10 tips for time management in a multitasking world
Time management is one of those skills no one teaches you in school but you have to learn. It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you can’t organize information well enough to take it in. And it doesn’t matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done.
How we use our limited focus and energy has always been a huge workplace issue. But we get better and better at knowing how to optimize as we get better technology to help monitor time allocation.
Younger workers understand this, and time management is becoming a topic of hipsters. One of the most popular blogs in the world is Lifehacker, edited by productivity guru Gina Trapani, and her forthcoming book by the same name is a bestseller on Amazon based so far on pre-orders.
In today’s workplace, you can differentiate yourself by your ability to handle information and manage your time. “Careers are made or broken by the soft skills that make you able to hand a very large workload,” says Merlin Mann, editor of the productivity blog 43 Folders.
So here are 10 tips to make you better at managing your work:
1. Don’t leave email sitting in your in box.
“The ability to quickly process and synthesize information and turn it into actions is one of the most emergent skills of the professional world today,” says Mann. Organize email in file folders. If the message needs more thought, move it to your to-do list. If it’s for reference, print it out. If it’s a meeting, move it to your calendar.
“One thing young people are really good at is only touching things once. You don’t see young people scrolling up and down their email pretending to work,” says Mann. Take action on an email as soon as you read it.
2. Admit multitasking is bad.
For people who didn’t grow up watching TV, typing out instant messages and doing homework all at the same time, multitasking is deadly. But it decreases everyone’s productivity, no matter who they are. “A 20-year-old is less likely to feel overwhelmed by demands to multitask, but young people still have a loss of productivity from multitasking,” says Trapani.
So try to limit it. Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users suggests practicing mindfulness as a way to break the multitasking habit.
3. Do the most important thing first.
Trapani calls this “running a morning dash”. When she sits down to work in the morning, before she checks any email, she spends an hour on the most important thing on her to-do list. This is a great idea because even if you can’t get the whole thing done in an hour, you’ll be much more likely to go back to it once you’ve gotten it started. She points out that this dash works best if you organize the night before so when you sit down to work you already know what your most important task of the day is.
4. Check your email on a schedule.
“It’s not effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately does not mean that you have to respond to them immediately,” says Dan Markovitz, president of the productivity consulting firm TimeBack Management, “People want a predictable response, not an immediate response.” So as long as people know how long to expect an answer to take, and they know how to reach you in an emergency, you can answer most types of email just a few times a day.
5. Keep web site addresses organized.
Use book marking services like del.icio.us to keep track of web sites. Instead of having random notes about places you want to check out, places you want to keep as a reference, etc., you can save them all in one place, and you can search and share your list easily.
6. Know when you work best.
Industrial designer Jeff Beene does consulting work, so he can do it any time of day. But, he says, “I try to schedule things so that I work in the morning, when I am the most productive.” Each person has a best time. You can discover yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then you need to manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.
7. Think about keystrokes.
If you’re on a computer all day, keystrokes matter because efficiency matters. “On any given day, an information worker will do a dozen Google searchers,” says Trapani. “How many keystrokes does it take? Can you reduce it to three? You might save 10 seconds, but over time, that builds up.”
8. Make it easy to get started.
We don’t have problems finishing projects, we have problems starting them,” says Mann. He recommends you “make a shallow on-ramp.” Beene knows the key creating this on ramp: “I try to break own my projects into chunks, so I am not overwhelmed by them.”
9. Organize your to-do list every day.
If you don’t know what you should be doing, how can you manage your time to do it? Some people like writing this list out by hand because it shows commitment to each item if you are willing to rewrite it each day until it gets done. Other people like software that can slice and dice their to-do list into manageable, relevant chunks. For example, Beene uses tasktoy because when he goes to a client site tasktoy shows him only his to do items for that client, and not all his other projects. (Get tasktoy here.)
10. Dare to be slow.
Remember that a good time manager actually responds to some things more slowly than a bad time manager would. For example, someone who is doing the highest priority task is probably not answering incoming email while they’re doing it. As Markovitz writes: “Obviously there are more important tasks than processing email. Intuitively, we all know this. What we need to do now is recognize that processing one’s work (evaluating what’s come in and how to handle it) and planning one’s work are also mission-critical tasks.”
The most significant factor in time management is one people seldom focus on: The type of work you’re actually doing. If you are doing work that’s not right for you, the work is exhausting and you procrastinate. If you do work that’s in your sweet spot, you are naturally efficient. Across the Fortune 500 senior executives take the Myers Briggs personality test to ensure they are doing work that fits into their skill set. You can get the benefits of this test by taking a four-hour course that shows you what your personality is and what the best type of work for you will be. All the productivity tips in the world can’t overcome the fact that we have to understand our personality type to do our best work: Fast-Track Your Career with Myers Briggs.
thank you for sharing, great set of tips and tricks.
Fantastic info about tips of managment.. I like it details thanks for sharing
My comment to point 9 – a tickler file is an efficient way of managing to-do lists. If you don’t like carrying a pile of paper with yourself, you may use a web tickler file such as http://www.45-file.com.
I LIKE MEN
The topic we read was regarding 10 tips to time management in a multi-tasking world. As a infamous multitasker, it was refreshing to see that there were other ways to get a lot of things done in a short amount of time, yet remain efficient. It is another way to look at things and well worth trying, especially as a new teacher. Multi-tasking with tasks is easier than multi-tasking with kids. The comple process is explained here: get far cry 3 online. Therefore, setting aside time to do administrative duties, lessons and instructions, and other things throughout the day, without having to do more than one task at a time may create a more effective classroom environment, while giving me the satisfaction of feeling like I have accomplished everything that needed to be done in that day.
There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That is a great point to bring up. I offer the thoughts above as general inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you bring up where the most important thing will be working in honest good faith. I don't know if best practices have emerged around things like that
I like to go with my friends & have fun with them. Anyways thanks for sharing your joy.
Thanks for this post,
We have resolved our task management problems with a help of special software that helps us to organize our daily to-do lists and coordinate schedules with our team. (we focus our efforts on the most important tasks, so no more energy is wasted at senseless jobs) It is called VIP Task Manager and you can find more info on it at this web-site http://www.taskmanagementsoft.com/ thank you.
Hello, It nice tips to each every one life,any one follow they can achive their life
easy steps to save time!
i have learnt that time is everything
Great article! I just came across this today while searching for research on Multi-Tasking. I think the “Do The Important Thinks Firest,” advice is the best. Thanks again!
Right on! I think the most important topic you covered with multitasking: somehow it became a productivity dogma, even though it’s just about the worst thing you can do to manage time or get things done. I’m all about planning ahead and using time chunking. I wrote more about it in detail, if you’re interested:http://wp.me/p22Vnn-6r
Yep! Multitasking is indeed deadly!
Awesome advice you gave there. I think that people are simple caught up in being stuck and do a lot of time wasting activity to seem busy. What you have advised on being more productive can really help. great post.
it is wonderful guideline for time management
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Indeed, the maximum possible productivity isn’t the same during the day. For me, it’s hardest to say focused in the morning, say, until 11a.m. And sometimes I come up with bright ideas when most people are already asleep :)
Speaking of ways to manage time efficiently – I guess it might be a real battlefield where there’s no silver bullet. But there are certain small tricks that might be helpful to relieve the pressure of multitasking and minimize overworking.
Very useful! Thank you so much for this Penelope. Most people have issues with managing their time and now with the help of technology things have been much easier to manage.
Was searching for time management in Eric, which sucked monkey balls and delved in to the blogger world and wow presto relevance vs nonsense grad student papers, and instant access via hyperlinks and other stuff. Not sure the prof will like it but then who cares.
Well written article.Time management has become the need of the hour.
Many times people are seen constructing and pasting certain lists that illustrate the works they have to do in particular day. This actually imposes tremendous stress on mind because it keeps nagging throughout the day. Instead, it is better to work on a list that involves the short term goals that are within the reach.
very interesting blog and informative as well. I would also recommend going to this site for it has the same interest! http://www.time-mangment.com
I think you are all comments very best but i know right time right Decision
Hi,
Quite an informative post indeed
By making a priority list of your tasks and allotting different time frame according to each task requirement, you will be well informed about your goals and priorities at work. Doing this will save you time, helping you work smarter, not harder. The fact is you will never have control of your time unless you take control of your time.
Please keep posting and share your views with us on similar issues.
http://goo.gl/Je2cJ
Thanks,
Ruhi Desai
I could not agree more with your point #2! Most of us think that we are able to do lots of our tasks in a shorter period of time when we multi-task. But, in reality, we don’t. What is more. Products of multi-tasking are by all means substandard in quality.
Thanks for the article.
One of the challenges I observed was that lot of things I need to get done tend to be buried in my emails or pop in my head at random points but transferring them from email or my head into a calendar task or to-do-list is just too tedious today.
It occurred to me that is why busy (and rich) people hire personal assistants that they can just “tell” what they need to get done.
That led me to ask the question – why can’t everyone get a free personal assistant that they can email or text to?
As a result, we have created a service: https://www.joggleme.com to do exactly that. It gives you a free personal assistant that you can send or forward emails, include on emails, send text messages and it manages your life for you.
Please check it out and give us feedback.
Thanks for this great article! Simple, basic and productive post indeed! Thanks for sharing…
I had to handle with time management issues as well and online coaching has really helped me out a lot, to manage my time effectively. I was told to use a project plan template to various projects including for my personal needs. When scheduling my day and assigning time to certain projects…I double the amount of time I think it will take. Doubling the time to completion gives me a greater chance of completing “on-time”, allowing me time to take a break and then move towards the next item on my list. Through those tips and many more good advices I got from my personal coach (for who might be interested: Your24hCoach) I got the confidence I needed to transmit the theory explained in this article into real action and proof in daily life. Good luck, everyone!
The link to taskboy is dead. :/
Thanks, but i’ve problem . I finished my 90% work on time and the last ten is more difficult for me. And by this I’re get fustrated and leave or quite the task . Kindly help me to solve this problem. reply here with mention my name or direct here.
It’s one of the best post I have ever read. I was searching for the time management tips and luckily I found your post to read. I am also very sluggish to manage my own time. When I sit to work, I cannot concentrate in only one thing. So many things appear in my mind and my mind mind cannot find exactly what to do at a time…But after reading this article, I am feeling that I may be able to manage my time from this multitasking world… Thanks for sharing such useful article…Feeling great to read your tips….;)
Multitasking is not bad! Way you may asking? They are people that instantly multitasks. and they are kind of fine!
These were great tips, but I’m a firm believer in the 80/20 principle — maximizing your day with things that are going to bring you the most results and simply eliminating everything else. That’s of course easier said than done, but I try and abide by it. Thanks!!
It is all about self discipline – dividing tasks into small ones can help considerably. Also if you are running your own business having specialized software is good thing too. I am running small trading company myself and this alternative proposal software (NiftyQuoter.com) saved me and my customers much of valuable time.
You can also look through your schedules and try to eliminate potential time wasters before you start doing anything.
This is very interesting, You are a very skilled
blogger. Thanks for sharing the post.
Thank you for these wonderful tips! This would be a great help in my part, especially I had a problem in managing my time. It is a very useful blog.