If you are having frequent unproductive days, rushing deadlines, and ending up stressed out at work, you need to manage your time. Remember, the day is not going to be more than 24 hours, so basically you need to manage your activities in the limited time that you have. This is going to result in increasing effectiveness as well as efficiency at work.
Critical appraisal of current practice
The first thing you need to do before you make changes in your daily work plan is to analyze your current activities. List down all tasks that you perform daily and check the nature of the tasks and the time taken to complete them.
Elimination of all non-work related activity
Workers often perform non-work related activities at work. This is not only wrong ethically but also results in effective time being lost to carry out company duties. Networking for personal reasons on FaceBook, Twitter or Myspace, making personal calls, or carrying out domestic chores during work time should all be avoided.
Keep your “to-do” list in front of you
Make it a routine to write down your daily “to-do” list first thing in the morning and keep it in a place most visible to you throughout the day. Your list should have high priority tasks listed at the top.
Send yourself reminders
Putting reminders on your emails or cell phone is a good idea for scheduled meetings and appointments.
Avoid doing a subordinate’s work
Learn to delegate work to your subordinates. Even though you know you are going to do their task more effectively, you need to let them do their own work. Do not spend time photocopying, filing, or writing summary reports when you have a workforce assigned just for this.
Avoid doing other people’s work
Volunteering to help others is a good idea once in a while but not when you are all tied up in your assignments.
Break down larger tasks into smaller more achievable ones
Do not attempt to do everything at once. You might end up doing nothing. List down major goals along with their deadlines and then break up the activity in to smaller daily tasks.
Plan for long term objectives
When we are all engrossed in the daily tasks, we tend to ignore the long term objectives. Plan for them accordingly, and keep some spare time for them everyday to carry out a portion of work.
Schedule breaks
Taking rest and having regular breaks is just as important and must not be ignored. Good managers value the importance of a healthy body. If you are all drained out, your work performance will definitely be affected.
