What are the 5 time management skills? | The most important skills

It's important to have good time management skills, especially for business owners. Although each of us has the same amount of hours in a day, some people are more productive than others in that time. Controlling that time rather than allowing it to control you seems to be the key.

In this article, you find 5 time management skills that everyone needs to know about.

What is time management?

Time management is when you are using your time in the most efficient way. Take care of the most urgent and important things first, followed by those that are less urgent but are nonetheless significant. This applies to both your professional and personal tasks. You may direct your time and energy where it counts the most by prioritizing the tasks on your to-do list.

Time management examples:

- Planning.

- Setting goals.

- Keeping records.

- To-do lists.

- Using deadlines.

The 5 Time Management skills:

1. Wake up early:

When you ask successful people what time they wake up in the morning, a common theme emerges: these people are awake at the crack of dawn to make the most of the day.

- Apple CEO Tim Cook rises at 5 in the morning.

- Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, gets up at 5:45 in the morning to play tennis before going to work.

- And before going to the studio, Oprah gets up at 6 a.m. to meditate and run on the treadmill. 

Another important issue to take note of is the importance of exercise in the lives of successful people.

2. Plan your day! and Prioritize important stuff:

With the help of a daily work plan, people can organize their day and then take little steps in the direction of their objectives. (Some significant, continuous tasks, such as creating a marketing strategy for your company, fit into the second quadrant of the Eisenhower Matrix. Despite the fact that it should not be completed immediately, it is nevertheless important.)

This time management advice is used by successful businesspeople who understand that every day, there are essential and pressing issues. They start the day knowing how to strike a balance between the two and postpone more laborious chores.

A successful person works on his or her most important activities first thing in the morning, before being distracted by email and other little tasks. Achieving goals is simpler when they are broken down into manageable steps.

Organizing your time into "focus" days and "buffer" days is a strategy advocated by certain professional trainers. The former is used for broad issues like corporate development and personnel administration. On the other hand, buffer days are for the minute details like paperwork and accountancy.

3. Use the 80/20 rule, the Pareto principle:

The Pareto Principle, sometimes known as the 80/20 rule, states that 20% of actions result in 80% of results. And just 20% of the results come from the remaining 80%. This can be translated to indicate that successful people are aware that the top priorities (or the top 20%) will lead to the most significant outcomes. The remainder is delegated.

4. Stop procrastinating! Now!

The most asked question is, how to stop procrastination?

- Step 1: Acknowledge Your Procrastination

You might be delaying a task because you had to rearrange your workload's priorities. You 
aren't necessarily procrastinating if you're short delaying an important task for a genuinely excellent cause. But you'll know you're probably doing it if you start to put things off indefinitely or change your priorities to avoid doing anything.

- Step 2: Identify WHY You're Procrastinating.
Before you can treat your procrastination, you should start be determining the reason why it occurs. Only then you can address the problem!
- Step 3: Choose a task and Commit to it.

- Step 4: Give yourself a reward for completing the task.

- Step 5: Repeat the process until you internalize it.

It's just as simple as that.

5. Stop Multitasking. Focus on one thing at a time:

Many people mistakenly believe that multitasking is the most effective way to use their time. However, it turns out that attempting numerous tasks at once can result in time loss. According to neuroscientist Earl Miller, people typically are unable to focus on more than one subject at once.

He claims that people are "deluding themselves" when they claim they can multitask well.

To be truly effective, one must concentrate on one item at a time and complete it before going on to the next.