Time management and scheduling skills are not only highly valued by employers, they’re demanded.
Time management is a planning process dedicated to making the best use of your workday. Similarly, scheduling requires you to plan your day, ensuring that each hour is dedicated to a specific task or function that must be fulfilled. Managing and scheduling time well enables you to achieve maximum productivity, avoid rushing to meet deadlines, and build in “free” time for other commitments. Self-assessment is vital to determining whether you have good time management and scheduling skills. Evaluating your own habits and patterns helps you to understand how they impact your productivity. Good time management and scheduling skills start with knowing how much time you have to work with. This may vary by industry, but a typical workday might allow for 5-7 hours to complete tasks. No matter what industry you work in, you can be sure that people are a part of it. At work, we collaborate, meet, and engage with people throughout each day. In some cases, people can unintentionally thwart our efforts to manage our time well and schedule tasks effectively. While most group tasks at work, such as meetings and training, are mandatory, some things can wait until you have managed your time according to the schedule. You can politely yet assertively say ‘no’ to spontaneous lunch invitations, pleas for immediate assistance with assignments, or other potential threats to effective time management and scheduling. Examine your work patterns to assess your skill set. If you find that, during a typical workday, you are often rushing to complete work with no additional time between the end of one assignment and the start of another, you may not be managing your time well. Consider some of the feedback you’ve received from colleagues and upper management about your timeliness. If they’ve noticed that your scheduling skills are impacting business operations negatively? Plans don’ t always go according to schedule and we have to make adjustments. But, if you find that you are consistently taking longer than anticipated on assignments, this may be a sign that your time management and scheduling skills need to be refined. Do you carefully schedule commitments then check before adding new ones? Or, are you accepting new commitments then finding that there is too much on your schedule? Overbooking inhibits effective time management. Keeping your schedule nearby and checking it hourly can help with this.
Good time management and scheduling skills empower you to be the best version of your professional self. This skill set not only demonstrates how valuable you are in the workplace, but also serves you as an individual. When you intentionally manage the use of your time, you invest in yourself and your goals. Good time management also shows respect for others’ time. Effective time management and scheduling skills enable you to be more efficient at work, which creates positive outcomes in your personal life as well.