Learning Guide to Time Management, incl. Free Tutorials • Discoverology
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28 items | 197m read

Ultimate Learning Guide To Better Time Management

6m read | Introduction
Ultimate Learning Guide To Better Time Management

In an ideal world, we wouldn’t worry about time. However, many of us find there aren’t enough hours in the day. Trying to fit everything into our daily schedule means we rarely get any rest and often suffer from sleeping problems. Experts say sleep is vital for your brain to function properly, and insomnia will make you unwell.

Time management doesn’t just apply to our personal lives, businesses also need to divide their time between departments to ensure company operations run smoothly. You’ll often hear managers referring to time as a budget, meaning they need to allocate resources according to priorities. Time management isn’t easy, but you can learn how to use time to your advantage.

How Does Time Management Work?

Time management is an essential skill, as it enables a person to divide time amongst tasks. Knowing how to do this ensures that a business can make the most of their resources and ensure they focus on what is important. To manage time correctly, you must have excellent analytical skills and know how to prioritize effectively.

Learning time management skills is difficult, but with time and practice, you can increase your organization and divide time correctly.

What Does It Involve?

A common misconception about time management is it’s about getting everything done. However, time management has two main purposes:

Getting as Much Done as Possible

Nobody can control time and trying to finish everything will leave you disappointed. Instead, focus on what you can do with the time you have. For example, if you have to process employees paychecks then you can look at better invoicing software. This simple step might save you a couple of hours a week, meaning you can fill this time with another task.

Getting The Things That Matter Done

Prioritizing is essential to time management. You’ll always have some tasks that need your immediate attention, and others that can wait. Put aside your preferences and focus on the most important tasks.

Why Improve Your Time Management Skills

We’ve covered why time is important, but why should everyone focus on improving their time management skills?

To Balance

We all need to enjoy life outside of work, and it’s essential that you find a balance. Time management skills are beneficial, as they enable you to make the most of the time you have and not get stress.

To Structure

Organization skills help you de-clutter your physical space and work more efficiently, but time management skills can de-clutter your mind and help you structure your tasks better.

To Be Productive

When you have time management skills, you can plan your workload and this often helps you finish tasks quickly.

Improving Your Time Management Skills

There are numerous ways you can improve your time management skills and become more productive. It’s important to look at the way you manage time and notice where you’re going wrong. Do you try to multi-task too much? Is motivation an issue for you? Use these techniques to improve your time-management skills.

Evaluate & Analyse

Introspection is critical here, as it allows you to assess your behavior. Why do you want to improve your time management skills? Is it to be more useful at work? Are you struggling to find a balance between work and home? There could be many reasons you feel time management is a skill you lack and knowing what they are will help you evaluate how you spend your time.

What Works For You?

We all have ways of working and knowing which behaviors benefit you can help to improve your time management skills. If you respond well to lists, then make sure you continue to create them. There are four ways in which we learn and knowing yours can help when you look for time management techniques.

What’s The Best Time For You?

If you’re a morning person, then it’s likely to walk into the office with a spring in your step and get straight to work. However, some people are more alert in the afternoon and struggle to concentrate in the morning. When are you most alert? This is the best time to take on challenging tasks.

Think About The End

Goals are so important for time management, so don’t underestimate them. If you know what you’re working towards, you can monitor your time management and make sure you stay on track.

Time Management Tips

Here are some great tips to improve your time management skills.

Stay Organised. Don’t forget to keep your workspace clean and clutter-free. The clearer your workspace is, the quicker you’ll complete tasks.

Delegate. Be responsible for your actions and don’t look to others. You know the tasks you have to complete, so it’s your responsibility to plan your time.

Don’t waste time. We’ve all sat around gossiping with co-workers or take an extra-long lunch. When you waste time you don’t get it back!

Use tools. There are some amazing time management tools, so don’t be afraid to use them.

Change. Your lifestyle can affect your time management skills, but you can change how you do things. Don’t be afraid to alter the way you work, or change your hours to fit your lifestyle.

Key Take-Away

Time is something we all want more of, but nobody can create time. If you want to be more productive at work, then it’s important you use the above tips to help you manage the time you have. Nobody wants to spend their days working, or take their job home with them, but many people do. This leads to stress, unhappiness and in the worst cases, a complete burnout. Think of time as an obstacle you can get around once you understand how to use it properly.

About This Guide

This time management guide offers the most insightful articles, educational videos, expert insights, specialist tips and best free tutorials about time management from around the internet. The learning guide is split into four levels: introduction, basics, advanced and expert. You can learn at your own pace. Each item shows an estimated reading or watching time, allowing you to easily plan when you want to read or watch each item. Below you’ll find a table of contents that enables you to easily find a specific topic you might be interested in.

Basics
11 items | 84m read
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5m read | Basics

What is Time Management?

Time Management refers to managing time effectively so that the right time is allocated to the right activity. Effective time management allows individuals to assign specific time slots to activities as per their importance. Time Management refers to making the best use of time as time is always limited.

managementstudyguide.com
3
4m read | Basics

Effectiveness Is All About Managing Your Time, Energy, and Attention

We like to think in terms of time because it’s a lot easier than trying to evaluate the trinity of time, energy, and attention – our TEA – especially since time is objectively measurable. If we’re in a scenario where others are directly or indirectly evaluating our output, a dutifully completed time card is a safe fallback because, as we’ve already observed, more time at work equals more work done. And, in fairness, it’s hard to gauge someone else’s energy and attention from the outside when you’re in a large organization, so the time card gives us something to go by.

productiveflourishing.com
4
5m watch | Basics

How to Manage Your Time Better

Are you constantly falling behind at school or work? You might be in need of some serious time management tips and techniques, and we’re here to help. Poor time management not only leads to decreased productivity, it also can be damaging to your mental health.

youtube.com
5
17m read | Basics

Where Does Your Time Go and How to Reclaim It

Finding time to get all the work done is the biggest challenge. Time management is therefore an attempt to control and allocate finite time resources. The importance of managing time in the workplace is underscored by the frenetic pace of modern managerial life. This explains, partly, why many suffer from stress and complain of never having enough time.

hbrascend.org
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8m read | Basics

Best Time Management Apps and Tools

If you’re not taking advantage of one of the hundreds of time management apps and tools out there, you’re definitely missing a trick.

But with so many apps to choose from, how do you know which ones to use? Well, this will depend on your needs, but we’ve put together a list of 18 of the very best time management apps that can help you with the most common time management challenges.

lifehack.org
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6m read | Basics

Effective Time Management Tips

We all have 24-hours in a day. But, why does it seem that some people are able to get the most out of every minute of the day? Believe it or not, they don’t have the power to slow down time. They do, however, know how to properly manage their time.

forbes.com
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14m read | Basics

Best Time Management Techniques

These are the time management techniques that I find useful in my life, but you might not. Adopt the ones that work for you and always seek to refine your own practices by regularly thinking about how to improve your time management skills. By writing your own time management rulebook, you’ll discover that there are really enough hours in a day for everything you’d like to do.

dansilvestre.com
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5m read | Basics

Planning to Make the Best Use of Your Time

It’s so important to know how to schedule your time properly. In this article, we’ll look at the steps you can take to do this, thereby making time for the work that really matters, while still leaving time for personal development, family and friends.

mindtools.com
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7m read | Basics

Organizing Your Time

Organizing your time is a personal process. You will need to find a way of monitoring and planning your activities that suits you. If you prefer written lists then use them. If you prefer to work from plans and diagrams then use those instead. Continually reflect upon your approach to planning. Make it work for you.

www2.le.ac.uk
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5m watch | Basics

Matrices, Tools, and Techniques For Prioritizing Your Time

Prioritization is the essential skill that you need to make the very best use of your own efforts and those of your team. It’s also a skill that you need to create calmness and space in your life so that you can focus your energy and attention on the things that really matter. It’s particularly important when time is limited and demands are seemingly unlimited.

youtube.com
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8m read | Basics

How to Avoid Workplace Time Wasters

Eliminating distractions—as many as possible—can have a profound impact on your productivity, output, and mental wellbeing.

So rather than only focus on what you should be doing more efficiently, consider the detractors you can eliminate. Here are 10 of the biggest workplace time wasters you should watch out for.

blog.rescuetime.com
Advanced
7 items | 43m read
13
11m read | Advanced

Procrastination and Time Management

A detailed overview of common causes of procrastination and an outline of time management strategies on how to manage them.

ferris.edu
14
6m read | Advanced

Importance of Goal Setting As a Time Management Tool

Developing a goal-oriented approach to time management can help you achieve success in two ways. The first is that you are no longer watching the clock and waiting for the day to end so you can go home. When you set goals for yourself, you are driven by those goals and the clock becomes an instrument you use to ensure that you meet your deadlines.

bizfluent.com
15
5m read | Advanced

Overcoming the Habit of Delaying Important Tasks

Procrastination is a trap that many of us fall into. In fact, according to researcher and speaker Piers Steel, 95 percent of us procrastinate to some degree. While it may be comforting to know that you’re not alone, it can be sobering to realize just how much it can hold you back.

mindtools.com
16
6m read | Advanced

How to Say No and Save Time

One time management technique we don’t use enough is simply saying no. We’re quick to say yes, giving away our time, then we wonder why we have no time left for what we want.

forbes.com
17
5m read | Advanced

How to Get More Time

Wish there was a way to get more time in a day? Well there is. Not physically because we’re all stuck with the 24 hour clock. But you can still live in a way that you feel that you have more time. Imagine a calmer, more rested you. Imagine feeling that you’ve accomplished everything you wanted to accomplish in a particular day. You don’t have to just imagine this feeling. You can have it. All you have to do is apply these basic time management tips.

thebalancesmb.com
18
6m read | Advanced

Strategies for Delegating Better

Many entrepreneurs and leaders don’t know how to delegate effectively or aren’t willing to do it unless they absolutely have to. Delegating tasks is a skill that, like any skill, can be learned and improved on over time. Put these seven delegation strategies into practice and watch as your organization’s efficiency increases.

inc.com
19
4m read | Advanced

Delegation and Time Management

Effective delegation is one of the most critical skills a manager can learn. Without effective delegation, you fall victim to micromanaging your team, losing control of your time, and eventually failing to put yourself in a position where you can take on more and lead bigger things. There are many facets of effective delegation, and in this post I’m going to talk about one that tends to come from an otherwise good instinct: The failure to delegate because you are trying to be helpful.

medium.com
Expert
9 items | 64m read
20
5m read | Expert

How to be More Productive In Your In-between Time

Much of your day is spent in-between activities. Between meetings. Before appointments. Waiting in line.

If you are losing your time to the in-between, you need to keep in mind the small tasks that you could fit into those times. Even five minutes is long enough to accomplish many of the todos on your list.

timemanagementninja.com
21
4m read | Expert

Productive Ways to Utilize Those Wasteful Wait Times

“Wait time” can be the most frustrating time – if you let it. With just a little bit of planning though, you can not only turn “wait time” into productive time, but may actually surprise yourself by looking forward to it!

pickthebrain.com
22
4m read | Expert

Tips to Manage Your Time as a Small Business Owner

You could say that effective time management is one of the most important skills for a small business owner. The good news is it’s a skill you can learn – and since it’s not an exact science, you can find the tricks and habits that work best for you.

business.com
23
6m read | Expert

Entrepreneurs Need Time Management Accelerators

Every person, no matter what their passion, needs to revisit the principles of time management from time to time. However, this topic is particularly critical to entrepreneurs, who struggle with challenges and crises every day that they didn’t anticipate. Effective time management skills are often the best competitive edge.

forbes.com
24
5m read | Expert

Time Management Skills for Leaders

One of the most difficult skills to master at the beginning of your career is time management. You can waste a tremendous amount of time by trying to multitask or focusing too much on unimportant details.

weforum.org
25
8m read | Expert

Time Management Case Study

The most important part of this consultation was to introduce systems and rituals into his life. Life can be very chaotic when there are none of them present.

asianefficiency.com
26
12m watch | Expert

How to Gain Control of Your Free Time

There are 168 hours in each week. How do we find time for what matters most? Time management expert Laura Vanderkam studies how busy people spend their lives, and she’s discovered that many of us drastically overestimate our commitments each week, while underestimating the time we have to ourselves. She offers a few practical strategies to help find more time for what matters to us, so we can “build the lives we want in the time we’ve got.”

youtube.com
27
10m read | Expert

Further Reading: Best Time Management Books

Organize Tomorrow Today: 8 Ways to Retrain Your Mind to Optimize Performance at Work and in Life. How do both elite athletes and business leaders climb to the top? Contrary to what you might think, it’s effective habits rather than innate talent that are their keys to success. Dr. Jason Selk—director of mental training for the 2011 World Series Champions, the St. Louis Cardinals—and star business coach Tom Bartow combine the most effective elements of both their disciplines to offer an organizational improvement plan that anyone can learn and apply immediately.

15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs. What if a few new habits could dramatically increase your productivity, and even 5x or 10x it in key areas? What if you could get an hour a day to read, exercise, or to spend with your family. New York Times bestselling author, Kevin Kruse, presents the remarkable findings of his study of ultra-productive people.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. David Allen’s Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era, and the ultimate book on personal organization. “GTD” is now shorthand for an entire way of approaching professional and personal tasks, and has spawned an entire culture of websites, organizational tools, seminars, and offshoots.

Time Management Magic: How to Get More Done Every Day and Move from Surviving to Thriving. This book is all about learning a system and a way of thinking that enhances the ability to lead a highly productive, balanced, and effective life. Too many people get discouraged and want to quit because they have setbacks and other obstacles in their life.

28
10m read | Expert

Further Learning: Best Time Management Courses

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity. You will be able to gain and apply your knowledge and understanding of personal and professional awareness, organization and commitment, and use the tools, methods and techniques that you have learned in goal setting, prioritization, scheduling, and delegation to overcome time management challenges and enhance productivity.

Productivity and Time Management for the Overwhelmed. This course is going to be focused into three areas or sections. Each is designed to build on the other, but each lecture is labeled by concept clearly, so you will also be able to come back and hit specific topics that are most helpful for you.

Productivity Machine: Time Management & Productivity Hacks. Unlike other courses, Productivity Machine is the complete course thousands of people have used to take their productivity and time management skills to the next level while getting more done in less time.

Time Management & Productivity Best Practices: Get More Done. Great course for anyone who would like to learn practical best practices that can be implemented immediately to improve their time management skills and become more productive so they can reach their biggest goals.

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