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Time management is one of the most valuable skills you will need in life. We all have 24 hours in a day, but some people get the most out of their time while others don’t.

Working as a content marketer has taught me to manage my time wisely.

It gets crazy sometimes as projects are thrown your way. Which one do you focus on or delegate?

I like this quote from Zig Ziglar:

“Lack of direction and not lack of time is the problem. We all have 24 hours in a day.”

There are a lot of people juggling multiple jobs and when I ask how they do it, they laugh and say, “It’s not easy.”

Below are some simple steps you can take to manage your time wisely:

5-tips-to-effective-time-management

Let’s dive in…

Complete the most important tasks first

Some people leave the most important for the last. But if you want to be better at time management, you should complete the most important tasks first.

This way, even if you fail to get all your work done at the end of the day, you still conclude the day as being a success.

Prioritize wisely

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Group your daily tasks into each category. This will tell you where to spend more time and less time.

Important and urgent – tasks that must be done. These, you must do right away!

Important but not urgent – tasks that look important but really aren’t. They can wait!

Urgent but not important – these are tasks that appear pressing but have little or no value. You can delegate these if you can!

Not urgent and not important – these are not urgent and they’re not important either.

Learn to say “NO”

A lot of us are guilty of this. Out of the goodness of our hearts, it’s almost impossible to say “no”.

Want someone to run an errand? They come to you. Need someone to edit and proofread a doc? You’re the go-to girl.

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with helping a colleague BUT, saying yes to everything and everyone eats into your time.

It’s okay to decline every now and then. And no, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a heart, it simply means you value your time.

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Organize Yourself

There are so many time management and productivity resources you can utilize. Tools like Asana, Trello and Wunderlist help track and manage your projects.

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[bctt tweet=”Distractions steal your time. When distractions are managed well, it can lead to a balanced life but when not managed, they can keep you from accomplishing your goals. – Judith Abani” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”]

Create a timeline for a particular project

I had to learn this. I’ll just dive in and get to work but now I’ve learned to allocate a specific amount of time to a task. Let’s say there’s a blog to write among other things.

I tell myself “I’m going to work on this for 2 hours.” What this ‘time constraint’ does is that it pushes you to focus and be more efficient.

Time management isn’t something you learn at once. You cultivate it over time. It’s one skill that can help you make the most out of your day. Follow these 5 tips and you’re on your way to working smart.

Your turn,

What are your best practices for managing your time?


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