Time And Task Management Tips For Employees To Be More Efficient At Work

Whether you are working in a small business or a big corporation, it is important that you know how to manage your tasks, as well as your time well. Of course, the originality of your idea and the quality of your products play a big role in the business’ success. However, what makes the biggest difference between successful companies, and the ones that are not so successful is time and task management. That is, the better you do it, the higher is the chance that you will achieve your work goals. 

Time management is the key factor in making a company run smoothly. When you do it right, you will be better organized, you will not miss any deadlines, and you will surely be a respected employee. And when all employees do these things, the company is practically guaranteed to succeed. Of course, task management goes hand in hand with time management. To be able to organize your time well, you need to learn how to prioritize your tasks and manage change. 

There are numerous tactics you can employ to achieve all of these things. Read through the rest of this comprehensive guide to learn about the best time and task management tips that will help you be more efficient at work   

Change how you spend your time

To move on to problem-solving and finding solutions, one must first figure out what the problems are. So, before you do anything else, make sure that you figure out how you are currently using your time. The simplest way to do so is to log your time for one or two weeks by tracking your daily activities. Some things to take into consideration are any time sucks, determining how much you can feasibly accomplish in a day, or anything else important to your job specifically. 

As you do this, you will be able to see if you are spending a lot of time on unproductive conversations, activities, and even thoughts. You will have a more accurate sense of how long it takes you to finish certain tasks, which is important in task management as well. And with all of these things, you will know what you need to change in order to be more productive and do your job more efficiently. 

Utilize online time management tools

One of the simplest ways you can allow your company to be more organized is by using online time management tools. For instance, something that plays an important role in the time management of a business is the shift and staff absence organizing. With the help of rota software online time management is very simple. It makes it easier to manage the things mentioned previously, as well as track staff working hours, and can even automate payroll accounting. So, to make sure that your company is working as efficiently as possible, be sure to take advantage of tools such as these. 

Make to-do lists

Even though they are an old trick you can use, to-do lists are still a very effective and powerful tool for task and time management. Whether you do it in a written form, or you use an app for this purpose, these lists will make your life so much easier. And, as previously mentioned, when you find out how you are usually spending your time, these kinds of things will be much easier. 

Divide your tasks so that you have enough time and energy to do them, and so that you know what all you need to do during a certain day, or a certain week. As time passes by, you will understand better how much you can handle in a certain time frame. And of course, you will always get that satisfying feeling every time you check something off your to-do list. 

Know your priorities

The biggest challenge in managing your tasks occurs when you have too many of them to finish. In situations such as these, it is important to know your priorities. Know how high of a value all of your tasks have, and prioritize the high-value ones. Try to form your to-do lists in this manner as well. And if you do not get to finish all of your tasks, you will know that the high-value ones are finished. 

Similar tasks should go together

The vast majority of people work the best when they group similar tasks together. This is because the human mind works faster on things that are similar to each other. So, when you are making your to-do lists, make sure that this is something that you take into consideration. For instance, answer all of your emails at once, write up any documents together, make phone calls in the same chunk of time, and so on.  

Stick to your schedule

After you have created your to-do list and you have your schedule, make sure that you stick to it. If you do not do so, it will be easy to lose time and to fail at finishing everything you wanted. Following a strict schedule will allow you to work more efficiently. But, in any case, make sure that you set realistic expectations for yourself and that you include breaks in your schedule. It will do you no good if you make a schedule that will make you burnt out. 

Manage change

No matter how much you try to stick to your schedule, something else or someone else will try to change that. To keep working efficiently and not to let this disrupt your work, you must learn how to manage change. This can be anything from someone calling you for a last-minute meeting or your package not arriving on time. Learn how to work your way around change, and do not lose any time stressing about your schedule being disrupted. 

Assign time limits to your tasks

A part of schedule creation should include setting time limits on your tasks. Even though this can be stressful, it is necessary if you want to get everything done on time. If you do not set time limits, you will work until you are done with a task. And this can lead to even more stress and failure to manage things. When you set a time limit, even when it is not a tight one, you will do your best to work fast and to focus as much as you can. This can even lead to you finishing things earlier and having time for another task or a break. 

Eliminate distractions

The thing that is surely affecting people’s efficiency the most is distractions. These can be anything from web browsing, texting, talking to coworkers, scrolling through social media, and so on. To be as proactive as possible, make sure that you get rid of these distractions. Or, at least, bring them to a minimum amount. 

For instance, make sure that you close all of the tabs except the ones you are currently working on. Turn off notifications for messages, or if possible, turn off your personal phone while you are at work. If you have to call someone, make sure that you do it during lunch or another break. And as far as social media, you can either try to avoid using it while you are at work or possibly use an app that limits your daily social media usage. 

Avoid multitasking

Even though multitasking is a way to get more things done at once, it is not as efficient as people think. Multitasking often results in incomplete tasks, which is not a very good thing when you are trying to do a better job at finishing them. Moreover, if you try to focus on more things at once, the quality of your work will be lower than usual as well. So, to be as efficient as possible, make sure that you do one task at a time. 

Learn how to say no

If you want to manage your time at work well you need to learn how to say no. Only you know how much time you have, so if you have to say no to a certain request to focus on those high-value tasks, do so. This might make you feel like you are being rude, but in reality, you are just being a responsible employee. If you do otherwise, you will end up with more than you can handle, and you will feel stressed because you cannot finish what you promised. Of course, politely decline the request you cannot accept. But, make sure that you are not feeling guilty about it. 

Keep a list of backup tasks

Being efficient means using your time as best as you can. So, to avoid situations where you are at the peak of your concentration, but do not have anything to do, keep a list of backup tasks. Oftentimes, people make short to-do lists, they just finish things faster, or they simply do not have too many things to do on that day. In all of these situations, keeping a list of backup tasks will help you. Even if you feel like you do not have anything to do on a certain day, think about all of those tasks that you have kept postponing. It might be reading some documents or answering some emails. In any case, doing these things when you are not too busy will allow you to have more time the next day for the high-value tasks you might get the next day. And, you can check them off your to-do list!

Organize your desk

If you are doing many things mentioned above, but you are still lacking some efficiency, make sure that you organize your desk. Office organization can make a big difference when it comes to time management and boosting your productivity. If your desk is disorganized, you will have trouble finding things, and you will always lose some time in that process. When all of your office supplies and documents have their place, you will lose no seconds trying to find something. Make sure to have a good organizational system for all your documents to be able to do so. This can be by year, by name, or anything else that suits your job. The same goes for your computer and the folders on it. Everything is just so much easier when your office is organized. 

Move on when you feel stuck

If you want to avoid losing time, make sure that you move on to the next task when you get stuck. This will allow you to finish more things than you would if you just continued to do that one task. When you move on to a new task, you will feel like you have a fresh start and things will go much smoother. Of course, do not overdo this, as you will have trouble getting anything done if you keep skipping to the next thing. It is better if you just take a break in those kinds of situations. 

Make breaks

Taking breaks is extremely important for any kind of job. People often lose themselves in their work and try to finish everything as fast as possible. When you work like this, you will easily lose your concentration and will not be very productive after some time. Moreover, if you work without breaks for days or weeks, you will get burnt out and will not be able to continue working even at a normal pace. So, when you create your schedule, do not forget to include a few breaks. If it is a busy day, this can be a 5-minute break on the balcony, but it must exist if you want to be efficient and save your mental health. 

Time and task management at work do not have to be hard if you have a well-thought-out plan. Create a schedule that suits you and your speed of work, and make sure to stick to it as much as you can. Learn how to deal with changes in your schedule and have backup tasks in case you need them. Avoid multitasking and know which tasks are your priority. To boost your efficiency, even more, use all of those apps created exactly for that purpose. If you get stuck, move on to the next task, and come back to the previous one once you have the time and the energy. Make sure that your desk and your computer are organized so that you do not waste any time looking for files. And of course, to make sure that you do not get burnt out, make sure that you include breaks in your schedule.