Manage Time and Prioritise Work

Finding the time to do all you need in a day can be tough if you’re unsure how to prioritise tasks. Too often we spend large amounts of time on tasks that have little impact when we should be putting all our energy into the tasks that are most valuable. We can often be busy without actually getting anything done, and this is where the art of preparation comes into play.

Creating tasks and achievable goals for ourselves can help us manage our time much more productively, while ranking tasks in the order of value and importance means that we can prioritise work effectively. Help organise your time and prioritise your work with this invaluable guide.

Steps

  1. Set Goals you can Achieve. You need to be able to break the day’s tasks into achievable targets that give you a clear sense of purpose. Keep the bigger picture in mind, i.e. what are you working to achieve? Have this goal as a clear vision, and use it to keep you focused on the work at hand.
  2. Prioritise your Goals. Decide early on what the most valuable use of your time is. Evaluate how important each task is to you by weighing up their urgency against their value. If there any deadlines looming then be sure to focus on these first. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to complete each task so you don’t feel pressured or rushed when carrying them out. This means completing work with deadlines well in advance, so you have plenty of time to check over the task and make sure everything’s up to standard.
  3. Be productive but not busy. Deciding on what’s most important to do should reduce the amount of time you are spending juggling tasks that keep you busy, and streamline your productivity. There’s nothing worse than having a day where you are so busy that nothing gets done properly, if at all. Ranking the tasks and completing them in order of importance should reduce this panicky feeling of being busy all the time, and instead allow you to be as productive as possible within the given time-frame.
  4. Handle any time wasters. There’s nothing worse than trying to complete work and being distracted by something, especially if it’s someone else that’s distracting you. If your working environment is too loud, then try moving to a calmer more productive space, or if that’s not possible, try putting in earphones. Other people’s interruptions shouldn't be an excuse for you not completing your tasks. Let the people around you know what you need to do, and how you intend to do it, so that they won’t bother you until you’re done.
  5. Rewards System. Telling someone to stop bothering you is easy when compared to stopping yourself from getting distracted by your own bad habits. This is where your will power really comes in to play. It’s healthy to take a break from your work every few hours, but constantly checking social networks or making yourself a drink every half hour can be destructive to your work flow. Recognise what is useful to you and what’s nonconstructive; if you don’t need the internet for your task at hand then there’s no need for you to use it.



Tips

  • Rewarding yourself after you complete each task may help to give you an instantaneous sense of achievement, but why not build a greater sense of success by rewarding yourself only after you’ve completed all your goals for the day. This way you can keep the vision you’re working towards in the front of your mind all day and you’ll find yourself working harder to get to where you want to be.

Sources and Citations

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