Do you see yourself swamped with work the moment you get to the office but you don’t know where to start? A new study shows the average American wastes 21 hours per week!
Do you realize that means for most people, at the end of your day, highly important projects are neglected and untouched by the end of the day? Fret not – here are a few simple steps to save time at the office.
1. To-Do List
One of the simple steps to save time is to use a daily work schedule. A daily work schedule is vital for proper time management. Writing up a “to-do” list prevents distractions from interrupting you at work. With a proper list, you can avoid having to cater to serving the loudest voice-first rather than the more important items on your agenda. You can write your list the night before or even the moment you step into the office! Some people prefer writing the list out by hand but some are more inclined to the latest listing software such as Tasktoy. The added structure to your workday makes the “to do” list is a must-have in time management techniques.
2. Prioritize
A “to-do” list is insufficient if there is a lack of prioritization. It is important to complete each task started without having to go back to it and therefore, efficiency is highly important. On the list, you should list down the most important things to complete. You can allocate an hour to the most important thing on your agenda and if you can’t seem to complete it within that time, you can just get back to it later – you’ll be more likely to resume an uncompleted task once you’ve set it in motion. You can choose to rearrange your list by priority either the moment you step into the office or the night before. However, it has been proven that prioritizing before you enter the office is much more effective and time-saving as you can start on the most important thing the moment you sit down.
3. Don’t Multi-task
Multi-tasking is very common in the new age and there are many demands to multitask. We are frequently distracted by chat services, emails and phone calls at work and often, we are pressed to perform these tasks simultaneously. What most people don’t notice is that this decreases productivity as research has shown that we are more productive when we focus on one task at a time! So try to limit it by setting certain slots in your schedule solely to answer emails, phone calls and so on. It is highly important to try and limit multitasking to not compromise on your efficiency.
4. Be Realistic
Simple, but realism is the way to go when it involves time management. Very often we spend a lot more time than necessary trying to achieve perfection. Be realistic. Perfection is merely ideal. Distinguish the difference between what you can do and what you cannot do. Identifying that this is probably the best you can do can cut down on the unnecessary extra hours you might spend on a project.
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