3 Time Management Mistakes You May Be Making
Time management is crucial to ensuring productivity, but more often than not, people fall prey to mistakes that cause them to lose time. Unfortunately, poor time management leads to more than just lost time—it can also end up increasing levels of stress, debilitating low energy, and failing to reach goals and deadlines. Productivity begins seemingly impossible to reach—and many take the bait.
Despite your best efforts to organize your schedule, however, you may still end up failing to complete tasks on time. You could also end up doing more than necessary, or spending energy on things that shouldn’t be prioritized. Simply put, you can quickly lose control.
The question now stands—how do you properly manage your time? Unfortunately, it won’t be solved by simply making your to-do lists. You’ll want to address the problem right at the root, and these mistakes could be one of them:
Mistake #1: Focusing Too Much Time on Hours Spent
Traditional office systems have taught us that spending 10 hours behind the desk means productivity. Most employees today are still convinced that the amount of time spent on working means the right path towards success, but this mistake could be the reason you’re failing to cross off items on your list. While it’s important to remain aware of the clock ticking and comply with the required hours, it’s important to remember that time never measures your productivity level.
Time management means learning to be more efficient, ensuring that you can do more out of every hour you spend. This could mean a 3-hour binge of working, leaving you with more time to rest and focus on other tasks. Lingering too long on anything shouldn’t be the norm.
Mistake #2: Skipping the Necessary Break Times
Your goal is to do more every waking day, but working 10 hours straight without breaks is never a good sign. This is one sure way to kill your productivity and efficiency, especially since you’ll end up hurting your body. Your energy levels are always limited—so it’s important to continuously take breaks to recharge.
Your body shouldn’t be treated like a machine, so make sure to allow yourself multiple breaks a day to breathe and unwind. In doing so, you get more work done—your focus is set and you’ll be halfway through your lists in no time. It may seem counterintuitive, but resting should always be a part of your time management plan.
Mistake #3: Failing to Properly Delegate Tasks
If you try to take ownership of every single task of the project, keep in mind that this could mean failure for the whole team. It’s not a good way to spend your time, especially if you’re taking on tasks that should be done by at least four other more people. If you wish to properly manage your time, learn to trust your teammates. It’s better than working alone or overworking!
The Bottom Line
The idea of time management can be so overwhelming that we fail to realize what truly causes us to lost time. You may have the world’s most organized lists, calendars, and other time management tools, but failing to focus on the results, your health, and task delegation will still lead you to failure. Effective time management is merely the part of the big picture, a part of the blueprint that moves your project forward.
If all else fails, remember that help is always readily available. For the best business coaching services in Alberta, Four Tree Coaching has you covered. We’ll help your business grow every step of the way, because your success is our goal. Reach out to us today to learn more.