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Time Management Skills & Work

Written by: Jennifer Loftus

Article Overview: Doesn’t it sometimes feel as though there aren’t enough hours in a day to complete all the things you would like to accomplish? No doubt, everyone at one time or another, whether at work, home, or school, has felt like this. However, does this problem exist due to procrastination or lack of time management skills?

Time Management Skills & Work

Procrastination in the Office Procrastination is an issue that all organizations must face. Whether it's avoiding a more complicated project until the last minute, or prolonging an uninteresting task, the explanations as to why employees may procrastinate vary. Some interesting facts researched by Dr. Donald Wetmore, a Personal Productivity specialist illustrate the following:

• 20% of the average workday is spent on "crucial" and "important" things, while 80% of the average workday is spent on things that have "little value" or "no value."

• The average person gets 1 interruption every 8 minutes, or approximately 7 an hour. That's 50-60 interruptions per day. The average interruption takes 5 minutes, totaling about 4 hours, or 50% of the average workday. 80% of those interruptions are typically rated as "little value" or "no value." That's approximately 3 hours of wasted time per day.

Furthermore, a lack of time management skills can lead to reduced productivity and cause individuals stress-related issues. Needless to say, a minor case of procrastination or deficiency in time management skills can easily spread in an organization and cause some disastrous results. What can be done to help curb the urge to delay?

Tips to Eliminate Procrastination & Encourage Time Management

Each employee should conduct a serious self-evaluation as to how well he or she manages time. Starter questions include "Am I constantly rushing and often late?" and "Do I often cancel exciting or new assignments because I'm too busy?" Creating a questionnaire with questions such as these can help assess where in an organization there may be weak time management skills.

After the initial examination of an organization's time management ability, improvement can begin in many ways. There are plenty of gifted motivational speakers and specialists that can help assist in increasing time management skills and, as a result, increase productivity. For organizations that prefer the more hands-on approach, creating a yearly workshop dedicated to time management could prove valuable. Simply offering such a workshop could cause generate interest in self-reflection regarding how each individual best uses his or her work time. Areas that can be discussed within this workshop include the following:

• Creating and Using To Do Lists

• Proper Prioritizing

• Active Scheduling

• The 5 Golden Rules of Goal Setting

• Backward Goal Setting

• Learning To Recognize That Your (Work) Plate is Full and How to Cope

Approaching these topics in a positive manner can help encourage organizational members to improve their own time management skills.

While it is rare to accomplish everything in one day, there are certainly things everyone can do to increase their productivity. Recognizing that there is a lack of productivity due to time management and/or procrastination is a start. Taking proactive steps to remove procrastination habits is another important step. Lastly, gaining adequate time management skills can greatly influence an individual's ability to complete tasks, with quality, in a short amount of time. Why not break the procrastination habit by starting now?

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Article Tags: average person, cause individuals, disastrous results, explanations, important things, increase productivity, initial examination, interesting facts, interruption, interruptions, lack of time, management ability, minor case, motivational speakers, personal productivity, procrastination, self evaluation, starter questions, time management skills, workday



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