At some point in your working life, you are likely to fall behind on your deadlines, or experience a particularly stressful period where you struggle to manage multiple tasks at once – it happens to the best of us!
But to ensure that doesn’t become a regular occurrence, we’ve put together some tips to help you manage your time more efficiently:
Each week, make a list of the tasks you need to complete, and use a planner or calendar to schedule them. Make sure to leave enough time for breaks and relaxation.
Identify the most important tasks that need to be done and focus on those first. However, it is also important to allow enough flexibility in case other priorities crop up during the week.
Setting unrealistic expectations for your goals or deadlines will add to your stress and make it difficult to work productively. It’s important to allow yourself enough wiggle room with deadlines, in case unforeseen circumstances impact your work.
Review when you are the most productive – is it in the morning, or afternoon? After your lunch break or after a meeting? This will help you schedule your most difficult or important tasks during these time periods.
Turn off your phone, close unnecessary tabs on your computer, and find a quiet place to work. This can help you stay focused and avoid distractions.
Take regular breaks throughout the day to recharge and avoid burnout. Go for a walk, meditate, or do something else that helps you relax and recharge.
Focus on one task at a time, rather than trying to juggle several things at once. This can help you stay focused and be more productive.
Alternatively, grouping similar commitments together can help free up you calendar for other tasks. For example, it can help to schedule all your meetings on one day, or a certain time of day, to free up your focus time.
If possible, delegate tasks to others who are better suited to handle them, or who have more time to spare.
There are a range of apps or tools which can help boost your productivity. Useful organisation tools include Slack and Trello, which can help facilitate collaboration between teams by assigning and logging tasks, as well as keeping track of completion dates.
The Microsoft suite also has a range of apps which can help manage your time, including OneDrive to share and store documents more easily, Teams to communicate key project updates and the Outlook Calendar to track your schedule.
Generation Next covers a range of transferable skills through its webinar programme and learning materials to help young professionals thrive in the workplace. To sign up to its membership package, which includes access to the programme, get in touch with the team at gennext@emc-dnl.co.uk.
