Crowl, Harrison - Time Management in the Workplace

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Everyone has been there before: a list of things a mile long, and only a few things done by the end of the day. Once we finally sink into bed, it is sometimes hard to fall asleep due to everything that we did not accomplish swimming around in our heads. How do we break this vicious cycle? Well, there are two simple, but powerful, words that come into play here: time management. There are many different time management techniques out there, but the key to time management is finding one that works for you. Some time management techniques end up overwhelming the user and making them feel guilty about not being able to complete all of the given tasks. This leads users to feel frustrated, and serves to make the method feel like more of a hindrance than a help. This is why time management is such an important topic, not only in our personal lives, but also in our professional ones.

Dictionary.com defines time management as “the analysis of how working hours are spent and the prioritization of tasks in order to maximize personal efficiency in the workplace.” But, time management isn’t only about the workplace. In order to live a full and meaningful life, we must have a way to budget out our time to see our goals and desires come to fruition. But, actually implementing different time management techniques is much easier said than done.

According to an article written by Valerie Jackson that was published on the Journal of the American College of Radiology website, there are five key steps to time management: 1) set goals (make them realistic and attainable), 2) delegate your tasks, 3) get organized, 4) take time to relax and unwind, and 5) stop feeling guilty. The two main obstructions of good time management and inevitable happiness a...

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...inions regarding effective time management, it is difficult to figure out which one would work best for you. The bottom line is, you won’t know until you try it. You may find that the first technique you try is absolutely perfect and meshes seamlessly with your personality, or it may be that it takes a hundred different styles before you find the one for you. The key to effective time management is finding what works best for you, and working from there.

Let’s observe one of the biggest roadblocks related to effective time management: procrastination. It is something that affects all of us, some more than others, but it still hinders us nonetheless. How can we overcome the looming monster that is procrastination? Forster advocated the use of just working for brief period of time on a task, and ‘tricking’ yourself to working more on a task once you have started it.

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