About time management
Time management is a fantastic skill to have. It is easier to organize your tasks, spend time wisely and have more time for other activities.
However, it is quite common that people have poor time management skills and don’t know how to optimize time management.
There are various reasons why people have poor time management skills but mainly it is because people lack discipline and don’t have clear goals.
Having poor time management skills is not an obstacle for making solid progress and improvement but it can make the process longer.
Additionally, it may be easier to give up and do something else instead of prioritizing your important goals.
In this article you learn:
- Signs you have poor time management skills
- Why to manage time
- Tips on time management in general
Signs you have poor time management skills
Nobody is born with good time management skills. But ideally, the earlier you realize the power of proper and efficient time management, the faster you will be able to get better results.
Time management is skill that will pay off if you use it consistently long-term. Let’s jump into signs you have poor time management skills.
1. No practice
Poor time management skills can be improved and mainly by trying to manage time daily. When you don’t practice time management, it is hard to manage time in general.
There is no certain way to practice time management but performing actions such as planning, organizing and limiting distractions can rapidly help you to manage your time better.
When people say they need a lot of time and realize they have poor time management skills, it happens usually because they have never tried to manage time correctly.
Do you know what is the biggest enemy for time management?
Lack of planning and multitasking.
Tip: Planning your day the night before and sticking to the plan equals improved time management.
2. You reach out to your phone
Do you have your phone around you when you are working and focusing on something important?
Well, it is not a surprise that time management is hard because having phone in a reachable spot when working results in poor time management skills.
If you want to instantly improve your time management skills, the easiest and most effective way to do that is to leave your phone in another room so you can’t reach to it and hear it.
Checking the phone “quickly” breaks your focus and therefore harms your ability to manage time which eventually leads to having poor time management skills.
Overall, if you find yourself using your phone a lot, make sure to leave it in another room. You will be amazed how productive and focused you can become.
3. Poor self-control
If you are not able to control yourself, it will automatically result in having poor time management skills.
As an example, if you can’t start a certain task on time, or you can’t go to bed on time, it means you are not able to control yourself.
Moreover, you feel like you need some kind of distractions to get started: Before going to bed you might scroll social media for 20 minutes. STOP THAT.
Learn to avoid those things, they are not important. The worst part is that you get used to getting distracted, which leads to having problems with concentration.
Being able to control yourself won’t only make you more confident and successful but also people will see it if you can control yourself and your actions.
4. Lack of sleep
Be honest, how many hours you sleep a night? Do you prioritize your sleep?
If you get to bed at 1 AM and wake up at 7 AM, that is not enough. You need to focus on quality sleep.
Poor time management skills can be easily improved by having proper sleeping habits. You should aim for 7-9 hours of sleep every night.
In my experience, I need more than 7 hours, it is not enough for me.
Generally speaking, when you have slept well, it is natural to be more productive and energetic, which makes time management easier.
Tip: In order to get the most out your sleep, go to bed at least at 11 PM.
5. No plan
It is quite natural to have poor time management skills if you never plan your day. Planning allows you to get prepared and visualize the upcoming actions.
That is also the reason planning is so powerful tool when it comes to time management.
If you write a simple and effective plan, execute it well, your time management becomes so easy and you feel massive improvement in your time management skills.
What happens if you don’t plan your day:
- You focus on unimportant things
- You multitask
- You feel disorganized
- Time management is very hard
6. Not prioritizing
The reason you have poor time management skills is that you aren’t prioritizing important tasks that would help you to reach your goals.
My number 1 rule is to always start your day with the most important task to make progress daily.
If you don’t prioritize it, you get end up doing something unnecessary and it might lead to poor time management.
Prioritizing important actions can help you drastically to improve your time management skills, because when you start with them, you can work on them fully focused and without distractions.
People don’t usually think about prioritizing but giving it a try can make a big change in time management.
7. Lack of productivity
Productivity and time management are linked to each other. Meaning, having low productivity results in having poor time management skills.
Low productivity levels can cause insecurity, low motivation and you are more likely to spend time on something pointless.
Luckily, productivity is skill you can always work on. Improving productivity results in better time management as well.
High productivity levels help you to stay focused, encourage you to complete more and time management is much easier.
Being able to stay productive daily will help you to prioritize, complete daily plan and focus on tasks one by one. All these are important for strong time management.
8. You Multitask
Multitasking is the easiest way to instantly decrease productivity and have poor time management skills.
When you multitask, you move your focus from one task to another which will eventually result in worse outcomes and you might also feel a bit disorganized.
That’s why creating and sticking to your daily plan is important, the chances of multitasking are very low.
Instead of multitasking, give your tasks and actions singular focus.
People who multitask may feel productive when in reality they are just busy and there is nothing in common with productivity.
If your goal is to improve your time management, stop multitasking! What multitasking causes:
- Busyness
- Worse results
- Constant distraction of focus
9. Not having concrete goals
Not having concrete goals can have negative impact on time management because when you don’t have clear goals, you don’t know what to prioritize.
When you don’t have concrete goals, it is easy to do something that isn’t that important and it also might lead to multitasking which is extremely bad for time management.
Having no goals makes time management hard because you try to work on every task a bit, and as a result, you are not able to make progress on actions that are important.
Setting concrete goals can dramatically help you with time management. Furthermore, you are able to focus important things first, and then complete all other tasks you want.
Setting goals helps you to plan your day logically and it is natural to stay organized.
Tip: Don’t set too many concrete goals because it will cause unwanted stress. 2-3 goals maximum.
10. Putting off tasks until the last
This is by far one of the most toxic things that causes poor time management skills.
If you are not able to prioritize and complete tasks on time, there is no way to be good at time management. It is also a sign of a weak self-discipline.
Putting off tasks until the last moment causes anxiety and stress. It has extremely negative effect on time management and makes you unproductive as well.
This can be avoided by doing the following things:
- Schedule your tasks
- Write a to-do list
- Stick to your daily plan
Such a simple things but very effective when it comes to improving productivity and time management skills.
Why to manage time
Managing time can be a game changer. When you are able to manage time effectively, it is easier to complete daily tasks faster and have more time for other free time activities.
Managing time can also encourage you to complete more tasks during the day. Proper time management also helps to stay disciplined and helps to reduce pressure from the tasks.
Managing time isn’t hard if you are smart about it. You don’t have to use Pomodoro Technique if you can execute your daily plan efficiently.
However, using Pomodoro Technique can definitely help immediately if you have poor time management skills.
Ultimately, managing time forces you to work on important tasks and focus on them one by one if you want to get the best results possible.
Tips on time management in general
When it comes to time management, there is a plenty of areas where you can make progress. But mainly, now we focus on how to improve poor time management skills for better.
The best tips I can give is that don’t take time management too seriously, but definitely challenge yourself a bit.
Nonetheless, learning how to manage time effectively will help to get the results you want and also complete more in a day than an average person does.
Being able to manage time gives me motivation to try harder and organize my days in a way I have time to relax as well.
Time management is easy when you make it easy. Don’t set unrealistic deadlines and don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure if you know you can’t handle it.
Ultimately, if you would like to start proper time management now, make sure to try some time management apps for personal use.
