Time management tips for professionals

Time management involves figuring out how much time to spend on specific tasks and controlling one’s schedule to be as productive as possible. Managing time more effectively can improve professionals’ quality of work, and a boost in productivity can make them more valuable to an organization.

This is not the only benefit of managing time better. Establishing and following a schedule of tasks can reduce stress. Gallup’s 2021 State of the Global Workplace report found workers in the United States and Canada ranked highest for daily stress levels of all groups surveyed. Some 57 percent reported feeling stress on a daily basis. Learning time management skills can help alleviate that anxiety.

These tips for time management can get professionals on the road to being more efficient.

• Make lists. Rather than keeping ideas or tasks in your head, jot down notes that you can organize into a schedule later. You can write them down on paper or in a digital notes application.

• Prepare a task plan. Each evening before you leave work or first thing in the morning the next day, map out all the tasks you have and when they will be done. High priority tasks should be done first, followed by mediumand low-priority jobs.

• Avoid multi-tasking. Studies have shown that doing two or more things simultaneously tends to lead to none being done at full capacity. The more you multi-task, the more the end results will suffer. Clifford Nass, a cognitive scientist at Stanford University, found that when putting his students through a series of tests, high multitaskers were bad at filtering irrelevant information from the relevant, something that multi-taskers should seemingly be especially good at. Nass also found that high multi-taskers had diminished powers of mental organization and extra difficulty switching between tasks.

• Manage distractions. Distractions can put you on the path to procrastination. That is why you have to try hard to minimize distractions, whether it’s coworkers who interrupt or digital devices. Set “notification-free” times during the day when phone or computer notifications are turned off. You also may want to block incoming emails. This way you will have a window of distractionfree time to devote to a particular task.

• Time your focus. According to a study from researchers at the Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, it takes an average of 23 minutes to refocus when you’ve been distracted. Remaining in a focused state is essential. Set a timer so that you stay focused on a task for a particular period of time, such as 25 minutes. You’ll get more done before you take a break. Similarly, Parkinson’s law states that work will expand to fill the time that’s available for completion. Set time constraints for certain tasks so you will work more efficiently.

Time management is a useful skill for anyone. There are many different resources available to help individuals strengthen their time management skills.