Steps Towards Productivity: The Role of Time Management and Self Advancement
Time—we all want more of it. While we are all limited to the same 24-hour day, there are steps we can take to squeeze more out of each out our days.
Whether or not we assign a dollar value to it, time is a valuable asset for all of us and time management is a critical component of success.
But what if we don’t pay attention to it?
We all know that poor time management can cause unhappiness, burnout, and severe health complications. According to the latest time management stats, 70% of individuals complete work after shift hours and on weekends because of their inability to meet deadlines.
This ultimately causes an unmanageable amount of stress which affects the quality of work. It can also affect your personal relationships as 95% of divorces are caused by lack of communication between partners.
This is why it’s so important to manage your time and invest some of it back into your self-development. If you are putting your deliberate efforts, you’ll soon see a visible difference in your productivity report. Let’s take a look at the top reasons to practice time management.
You deliver your work on time (i.e. less procrastination)
When surveyed, 95% of employees say they are chronic procrastinators.
Allocating a fixed time to do an assignment lets you complete them on time. When you know that you only have this much time to finish your to-do list, it becomes easier for you to prioritize your task and estimate the time required to finish each task.
A pro-tip is to remove all the distractions from your surroundings. One way to do this is to turn off your smartphone or at least turn on the silent mode on so that you don’t get curious about all those social notifications.
You look confident and professional
Looking for ways to appear confident in front of your boss?
Employ good time management strategies such as:
Delegating some of your responsibilities to those working under you
Planning and scheduling tasks
Looking for tools that help you with time tracking
Taking breaks to refresh your mind
Turning off social accounts unless they are part of your work.
When you manage your time effectively, you’ll notice a significant boost in your self-confidence. Now the next step is to utilize that confidence and enhance productivity.
Your productivity increases when you are confident about what you are doing. By practicing time management, you’ll get some time to cross-check your task and answer the question “Did I do this right?”
It helps you avoid financial penalties
Failing to properly manage your time can get you into serious trouble.
Imagine you are assigned with an important project but missed the deadline once again. The contract included a service legal agreement which clearly states that the client can impose penalties on missed deadlines.
This situation may lead to negative consequences for you and your organization such as:
Facing financial losses
Bringing bad publicity
Losing your job
It removes unwanted stress from your life
Nobody likes unnecessary stress; there’s already too much.
Having a pile of work at your disposal will leave you confused, stressed, and anxious. The 24 hours will end, but this cycle of always running out of time may never come to an end. But if you start planning your work, you won’t have to deal with an overflowing workload, which causes stress. Remember that high-stress levels can affect your mental and physical health, leading you to ask for a day off and even more piled up work.
Being on time is the key to success
A lot of freelancers pick coworking spaces near them because it saves their commuting time and helps them reach office on time. As you submit your tasks on time and feel motivated constantly, success will likely to knock your door soon. You’ll feel more in control and make sound decisions. You’ll be noticed for your work, and this will increase your exposure to new opportunities.
Do more with less time
Findings suggest that the time spent by employees at work is increased by 15% and decreased by 33% for leisure activities. If you are good at managing time, there’s good news for you. You can accomplish more tasks in a shorter period of time and as early as possible without compromising on quality.
If you are dedicated to improving your time management, your ability to focus will also improve. When you completely focus on the task at hand, your speed improves, and you gain momentum.
You find time to do things you love
If you have control over your work and time and finish every important task in the correct timeframe, you’ll ultimately have more free time. You can avail learning opportunities, enjoy your favorite snacks with a colleague, or just make a new playlist of songs (you’ll enjoy it later).
Getting home early also lets you do things that you stopped doing. Go on a walk with your dog, spend valuable time friends and family, or just prepare a great home-cooked meal (AKA finally having the time to try all those recipes that you have saved in your phone).
Now let’s take a look at the role of self-development in empowering work productivity.
It increases self-awareness
Self-development occurs only when we are self-aware about ourselves. Those with high self-awareness accept their strengths and weaknesses. The idea is to build on your successes and strengths and reduce your weaknesses. When you do this, you focus on utilizing your expertise in the best manner, which gradually improves your work performance.
You improve your skillset
As you improve your areas of development, you will improve your skills which are necessary for career growth and job satisfaction. There are many simple ways to improve your skills:
Enroll yourself in an online course
Ask for feedback from peers and managers
Learn from your colleagues
Utilize the internet and watch helpful YouTube videos or other similar
Allows you overcome your weakness
Fear stops you from progressing. If you are doing all the things mentioned above, chances are you’ll overcome your insecurities related to your job and perform better.
Higher self-esteem
When you determine the positive about yourself, your self-esteem gets a boost. Self-development allows you to do this. You develop better relationships, control how you react, and do things with focus; the options are just endless. Pick an area you want to improve and you’ll see an all-around better version of yourself.
It drives your motivation
Do you know what drives you? Investing your time and efforts in your own self-development or personal goals will definitely enhance your productivity. Seeing results will drive your motivation to do better.
When this happens, you’ll likely start identifying your weak areas one-by-one and working harder to turn them into strengths.
Time will always be a limited resource, but good time management, as well as self-development, has been recognized as the building blocks of higher productivity levels.
Samantha Kaylee is presently fulfilling her duties and responsibilities as an Assistant Editor at Crowd Writer, a perfect platform for students to ask professionals to do my assignment UK at reasonable prices. In her free time, she likes to read self-development books and help people with her knowledge.