Time Management Tips for Work

Did you know that 43% of Americans with office jobs reported feelings of burnout? A 2023 Forbes article discussed the impact of work burnout and mentioned how those with more flexibility with work-life balance and effective time management report higher career success and happiness. Time management tips for work are so important for so many reasons! It can be a very difficult skill to master, sometimes your workload can be so overwhelming it’s hard to pinpoint where to even start! But, time management is a very beneficial skill that is useful in all realms of your life, especially in the workplace. It can be hard to manage your time instead of letting your time manage you. So, what is time management, why is it important, and how can you master it? 

Have you ever heard of the phrase “work smarter, not harder”? This phrase essentially encompasses time management. Time management is the ability to productively make use of your time by maximizing your efforts in completing tasks or activities. So essentially, it means to accomplish more in less time - producing quantitative and qualitative tasks. This can be easier said than done. So, let’s dive into the importance of time management.

Why is time management important?

Managing your time effectively is important in so many ways. There are great benefits in all areas of your life: work, school, home, relationships, health, and so on. 

In the workplace time management is beneficial for several reasons:

• Allows you to produce high quality work

• Helps you grasp a sense of control over your stress levels 

• Gives you more time to explore creative and strategic projects 

• Decreases chances of burnout 

• Reduces procrastination

• Improves your productivity

• Gives you a sense of satisfaction for hitting all your deadlines

• Breaks bad habits you haven’t been able to shake

• Elevates your self-confidence 

• Augments your work reputation as it allows you to produce not just quantitative but qualitative work 

• Helps you establish a healthy work-life balance you want and deserve

• Gives you more freedom to enjoy your life outside the workplace by allowing you to have more time to do what you actually want to do with your day 

With all these improvements coming into your work life, opportunities for career advancements and promotions will be just around the corner. Time management is important because it improves your quality of life. The benefits listed above are all important aspects of managing your time effectively but the overall takeaway is that it helps you prioritize your life in a way where you can actually be living instead of just existing.  

10 tips for time management at work

There are various useful tricks to effectively manage your time in the workplace. Follow along below to learn 10 tips for mastering time management at work.

1. Schedule your day and create lists

A great tip for effectively managing your time at work is by scheduling your day and writing out lists. By scheduling out your day, you are allowing yourself to plan ahead and visualize what you need to get done throughout the day. You can create a daily schedule by making a goals list of the tasks you have to get done. 

Some great ways to organize these lists can be done the old-fashioned way by writing it down in an agenda or notebook or the modern way of taking advantage of calendar and notes apps on your mobile devices or computers. Either method is effective, just depends on your personal preference of how you like to visualize what you have to get done in a day.

A great tip is to have a list of everything you have completed throughout the day - a “finished” list. This is a great time management tip for work because it gives you satisfaction for what you have already accomplished and motivates you to continue working and getting things done. It is such a rewarding feeling ticking off tasks and marking down what work you have completed.

Scheduling out your day and creating lists improves your time management because it allows you to break down the tasks you have to get done. It reduces feelings of being overwhelmed by a mountain of tasks you have to do because lists organize your work pile into smaller sections that are easier to comprehend and tackle.

2. Prioritize and organize

Prioritizing and organizing your daily work tasks is a very effective way to help manage your time. A helpful way to start prioritizing and organizing your day is weeding out the tasks that aren’t relevant and currently pressing for that day. Then, establish which tasks are soon-to-be due and which will be most time-consuming. Don’t over-clutter your work-day by filling “To Do List” with too much at once; prioritize what’s relevant for the day and focus on three to five tasks.

Another aspect of organizing your time at work in addition to organizing your tasks is organizing your environment. Whether you are working at home, in a coffee shop, or in the office, make sure your work space is organized. Remove unnecessary clutter like papers, empty cups or plates, mobile phones, bags, and so on. Organize your work desk so that the tools and devices you need to complete your tasks are the only things in front of you. This removes possible distractions and gives you the room you need to get your work done effectively and comfortably. If your environment is cluttered and messy it can impact your mental state and cause your thought process and focusing ability to be cluttered and disorganized. 

Prioritizing and organizing useful time management tips for work that correlate to tip #1 “Schedule your day and create lists” as well as other tips you will read throughout this article. Being able to effectively prioritize and organize yourself, your day, and your environment are crucial aspects to help manage your time.

Read more: How to prioritize when you have too much to do

3. Tackle the most difficult and important tasks first

Once you have created a schedule of what you need to focus on that day and organized your work space, a great way to prioritize your lists of what needs to be done is by establishing the most difficult and important tasks. These are the tasks you should focus on and try to tackle first.

Now don’t get it twisted, sometimes important tasks aren’t always the most difficult tasks. Important tasks are often the ones that your boss has assigned to you or the one’s that are due the soonest. Whether an important task is tricky or not, make sure to prioritize them at the top of your “To Do List” to avoid disappointing your boss or missing a deadline. 

It’s common to procrastinate the tricky tasks with smaller and easier tasks, but eventually the difficult tasks will pop-up and you will have to face them at some point. The best advice is trying to deal with difficult tasks sooner rather than later. Difficult tasks can be stressful and draining so it is important to reward yourself for working on and completing them. A reward can be as simple as treating yourself with a coffee break, or jumping to an easy mindless task, or scrolling on your phone for 10 minutes. You should reward yourself with a simple pleasure that motivates you to work on the tricky tasks and get them done.

4. Group similar tasks together

A great trick to manage your time at work is by grouping similar tasks together. This is the process of “batching” tasks that are alike. For example, if you have multiple emails to respond to, instead of replying to each email as they come into your inbox, you set aside 30 minutes of your day to respond to all the emails that are pending a reply. Batching similar tasks together is more efficient than doing each task separately because it saves time and giving your divided attention to each task. If you respond to every email that comes into your inbox as you receive them, you will continuously deter your attention away from a larger task you were in the middle of working on. 

5. Set time limits per task

A very effective time management tip for work is setting reasonable time limits for each task. This helps keep your daily schedule very organized and allows you to touch on all the tasks you plan to work on throughout the day. For example, if you have a 3 large tasks you want to work on throughout your workday, instead of going into the first task and trying to get as much of it done as possible, you may find yourself spending 4 hours of your day on it and not being able to get to through your to-do list. With setting time limits, instead you can allot 2 hours or so to each task allowing yourself to cover all the bases you hoped to work on. Breaking your tasks into smaller pieces with setting time limits help you effectively get all the jobs done throughout the day.

6. Stand your ground and say no

It can be hard standing your ground in the workplace and saying no to new tasks. It’s common to want to impress your boss and coworkers by taking on all the work that comes your way but there comes a point where your plate will be too full and you are biting off more than you can chew. Learning to say no is very important for time management at work. A great tip when someone is asking if you can take on another task is to respond by saying you need to check your calendar and you will have an answer shortly if you are able to help or not. This provides you some time to go over your week and workload before bringing more onto your plate. If you are too busy, politely decline or suggest if you can take on the task in the upcoming weeks once your workload has reduced. Know your limits and play within it in the workplace.

7. Avoid multitasking

Avoid multitasking various tasks at once. Contrary to popular belief, multitasking can actually decrease your productivity by trying to tackle too many things at once. It can be inefficient working on many tasks because your mind is all over the place. Your time management will be much more successful if you give your undivided attention to one task at a time. Remember: quality over quantity. Multitasking may produce quantity but the results won’t necessarily be qualitative compared to focusing on one thing at a time.

8. Eliminate distractions with time management tools

Did you know that according to Time Management Statistics, businesses who take advantage of time management apps have higher employee satisfaction, productivity, and revenue levels? There are great tools for eliminating distractions and helping time management. For example, app and website blockers can be very useful to help you focus and boost your productivity. BlockSite is an app blocker that is very effective for improving time management. It allows you to block your most distracting websites that deter your attention from tasks you need to get done.

Let’s say you have many work tasks to complete throughout the week but you find you keep pushing back deadlines because instead of doing work, you are browsing on social media by checking the latest tweets, watching instagram stories, and scrolling on TikTok. BlockSite is the perfect app for you! With BlockSite you can block access to these social media apps during your work hours so Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are no longer accessible to you. Now you no longer will waste time scrolling the internet and instead will be able to better manage your time at work.

Read more: How to Focus in a World of Distractions

9. Give yourself breaks

A common thing that people forget to do is allow themselves to take breaks. Breaks are so important for time management because they allow your brain to recharge between completing tasks so that you are more productive when you are in the midst of grinding.

For example, if you have allotted 2 hours to working on a task, instead of working 2 hours straight and losing your focus toward the end, schedule in a 10 minute break every 45 minutes or so. On your break you can grab yourself a coffee, step outside for fresh air, chat with coworkers, go to the bathroom, and so on. 

Taking breaks gives you time to reset and relax so that you can maximize your productivity and manage your working time most effectively.

10. Distinguish your most productive times of the day

Lastly, a great tip for time management in the workplace is distinguishing which hours of the day you are most productive for working. For some people it might be in the morning around 9:00 am until you have lunch, and for others it might be in the afternoon once you feel more awake. It’s great to establish what time you work best in the day so that you can manage your time accordingly and work on tasks during those hours.

When you distinguish your most productive times of the day, you are also distinguishing your least productive times - your down time. This is great for time management because you know when you can give yourself time to relax, be on your phone or what not, and truly maximize resting. Knowing when you are least productive in the day allows you to be guilt-free for relaxing and not working during your well-deserved down time.

How BlockSite can help you better manage your time at work

1. Schedule Feature

BlockSite’s schedule feature is an amazing time management tool to help organize your time at work. The schedule feature is very straightforward and simple to use. It enables you to block distracting apps and websites by the time of day or day of the week depending on when you need to maximize your productivity and attention toward work. 

BlockSite’s Schedule Feature works like so: let’s say you want to block online games and apps during your working hours. Add all the game websites and apps you wish to block, select your work days of the week such as Monday to Friday, then select the time frame of the day you wish to do work, such as 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Now you will no longer get sucked into the online gaming world during your work hours because you won’t be able to access the apps. This feature is great at boosting your productivity in a shorter time window. Without access to online distractions, the Schedule feature will help you better manage your time at work.

Read more here: How to achieve more in less time with BlockSite’s Schedule feature

2. Focus Mode

Focus mode is an incredible feature that helps with many time management tips listed above. This tool helps with planning out your daily schedule and tackling the to-do lists, setting time limits to tasks, and reminding you to take breaks. Focus mode uses the Pomodoro technique which is a time management theory suggesting that productivity is at its highest during work intervals of 25 minutes followed by 5 minute breaks. This feature sets you up for success in the workplace by adopting the pomodoro technique and organizing your focus time and break time for you throughout the day.

3. Block Slack

Blocking Slack on your device is a useful time management tool in the workplace because it removes any slack notifications and incoming messages that deter your attention from your work. Aside from putting your phone aside or powering it off, there are still many communication platforms that can distract you from work, specifically slack. Although slack is typically used in the workplace to communicate with colleagues, like we mentioned earlier, multitasking is not an efficient way to tackle a bunch of tasks. Instead of allowing incoming slack messages to come as they please, block slack during your focusing periods and get back to the messages later. You can respond to all your slack messages at once by following tip #4: Group similar tasks together.  

4. Block by Category

The Category Blocking feature is an additional tool that helps manage your time at work. It makes it easy for you to quickly get into work-mode by just a single click for blocking online distractions. You create a category for all similar sites and apps that distract you. For example, if your biggest distraction is social media, you can create a “social media” category where all your social apps and sites are grouped together. When you enable your “Social Media” category with just one click, all the apps added to the category (like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok) will no longer be accessible. Block by category is an efficient BlockSite feature that helps improve your time management.

Your future with time management in the workplace

Managing your time at work makes your life in and out of the office so much easier. It can be overwhelming figuring out where to start when the work tasks start to pile up but adopting effective time management tips for work can turn your disorganized mountain of tasks into an approachable and comprehensible workload that you complete accurately and in a timely manner. Taking advantage of productivity and time management tools like BlockSite further improves your work-life balance. Adopt these 10 tips for mastering time management at work to get control over your career and personal life. 

FAQs

Why is time management important?

Time management is important for several reasons. It increases productivity, reduces stress, limits procrastination, allows you to produce quality work in a timely manner, helps you establish a healthy work-life balance, and so much more!

What are some tips to improve time management at work?

Some great tips to improve time management at work include planning on a daily schedule, prioritizing your tasks, allowing yourself to take breaks, utilizing time management tools like BlockSite, setting time limits per task, and more.

How does BlockSite help with time management?

BlockSite helps with time management by blocking online distractions whether it be on your mobile device or computer. BlockSite has multiple features that make it easy and effective for you to remove access to distracting apps and websites.