Office life is demanding — as an employee you’re expected to be ready for a full day “always on” job — a full inbox, a calendar blocked out with meetings and the deadlines — it feels like a marathon with the finish line still miles away. Sometimes, the expectation is to be available 24/7. Well, in this article, you are going to learn best Time Management Tips and productivity strategies which you must follow to focus on what’s important for professionals and for achieving your goals.
As a professional, we’re expected to be very careful with how time is spent at the office and throw off the delicate balance to keep everything moving forward in organization. Due to change in the work–life needs of employees, every day millions of professionals wrestle to create a better work-life balance. A poor balance bleeds into their personal life it can encroach on the mental and physical well-being. Not achieving a perfect balance can result in unhealthy levels of stress, unhappiness, and even reduced productivity.
What Research Says about time management?
Researchers at the Oregon State University (OSU) studied 203 people, all aged between 24 and 76, each in a romantic relationship, and two-thirds of them having one or more children. The study analyzed subject’s repetitive thought i.e. how frequently these people worried about a clash between work and family life.
For example: whether to attend a client meeting at the office or an important family event. Kelly D. Davis of OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences lead author of the study said, “The main objective of this study was to test a conceptual model in which repetitive thought explained the association between work-family conflict and health.”
The results of the study showed that people who’re repeatedly worrying about striking a perfect balance and feeling conflicted are severely impacted with health problems like stress and fatigue, low sense of satisfaction, high blood pressure, and depression. The study advises “One technique that can help is mindfulness: intentionally paying attention to the present-moment experience, such as physical sensations, perceptions, affective states, thoughts and imagery, in a nonjudgmental way.”
In today’s hustle-bustle of “always on” employment, a perfect work-life balance seems like a utopian concept for the busy professionals. Planning ahead and incorporating the time management strategies will definitely make professionals better able to minimize work-family conflict. That will although require discipline, effort, and most of all, a strong will.
Six Super-powerful time management tips and strategies
If you’re happy working every hour God sends, good for you. If not, here’s some “life changing” time management tips for professionals and give their well-beings an instant boost along with the career.
1) Recognize the work role and avoid Distractions
Work plays a significant role in office life. To get recognition from boss and enjoy the fruits of your labor, adopting the right schedule at work is imperative otherwise you’ll end up making the job seem like endless drudgery. Implement a strong daily routine keeping in mind your office hours and divide the work accordingly. Always remember — time is the most valuable commodity and you cannot buy more of. So, don’t waste time. Scrutinize your day as per priorities that drive the overall job goals and max it out every hour, minute and second.
2) Stop trying to remember everything
Our mind is in constant motion and remembering everything is not possible. That’s where the cutting-edge technology comes into the picture. Relying on our sweet little companion “digital device” to record important points. I recommend Evernote — the best note-taking space for your life’s work. It is a cross-platform app for note taking, organizing, and archiving with an ease. What attracts the millions of people towards Evernote app? It syncs across platforms, and your notes get stored in the cloud. Whether its text, images or documents, your data is accessible wherever you go, forever.
3) Compartmentalization is Good
Yes, it is a key to succeed in a tough world. However, most professionals became bogged down in the details of every problem whereas some prefer to manage multiple problems while maintaining an emotional control. This is called compartmentalizing your problems, which works as a defense mechanism, or a coping strategy. It is always a good decision to focus exclusively on one problem at a time instead of dealing with multi-problems at a time.
Also, you should be open about your needs. For God sake, stop expecting others to guess what makes your job life balanced and fulfilled. For example: whether you need to leave work at 5 p.m. to attend a family dinner or you need to step away at 12 p.m. to attend a yoga class — you should always be transparent about it. Have an open and honest conversation with the manager about your needs. PERSONALLY respect your boundaries.
4) Recognize your strengths
No matter whether you like the pressure of working to tight deadlines or feel motivated to work on a project the night before it’s due in, either way it is very important that you find out which way works in favor of you. Make sure you’re not trying to force things to happen instead you should plan things in such a manner that things happen in their own time.
Always remember your TO-DO lists get longer and longer with due respect of time. So the trick is — schedule appointments with yourself and try to create time blocks for high-priority works. Manage to steal the first 30 minutes of every day to schedule the time. This will help you to plan for interruptions that result in lots of time wastage.
5) Managing your time bank
It is the most game-changing advice I’ve gotten from my mentors. Map out the priorities and dedicate time to each of your priorities: exercise, work, family time, and so forth. There are 1,440 minutes in a day. Do one thing at once. Try not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. Stop multitasking!
6) Rely on fast-action and stop Procrastination
Manage your time well because every second counts. If managed well, this way you can increases productivity at workplace, reduces stress and improves the overall work-life balance. If squandered away because of procrastination, you will end up producing average or even below average quality work with tons of errors, which may create adverse consequences in your career.
Every professional should always remember that all time management begins with meticulous planning and to get things done possibly in a right manner you need a plan and a schedule so you don’t get buried under the stress of tight deadlines.
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