How To Improve Your Time Management Skills Using 5 Simple Tips

If you always find yourself late for work, school or an appointment - or you often fail to finish your tasks - then you need to learn how to improve your time management skills.

It’s not that hard, although it might seem that way at first. Habits can be tough to break; but if you stick to your regimen for at least 21 days, then you have a good chance of developing a new habit: one that makes sure you’re always on time.

Learn how to manage your time better using these 5 simple tips below:

Tip # 1: Schedule Your Day.

If you want to learn how to improve your time management skills, then you need to have a concrete schedule for the day. Don’t get out of bed thinking that you’ll just wing it, because it often leads to a lot of time wastage.

It would be best to schedule and plan your tasks the night before, because your subconscious mind will help process their fulfillment while you're sleeping.

Tip # 2: Create A Check List.

If you have deadlines coming up, then you need to create a list arranged according to priority. This helps keep you on track and even encourages you to do more as fast as possible. There’s nothing like a list to keep you motivated and pressured to do your job.

Tip # 3: Do Everything Faster.

I know this sounds like something your irrational boss would say, but doing things faster is quite a legitimate solution to manage your time effectively.

Cooking breakfast, for example, can be done a lot faster if you’ve prepared the meal the night before. Getting to work might also be done faster if you stopped to refill the fuel in your tank on your way home from work.

Tip # 4: Stop Wasting Time.

Spacing out for even just five minutes is a waste of time. Not taking a shortcut is also a waste of time. If you want to learn how to improve your time management skills, then you need to cut down on the activities that aren’t related to work.

Chatting with your co-workers is fine; but perhaps you need to cut down on that too, especially if you have a deadline to meet.

Tip # 5: Learn To Multi-task.

Multi-tasking is not always advisable, especially if the tasks you’re doing need your full concentration. In smaller tasks, however, I’m sure you can do more than one thing at a time. Want some examples?

How about reading a book while waiting for the food you're cooking to boil? Cleaning your room while talking to your parents is another way you can multi-task. And perhaps one of the best multi-tasking activities you can do is listening to motivational CDs while driving your car.

You probably didn't have any lessons on how to improve your time management skills when you were still studying in school. There might have been seminars, yes, but it is from experience that you really learn how to make good use of your time.