highly successful in their work? And, there are people who cannot accomplish a single task in a day, and they keep on procrastinating and are not going anywhere in life.
We all have 24 hours in a day. Despite their talent and insane work ethic, successful people have mastery in effective time management. Time is the biggest asset in one’s life which is always ticking. We cannot stop time but we can manage our time effectively for maximum accomplishment and higher productivity.
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested.”
Effective time management is all about setting priorities and allocating time on various activities of your life. For instance, how much time you spend on your study, work, doing exercise, family, recreation to name a few.
When it comes to effective time management, there is no one specific tips that work for all because the priorities differ with each individual. If you are a student, your priorities might be different than a married working professional. So at first you need to identify your highest value tasks and set priorities on them accordingly.
Your time is limited and you cannot do everything. Prioritization is the first thing you can do for effective time management on the things that really matters to you.
With good prioritization you will use your time and resources effectively and save more free time. By knowing how to prioritize, you will avoid wasting time on your secondary tasks, hence it helps you reduce stress and achieve more.
Find out the most important thing you need to do today. And, ask yourself why you need to do what you do? It’s important to know your ‘Why’ because even if you feel like not doing it, you are aware of why this matters to you, and you’ll do it anyway.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, who developed the famous prioritization tools for effective time management called Eisenhower Matrix.
In his words- “ the urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.’’
Urgent activities need immediate attention. These activities may be concerned with someone else’s goals. However, important activities can be related with achieving your personal or professional goals.
Based on Eisenhower matrix, you can classify all tasks into four major categories. They are:
1) Urgent and Important (tasks you will do it immediately).
2) Important, but not Urgent (tasks that you can schedule to do it later).
3) Urgent, but not important (tasks you will delegate to someone else).
4) Not important and not urgent (tasks that you will eliminate).
If you are serious about effective time management, you can prioritise the tasks into urgent and important, and make effective decisions. If possible, do them in the first hour of the day before you start your work for the day. Note that to do anything worthwhile in life, consistency is the hard part.
Another effective time management tip is using 80-20 rule, also known as Pareto law. This principle was developed by the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, after he observed that 80% of the land was controlled by 20% of the people. Also, he found that 80% of the peas in his garden was produced by 20% of the pea pods.
It states that 80% of the output or results will come from 20% of input or action. This Pareto law was popular in later years when statistician observed that this principle is applied and proven in various fields such as business, finance, economics, health, energy to name a few.
For instance, in terms of sales, they found that 80% of sales in a company come from 20% of customers. Similarly, in the workplace, 20% of the employees created 80% of values.
What’s even more interesting is that they found that 20% of time created 80% of the productivity. So, here are some questions to apply Pareto law for effective time management in your daily life.
What tasks you spend 80% of your time doing that gives you 20% of the returns? ( for instance: checking email frequently, spending more time online than necessary, playing games for long hours)
What is the 20% tasks that give you the 80% happiness or recognition?
Track your time you spend on various activities on your daily life and analyse it. By applying Pareto law, you will have more control of your time so that you can invest it wisely.
The good news is you can apply this principle to other areas of your life too.
You can actually do less and achieve more in less time, if you are really smart about effective time management.
At SAIM College, we understand the importance of effective time management and practice ourselves to set out an example for our students. Our academic programmes run in real time and we provide real information beforehand so that students can prepare ahead and manage their time effectively. We compel our students on timely completion of academic projects, assignments, and examination, emphasizing the importance of effective time management.
SAIM College is a reputed education provider on BBA and Global MBA programme, affiliated to Pokhara University. We provide academic programs and training to meet the demands and needs of the nations, regionally and globally. Our teaching method is focused on developing managers and entrepreneurs with leadership skills and global mindset.
Visit us for more insight into our BBA and Global MBA programme.
