7 Essential Time Management Skills

Learning how to effectively manage your time enables you to meet deadlines, explore new ideas, and find a healthy work-life balance. If you feel overwhelmed and overworked, learning a few time management tools may help you reduce stress and plan how to meet your goals.

Discover seven skills that, when developed, can give a big boost to your productivity.

What is time management?

Time management refers to the art of effectively planning your time. This allows you to efficiently and productively complete the activities and tasks you need to in the appropriate amount of time. Time management also involves prioritizing your to-do list so that you complete urgent or important tasks before others. This helps to avoid missing important deadlines or rushing through important tasks.

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What is a time management skill?

A skill involves accessing and applying knowledge to execute a specific kind of task effectively. So, a time management skill involves accessing and applying knowledge to manage time effectively.

7 time management skills

If you're ready to take control of your time, work on developing these seven time management skills.

1. Prioritization

To effectively manage your time, you will need to decide in which order you should complete your tasks. Reviewing your schedule each day and deciding whether tasks are urgent, important, or neither can help you plan when and how to manage your time throughout the day. In general, you will want to prioritize your urgent tasks in the order of their importance. Following this, you can complete your non-urgent tasks in the same manner. This makes sure you complete critical tasks with the needed attention and time.

One key difference when prioritizing tasks involves “urgent” and “important” tasks. Urgent tasks require completion as soon as possible. Important tasks matter, and not doing them may lead to negative consequences, but you have more flexibility on when they get done.

For example, you might label picking up your prescription from the pharmacy an important task because you likely need the medication, and waiting too long could have negative health consequences. However, you may have freedom over the next couple of days as to when you pick up the prescription. If you expect an important phone call and your phone rings, then picking up the phone call becomes an urgent task because it demands your immediate attention.

2. Goal setting

Goals give a measurable way to determine progress toward the end product. Setting goals can help you organize your to-do list and determine the priority of your tasks. If you have a goal set for the end of each week or month, then you can create a priority list specifically for each goal. This can reduce the feeling of being stressed or overwhelmed when working toward larger goals.

Read more: What Are Your Career Goals? Tips for Setting Your Goals

3. Planning

Writing down your schedule can give you a realistic idea of how much time you have to allocate to different tasks. For example, you may have a standard 9-to-5 work day and assume you have eight hours to complete your five project-based tasks of the day. Let’s say you then write down your schedule and see you have an hour-long lunch meeting, a 30-minute internal meeting on a different floor, and have to leave 30 minutes early to pick up your kids from school. When you write this down, you see you actually have six hours outside of meetings.

By breaking down your schedule, you’ll realize each meeting is a 10-minute walk from your office. In addition to this, you know it takes you at least 10 minutes to get organized at your desk before beginning work each time you return, and you will need a 30-minute break in the day to recharge. You now realize you have to factor in 40 minutes of walking time and 50 minutes of non-working time at your desk. This leaves you 4.5 hours of working time for your project-based tasks.

When you write down your schedule, you can better allocate time for each task and make reasonable plans for your day.

Tip: Analyzing your daily and weekly patterns can help you find which times in the day you are typically most productive. Some people may find they tend to have hours of uninterrupted time before lunch, while others may work their best in the afternoons or evenings. By understanding when you focus best, you can schedule more complex tasks during these hours. For mindless and simple tasks, you can schedule these assignments during less focused hours.

4. Delegation

Delegating tasks can help you avoid being overwhelmed. If you have the capacity to delegate tasks within your workplace, consider assigning certain projects to team members who have the ability to take them on. This gives you time to focus on more challenging tasks.

5. Setting boundaries and saying "no"

If your supervisor or colleague asks you to complete a task and you don’t have the time, practice being assertively honest about your work capacity and current workload. Taking on too many responsibilities can prevent you from completing important work and contribute to missing deadlines. If you repeatedly have more tasks than you can effectively complete, consider scheduling a meeting with your supervisor to discuss the limits of your role and how you can best perform in your current position.

Read more: How to Set Boundaries at Work

6. Focus

Creating an organized workspace can help you focus on your assignments and prevent you from wasting time on distractions. To work productively, make sure you can find the needed materials and you have a comfortable space where nobody will interrupt you.

Instead of trying to complete several tasks at once, focus on one task at a time. This may improve the quality of completed tasks and allow you to reduce distractions.

7. Automation

Many technologies exist to automate common workplace tasks. Depending on your profession, using project management software, human resource software, email templates, or scheduling software may help streamline your workload.

Benefits of good time management

Managing your time well can help you in the workplace in many ways. In general, good time management skills offer the following benefits compared to poor time management skills:

• Lower levels of stress

• Lower anxiety levels

• Improved reputation in the workplace

• Better focus

• More productivity

• Improved decision-making

• Attainment of goals

• Increased ability to meet deadlines

• Improved work quality

• Better work-life balance

• Increase professional confidence

• More free time

• More energy for personal activities

Next steps for building time management skills on Coursera

Understanding how to develop time management skills can help you manage your day more effectively. Empower yourself to reach your goals at home and at work with Achieving Personal and Professional Success from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Learn how to define success, communicate more effectively, and use your influence through hands-on exercises, surveys, and case studies, all at your own pace.