Time Management: The best way to reduce stress

Most of us don’t have the luxury of spending the majority of our time on the things that are most important to us. However, successful time management will help you to become more effective in completing tasks. Soon enough, you will be available for spending time on the things that are important to you.

We can use our time more wisely – even gain a greater sense of control over our lives – by applying some effective time management techniques.

Schedule – Simple and effective

One important tool is a schedule. It allows you to block out segments of time and assign them to a specific activity. At work, a schedule offers additional benefits because it allows you to: Ensure you’ve allotted time for all of your necessary tasks and functions, and cut off unproductive interruptions by referring to it. It also lets you limit meetings to their scheduled time rather than letting them go on until people feel like leaving. And best of all, it allows you a lot time for yourself for breaks.

Balance Situations – What’s really urgent and what’s not

Another time management technique is to learn to distinguish true emergency situations from situations that seem urgent but just aren’t that important. Before you drop everything next time, ask yourself: Is this truly important or just urgent to the person requesting my help? What will the consequences be if I don’t handle this immediately? Do I actually have important and urgent things that should be done instead? Is there someone else that can handle this situation?

Delegation – Concentrate on tasks that need your attention

You should also consider delegating tasks to other people. There are a number of benefits to you, to the person that you delegate your tasks to, and to the organization as a whole when you learn how to properly delegate. The benefits for you include: reduced stress, additional time to dedicate to tasks that you truly need to work on for yourself, and practicing the skill of effective delegation.