When you work in the professional world, it can be very difficult to manage the different types of work that you have to do on top of managing anything to do with your home. Whether you work from home or you work in an office, time management is going to be the elephant in the room.
To help you take a bite out of that elephant a piece at a time, here are five time management strategies that can help you manage your time smoothly and easily.
Use Virtual Assistants
Living in the modern world needs modern solutions and one of the best solutions for time management is delegation. When you have a virtual assistant they can help you manage smaller tasks while you take on the larger, time hungry tasks.
Upwork
When looking for virtual assistants, it can be a little time consuming. There are several places to look, however one of the best places to find help is through Upwork.
You can use different search criteria to look for assistants that are less experienced or more experienced and you can even look for people that have additional skill sets. It all depends on what you need.
Use Time Management Applications
Time management applications are a blossoming field that started with applications like Evernote and Microsoft To Do. The intent of these apps is to make sure that you are using your time as wisely as you can with minimal interruptions. Like nowdays many online business use the best free shopify apps which can help to grow their business, as same you need to use the time management apps on your businesses which can help to analyse where and how you can use your time.
In a way, they are like hiring a virtual assistant but with a few extra bells and whistles to analyze how you use your time.
Asana
Asana is free for a team of up to 15 people or free for personal use. ou can track the amount of time spent on each project which can analyze where you need to spend less time and where you need to spend more time.
One of my favorite features is the endless projects that you can use as well as the multitude of connections that you can have to many different widgets.
Motion
Motion is an up-and-coming time management service that is run by a powerful AI. This AI takes the tasks that you have and organizes them for you based upon the time that you have in the day to get your work done. The only major downside is the price.
However, if you find that you are able to manage your time better, then motion may be the best investment for you.
Trello
Trello is akin to taking Monday, Motion, Asana and who knows how many widgets and throwing them into a blender; for free! There are more advanced versions of Trello, however, the free version allows you to make boards, lists and cards endlessly.
With the powerful calendar widget, you can help keep yourself on task and even track how much time you spend on a task.
Lists Lists Lists
Some people still use the old-fashioned pen and paper in order to take care of their lists, such as myself, and others do better with applications to help them find notes and lists of tasks and materials that are needed.
Evernote
Evernote keeps track of your notes and even makes them searchable. This makes it easier to find what you need to find and when you need to find it. On top of that, you can make lists galore and easily search through them to find what it is that you need.
Microsoft To-Do or Apple Reminders
While not as powerful as something like Evernote, both Reminders and To-Do are great applications that come with microsoft and apple computers. If you have this option available and you are just starting out on your time management journey, then these are a great way to start.
Timers are a Must
With timers, you will find a better sense of time awareness. Having better time awareness is going to help you see how to increase your productivity by showing where your mind goes in the middle of a work session.
Another great way to use timers is with the very popular pomodoro working method.
Use the Pomodoro Method
The Pomodoro Method, also affectionately called the Pom or Pom Pom method, is one of the more fruitful ways to manage your time. Work for a set amount of time and then take a break for a set amount of time.
It’s that easy!
Most suggestions state that it is important to have only the amount of time that you can truly focus as your focus time and at least five minutes worth of break time. This can really help you crank out some top-notch work.
Conclusion
Even if you don’t decide to use an application and stick to more old-fashioned methods of time tracking, each of these strategies are going to help you in some way. From hiring a virtual assistant to using AI, there are always ways to better manage your time as a professional.
