4 Tips to Help You Manage Your Time Like a Pro

So much to do, but so little time … does that sound familiar? If so, it’s time to perfect your time management skills.

Time management skills are essential, regardless of your career or student status. By improving your level of organization, you can increase productivity, reduce stress and create more time for the things you enjoy.

Here are four techniques to help you improve:

Plan

It is important to have something – a planner, calendar or a mobile planning app – that allows you to document your activities. For those who prefer digital planning, popular mobile apps include Trello, My Study Life, Informat and Cal. Once you establish what your planning medium is, write down everything you need to do. Include details such as assignment due dates, meetings, interviews and so on. Additionally, it helps to write down the location of the event or task and how long it should take and the kind of resources you will need to complete the task. With everything in one spot, you don’t have to worry about missing an event or being unprepared.

Prioritize

It’s a good idea to complete the most important, or time-sensitive, tasks first. To figure out the priority of each task, create a list within your planning medium and rank them. Then, check off each task as you complete it. Make sure not to procrastinate, as it will only add more stress to your already busy schedule.

Avoid Multitasking

In our fast-paced world, it can be extremely difficult to focus on one thing at a time. You might think multitasking helps us to accomplish multiple tasks faster but this is incorrect. Once you start another task, it takes about 15 minutes, on average, to go back to your primary task. This reduces your productivity and ultimately ends up wasting your valuable time. Additionally, when you try to multitask, you may become more stressed and your efficiency can drop by as much as 40%. Multitasking may seem like it helps you to accomplish more, but it is really doing the opposite. Do your best to work on one task at a time and mute all possible distractions.

Keep Going

When in doubt, get it done. The task in front of you might not be your favorite, but the sooner you complete it, the quicker you are able to move on to something else. Encourage yourself to complete everything on your to-do list, and reward yourself when you are done. When you accomplish everything you set out to do, a weight will be lifted off of your shoulders and you will have something to show for it!