Boost Your Work Productivity with Time Management

Do you think that you are as productive as you could be at work? The simple answer is probably not.

Many workers, from the top managers to front line employees, squander their most valuable resource in a way that reduces their effectiveness.

Many people feel pressured by time, jumping from one crisis to another, on a treadmill of putting out fires.

At the same time, research suggests that we spend up to 2 hours a day reading and responding to emails - and how many of these are trivial emails or even spam.

How can you fine tune your time management so that you can work more productively?

One of the first ways is to focus your time on those tasks or jobs that create real value in your work life. Having a clear set of priorities allows you to decide what is most important and to spend your time on these tasks.

Are you spending the right time on the right tasks?

Each job has several key result areas.

If you are a manager these may include prioritizing, delegating, managing, supervising and reporting. While if you are a sales person it may involve finding clients, establishing and building rapport, identifying needs and closing the sale.

What are your key result areas?

Once you have identified your key result areas (and your boss and you see eye-to-eye on these) you need to ensure that you are spending the appropriate time in each area.

To do this, you can conduct an audit on your time. This can be done manually by using this time log, or by the click of a button with time tracking software may be useful.

Your time inventory will show you how you are spending your time and how it could be used more effectively.

For example, you may find that constant interruptions or trivial emails are keeping you from important work. Perhaps your log highlights that you procrastinate on tasks that you don't like but are important.

Furthermore, your time log can highlight low priority tasks that you can delegate to others.



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