Time Management Tips

Ever feel that cloning yourself might be the only way to complete all of your work? Unfortunately, there's no way to add more hours to a day, but here are some tips on how to make the most of your working hours.

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• Don't be discouraged. Good time management is an acquired skill, which needs to be learned and practiced constantly.

• Prioritize. One good strategy is to write down all of your tasks on four separate lists.

List A: important and urgent tasks

List B: urgent, but not important tasks

List C: important, but not urgent tasks

List D: not important, not urgent tasks

Complete all of the tasks on lists A and B before moving on to the others. This way the most crucial and time-sensitive jobs will get the attention they deserve, and the tasks you don't finish can wait for another day.

• For one week, keep track of your daily tasks and when you do them. This way you'll be able to identify where your time is being used inefficiently or is even being wasted.

• Make a daily "to do" list along with the time required to complete each task. To accommodate unexpected events, keep some flexibility in your schedule.

• Schedule your day to take advantage of your most productive hours. For example, if you perform best between 10am and noon, but lose your energy around 4pm, schedule your most challenging jobs for the early morning and leave the paperwork and emails for late afternoon.

• Constantly checking and answering emails can take a lot of time out of your day. Set a time limit for how long you're willing to spend on emails and stick to it.

• If you're in a supervisory position, delegate some tasks to competent staff members rather than trying to do everything yourself.

• Learn to say no. It may be tempting to take on an extra shift for the pay or to join that hospital committee, but don't add commitments that will overburden you.

• Avoid procrastination.

• Whenever possible, finish paperwork and other routine tasks immediately to prevent them from piling up.

• Strive for excellence, not perfection. If you find yourself spending too long on a particular task, set yourself a time limit, and remember that it's more important to get the job done than to do it perfectly.

• Don't be idle. Use non-busy periods at work to catch up on your paperwork, read professional journals, or do other useful tasks.

• Are you a technophile? Innovations like data management software and PDAs (personal digital assistants) can help you and your workplace stay organized.

• Get organized! Arrange your workspace so that you can quickly find papers and supplies you need. Always tidy up at the end of the day so that you don't have to sort through an old mess the next morning.

• Taking short breaks during the day will help you to work more efficiently. To avoid chronic stress and burnout, at the end of the day, leave your work at work.

• Experiment with different time management techniques until you find a strategy that works for you.

Time Management Tips

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Sheng Wang

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