Time Management for Students - Study Skills - PDF

Algerian Democratic and Popular Republic Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University Center of EL Bayadh –Nour Bachir- El Bayadh Department of English Level: 1st year (group 1; 2) Study Skills Lesson Six: Tim...

Algerian Democratic and Popular Republic Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University Center of EL Bayadh –Nour Bachir- El Bayadh Department of English Level: 1st year (group 1; 2) Study Skills Lesson Six: Time Management Teacher: AICHA Souiah  Where Are You Now? Take a few minutes to answer yes or no to the following questions. YES NO 1. Have you estimated how many hours you need to study this semester? 2. Do you tend to complete your assignments on time? 3. Have you estimated how long it takes you to read ten pages in each of your textbooks? 4. Do you begin working on long-term assignments early in the semester? 5. Do you make lists of things to do in your head rather than on paper? 6. Do you find that you go out even when you know you should be studying? 7. Do you schedule time to study for exams? 8. Are you working at a job more than twenty hours a week? 9. Do you know exactly what you are going to work on when you sit down to study? 10. Do you do the assignments from your favorite class first? TOTAL POINTS Give yourself 1 point for each yes answer to all questions except 5, 6, 8, and 10, and 1 point for each no answer to questions 5, 6, 8, and 10. Now total up your points. A low score indicates that you need some help in managing your time now. A high score indicates that you are already using many good time-management techniques.  Time Management is a system that allows you to plan out in advance the exact amount of time you'd want to allocate to performing a specific task or tasks per day. IT is the way you regulate or schedule your time. You can make more efficient use of your study time and complete your work in less time by using good time-management skills. The key to successful time management is allowing enough time to complete your work while still finding time to complete all of your other responsibilities. If you have additional time, you can take advantage of the other opportunities for growth and development that occur in college Making the most out of your day and ending it with that pleasant feeling of knowing you’ve done all you could do in that single 24-hour period - that’s what time management is all about. It means you’ve made effective use of your time and accomplished what you’ve set to do for yourself for the day. Effective time management is all about achieving the right balance between your homework, university/college life, and your free time. As a student, organizing your days will eliminate stress and ensure that you are productive. The general time management tips for students, such as sleeping well, scheduling, and prioritizing, are some important tips that can help students in the long run. A more strategic approach is required to optimize the time a student has in a day.  Why is Time Management Important for Students? Time management for students (and everyone else) is about making your day purposeful. It is about taking control of the time you have and optimizing it for focus, productivity, and above all, balance. Before we list out the time management tips for students, it is crucial for students to understand why time management is important. Effective time management skills are particularly essential for college students, as they have to deal with more subjects, tests, assignments, and extra-curricular. Time management techniques can help students be on track and cope with the stress of added responsibilities.  Following are a few more reasons why time management is important for students? Enables You to Enables You to Accomplish Your Prioritize Your Work. Goals Faster Enables You to Get More Done in Less Reduces Stress Levels Time Helps You Become More Efficient Time Management Skills and Techniques for Students The Differences Between Time Management Strategies, Techniques, and Skills: They all relate to the ability to effectively plan and use your time, but the terms themselves have slightly different meanings: Time management refer to the overall approach or plan you can use to manage strategies your time. are specific methods or tools Time management you can use to implement a techniques particular time management strategy. refer to the abilities or ‍Time management competencies you need to use skills time management strategies and techniques effectively.  Time Management Strategies 1. Make a To-Do List Usually, a to-do list should include your work tasks as well as any personal activities or responsibilities you wish to complete. Maintaining a proper balance between work and life obligations is important. This is where a to-do list gets very useful, as it allows you to see more clearly how much time you spend on each. When you make your own to-do list, be sure to rank your tasks based on their importance. It’s easy to make a list of stuff that you can finish quickly. But, if you do that, you risk allocating insufficient time for the day's most important tasks. To successfully use a to-do list time-management strategy, you should not only jot down your daily tasks but also regularly update and check your list. This will help you prioritize and make adjustments if anything unexpected pops A daily schedule template helps you manage and control your time each day. It will enable you to stay organized and focus on what matters most and even help you overcome procrastination. The method that most successful people from Elon Musk to Bill Gates use is “time blocking” or “time boxing”. Time blocking is creating a template for how you intend to spend every minute of your day. Students should therefore follow this method to manage their time more fruitfully.  2. Tackle the Most Difficult Task First This time-management strategy is centered around the idea that if you do the most difficult task of the day first, everything else will feel easy in comparison. It’s like diving into the deep end of the pool instead of slowly building up your way to it. The downside is that this strategy might not work for everybody, as some people like to start their day with easier tasks and warm up, in a sense. Tackling high-value tasks at the start of your work day might not be for everyone, but it has been proven as an effective time management strategy. To find out if starting your day with the most demanding tasks will improve the way you manage your time, all you have to do is try it. 3. Remove Any Distractions Being distracted while you work can negatively impact your productivity and ability to accomplish your daily tasks successfully. So, it goes without saying that one of the most important time management strategies is to try and minimize any and all distractions. To do that efficiently, you should: Identify the things that distract you from your study. Remove those distractions and/or try to minimize their impact on your productivity. For example, Between social media, cell phones, and friends, there are so many activities that can distract students from their school work. When it is time to get down to doing school work, students need to turn off their cell phones and sign out of social media accounts. Any amount of time that is devoted to school work must be television and cell phone free! 4. Lead a Healthier Lifestyle A huge part of a successful time management strategy is ensuring you lead a healthy lifestyle. Now, don’t get us wrong, this is not a way to tell you how to live your life, far from it. It’s about showing you the importance of managing and increasing your energy levels to increase your productivity and concentration. Studies have shown that people who exercise and eat healthy foods regularly have higher energy level when compared to those who don’t. And having more energy means you will be able to spend more of it on completing your tasks, projects, and activities in a more productive and stress-free manner. students should do their most essential work when they feel most energetic. This means scheduling intense projects during energy highs and scheduling passive activities when the body is at its natural low. 5. Figure Out and Set Your Priorities Finding out what your priorities are and setting them according to their importance is another great strategy that can be used to manage your time. Making a clear distinction between what's important and what’s not can help you improve your daily productivity significantly. By organizing your tasks according to their priority, you’ll have a clear vision of what needs to be done and in what order. You might even surprise yourself by discovering that some tasks don’t need to be completed at all. That’s the power of setting priorities. 6. Try Out Software When all else fails, turn to the machine. For almost any pain point, regardless of whether it’s connected to time management, software tries to solve it. And, some of them actually do solve the problem of efficiently managing time, tasks, projects, and more. Time Management Techniques 1. The Pomodoro Technique  The Pomodoro time management technique was invented by Francesco Cirillo. He used a kitchen timer to split his work into 25-minute intervals. Every period of work, or as he called it, pomodoro, was followed by a short break, usually lasting around 5 minutes. The name “pomodoro” comes from the Italian word for “tomato.” Cirillo chose this name because the kitchen timer he used to split his work periods looked exactly like a tomato. If you want to try out the Pomodoro method for yourself, you should do the following: Choose a task you wish to complete. Start a 25-minute timer. You could use an online stopwatch or the one on your phone. Do some work until the clock runs out. After the 25-minute interval ends, take a 5-minute break. Following the 4th pomodoro period, take a longer 25-30 minutes break. Rinse and repeat until your task is done or until you feel you’ve done enough for the day. 2. The Eisenhower Matrix Technique  Developed by the 34th US president, Dwight Eisenhower, the Eisenhower Matrix is a time management technique that focuses on prioritizing tasks in terms of their importance and urgency. The more important and urgent a specific task is, the higher it should be on the “to-do” list. To try out the Eisenhower Matrix and see if it works for your specific needs, do the following steps: Create 4 quadrants with these categories: Important and Urgent, Important but Not Urgent, Not important but Urgent, Not important and Not Urgent. Take a closer look at your current tasks and put them into those 4 quadrants based on the previously mentioned parameters. Important and Urgent - you do them immediately. Important but Not Urgent - you schedule a time to do them in the future. Not important but Urgent - delegate these tasks. Not important and Not Urgent - delete these task. 3. Parkinson’s Law  Created by and named after a British historian, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson’s law is hugely based around Cyril's famous quote: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” This, in more simple terms, means that whatever amount of time you allocate to finish a particular task is the exact amount of time you’ll need to finish the said task. Here’s what it boils down to: 1. Work more efficiently and in short bursts of time. 2. Put yourself in situations in which you have time limits to finish your work or impose time limits on yourself. The easiest example would be working on your laptop without the charger being plugged in. This will put you in a position to finish your work faster before the battery runs out. 3. Finish your work early! If your deadline is set at midnight, try finishing your tasks before that (say noon, five o’clock, or even 8 o’clock). The main point is to be done with your project before the deadline. 4. Limit the amount of time you spend on certain tasks to avoid procrastination. For example, give yourself half an hour each day to answer emails. And, whatever you manage to accomplish in those 30 minutes, that’s it! This will force you to work more efficiently and limit the amount of time you spend procrastinating. 4. The Kanban Technique  The reason why the name of this time-management technique sounds Japanese is that it was first embraced by Taiichi Ono in the 1960s while working for Toyota Automotive. The main idea behind this method was to increase the overall productivity and efficacy of Toyota’s manufacturing process. The main idea behind the kanban board is that you move tasks from one stage to the next and this helps with transparency and every team member can see the state of every task at any time. To start incorporating the Kanban time management technique into your daily routine, you should start with the following: First, you’ll need software for project management, a whiteboard, some sticky notes, or a plain old piece of paper. Any one of them will do. Second, you should figure out all the stages that are included in finishing a specific project. For example, you could divide your project into 4 distinct phases and create columns for each stage. There are no specific rules on how to divide a specific project or how to name each stage, but the most common way of doing it is as follows: 1. Backlog - A column for brainstorming, detailing, and deciding on tasks, i.e., a place to figure out the order and priority of tasks. 2. To Do - A column for the tasks you are going to work on. 3. In Progress - A column for the tasks you are currently working on. 4. Done - A column for all your finished tasks. 5. Getting Things Done (GTD)  Created by David Allen and thoroughly explained in his book “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity,” the GTD method is widely thought of as one of the most successful time management techniques. The main idea behind the Getting Things Done method is to first declutter your mind from the entirety of tasks, projects, and other work or life-related responsibilities and then take specific steps to finish them all successfully. The steps, as per the GTG technique, are as follows: 1. Capture - write down any and all tasks you wish to complete. 2. Clarify - Make a decision about each task: Do it, don’t do it, or delegate it to your team members. 3. Organize - Create different categories of tasks and put each task in its corresponding category. For example work, home, emails to send, and such. 4. Reflect - Focus on reviewing your tasks and figuring out the timeline for their completion. 5. Engage - After all the previous 4 steps are done, it’s time to start working on the tasks. 6. The Time Blocking Method  Time blocking, widely popularized by Elon Musk, is a time management technique that focuses on creating awareness about how exactly you spend your time during the day. The main idea is that with “awareness,” you can strategize more easily and ensure that every part of your day is spent as efficiently as possible. The time blocking technique revolves around dividing your day into smaller periods of time or time blocks. To do it, you should: 1. Divide the entire 24-hour day into smaller chunks of time - time blocks. 2. Try to estimate the time you’ll need to complete your daily tasks and put them into time blocks. 3. There’s no specific recommended length for each time block. It depends on the type of activity or task you are performing. For example, you could create a 3-minute time block for brushing your teeth or a 30-minute block to complete a specific work-related task. As a side note, when you’re just starting out with time blocking, it’s a good idea to create time blocks that are a bit longer. This will allow you to make adjustments on the fly until you completely figure out this time-management method and tailor it to your particular needs and wants. 7. Pickle Jar Theory  Pickle Jar, also known as the Glass Jar time management technique, is a great method for individuals who are good at visualization. To start with the Pickle Jar technique, all you have to do is imagine a pickle or a glass jar that’s filled with sand, pebbles, and rocks. The sand sits at the bottom, and the rocks are at the top of the jar. Everything in the Pickle Jar represents some part of your daily schedule: 1. Sand represents anything that can disrupt you from fulfilling your daily tasks. Here goes everything from social media to unwelcome phone calls. 2. Pebbles represent tasks or other obligations that are not due soon or can be delegated to someone else. 3. Rocks are the most important tasks of the day and should be done first. To successfully master this technique, you should try categorizing all your daily work tasks and obligations into these 3 categories. If you’re dealing with an 8- hour work schedule, try planning for six or seven hours of dealing with “rocks” to leave enough time in case the “sand” decides to veer into your jar. 8. Eat That Frog Technique  The Eat That Frog time management technique was inspired by the famous Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog the first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” To put it simply, the Eat That Frog method revolves around prioritizing and doing the most strenuous and difficult tasks of the day first. The reasoning behind it is that after finishing those tasks, every other work-related obligation will feel easy in comparison. 9. Timeboxing Technique  James Martin was the first to explain and expand on the time boxing technique in his book titled “Rapid Application Development.” Similarly to the time blocking method, the time boxing technique revolves around splitting your day into multiple time boxes and allocating specific tasks to each singular time box. The main difference between these two time management techniques is that time blocking focuses more on when to perform tasks, whereas time boxing is more about limiting the amount of time you spend on each of your daily tasks. The end goal here is to improve your overall efficiency. 10. Deep Work  The deep work time management technique was first introduced to the world by Cal Newport in his book titled “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.” In his works, Cal Newport makes a clear distinction between two types of work: 1. Shallow work - defined as less strenuous or demanding tasks or other work-related activities. 2. Deep work - defined as more demanding or onerous tasks or other work-related activities. To successfully implement the deep work time management technique, you should: a) Create a timetable or leave enough time during your day to perform deep work tasks. During this period, you should focus on the most important activities or tasks only and try your best to remove or minimize any distractions (e.g., turn off your phone). b) Make an effort to schedule deep work activities during that time of the day when you feel like your best self, i.e., when your energy levels are high enough to deal with “deep work.” After completing deep work tasks, ensure you have enough room to complete all of your shallow work activities (e.g., answering unimportant emails), which typically require less energy. 11. The “ABCDE” Method  Like the Eisenhower Matrix, the ABCDE technique aims to help prioritize tasks and revise and optimize the time needed to complete them. Alan Lakein is accredited as the one who created the ABCDE technique for time management. He defined the ideas behind this method in his book called “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life.” To start incorporating the ABCDE method, you should first organize your tasks in the following categories: 1. Category A - is reserved for the most important daily tasks. 2. Category B - for tasks that are important but less so than those from category A. 3. Category C - for activities or tasks that would be nice to do. 4. Category D - tasks in this category should be delegated (e.g., to your team members or other personnel) 5. Category E - this category is reserved for tasks that are not at all necessary to do or important. After categorizing all of your tasks into the above-mentioned groups, start doing the tasks from Category A, then move on to B, and so forth. 6. Pareto Analysis (a.k.a., the 80/20 rule) 12. The Rapid Planning Method or RPM  Created by the motivational speaker Tony Robbins, the Rapid Planning Method or RPM is a popular time management technique. It focuses on helping people train their brains to first envision the success they are trying to achieve and then make it a reality. RPM is about first figuring out the goals that you should focus on and then realizing those goals successfully. Apart from standing for Rapid Planning Method, the acronym RPM, according to Tony Robbins, also means: R - stands for Results-oriented P - stands for Purpose-driven M - stands for Massive Action Plan This time management technique, or “system of thinking,” as Mr. Robbins calls it, is all about focusing on achieving your life goals, completing the most important tasks, and finding the best ways to do just that. 13. The SMART Method  The SMART method is another acronym-based time management system aimed to help you complete your work or life-related tasks with ease. This technique focuses on setting and creating a way of measuring your productivity and efficiency, allowing you to improve both if necessary. SMART stands for: a. Specific - You should define your goals as clearly as possible. With this method, there’s no room for unnecessary procrastination. Figure out what you have to do and do it. b. Measurable - The best way to achieve a certain goal or complete a specific task is to actively measure its progress. You can use any sort of metric for this – from numbers to dividing projects into smaller tasks, anything will work, as long as it works for you. c. Achievable - Make sure your goal is realistic and attainable. Leave room to surpass yourself but don’t set unrealistic goals. d. Relevant - Your goal(s) should always complement the tasks, projects, activities, or long-term plans. Basically, don’t veer into uncharted waters. e. Time-Bound - Set a time limit for achieving goals or completing tasks. 14. The POSEC Method  The POSEC stands for: Prioritize by Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing, and Contributing. This time management method was created and defined by Steven Lam in his book titled “The Posec Method of Time Management.” The main goal of this technique is to improve your work management skills by following five easy steps: 1. Prioritize everything from work-related tasks to life goals and long-term plans. Figure out and prioritize what’s truly important to you, specifically. 2. Organize your tasks into categories and make a plan on how to tackle them head-on. 3. Streamline work or life-related tasks, daily chores, and more. Essentially everything and anything you don’t enjoy doing but have to anyway. 4. Economize on what you enjoy doing, like hobbies or hanging out with friends. 5. Contribute to your society, socialize, and try to make a positive difference. This method is based on the theory called the “Hierarchy of Needs,” first proposed by an American psychologist, Abraham Maslow. 15. Biological Prime Time Technique  Biological Prime Time tries to impose some actual, biological, and scientific facts into time management techniques. The term “Biological Prime Time” was first used by Sam Carpenter in his book “Work The System.” This method for managing time essentially boils down to figuring out the exact time of day when your energy levels are at their highest. After that, the next step is to schedule and do the most important tasks during that time period, when you feel at your best and have the most amount of energy. To successfully implement this time-management technique into your daily schedule, you should: 1. Try to figure out the time of day you are at your best in terms of energy levels, focus, and overall productivity. This process of self-discovery could last up to a month, so don’t worry if you can’t get it in the first couple of days. 2. During the “figuring out” process, try to keep tabs on your focus, energy, and productivity during different times of the day. This will help you zone into your Biological Prime Time more easily. 3. Write down the results for every hour of every day. 4. After a month or so, analyse your results and pinpoint the exact time of the day when your energy levels are at their highest. 5. Once you’ve figured out your BPT, start working on your most important tasks during that exact time period. 6. Leave low-priority tasks for those times in the day when your energy levels are lower. 16. The Pareto Analysis Technique  Pareto Analysis is a time management technique named after and created by an Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. The main idea behind this method is that only 20% of the decisions we make are effectively responsible for 80% of the outcomes we face. The successful implementation of the Pareto Analysis can help you figure out the most practical decision or steps to make to get the best possible outcomes. The most basic way to perform the Pareto Analysis is to: 1. Make a list of the problems you or your team are facing and wish to solve. 2. Try to ascertain the main cause/causes behind each of your problems. Problems can have multiple sources, so don’t limit yourself by assigning just one cause to each of your problems. 3. Give individual scores to problems based on the negative impacts they have. The bigger the negative impact is, the higher an assigned score should be. 4. Organize and categorize problems into groups. For example, you could group problems that have the same root cause. The way you do this is not set in stone. Group up problems in any way you feel will work best for your needs. 5. Add up the scores for each group you’ve created. The group of problems with the highest score is the one you should deal with first. 6. Start dealing with it! 17. The 1-3-5 Technique  The 1-3-5 time management method is a constructive and interesting way to manage your daily tasks. It’s really simple, and if you want to try it out for yourself, you should: 1. Try to categorize all of your daily tasks into these three groups: big, medium, and small. 2. If you have more than one big task, rank them based on their importance and do the one that ranks higher first. 3. Start with 1 big task first and work on it until it's done. 4. The next step is to finish the 3 medium tasks (hence the 1-3-5 name). 5. And, finally, it’s time to complete the 5 small tasks for the day. With this time management technique, it’s important to have a certain degree of flexibility. You won’t always have 3 medium or 5 small tasks, some days you’ll probably be bogged down with big tasks only. If that's the case, rank them based on their importance and complete them in that order.  Time Management Skills Time management skills are the innate or acquired abilities that allow us to efficiently manage our time. Some of the most important time management skills are: 1. Organization Being able to adequately organize both your work and life-related tasks is one of the most important time management skills. Staying organized and knowing what tasks or activities you need to complete and when can make a significant difference when it comes to efficiently managing your time and alleviating stress. If you are not a natural-born organizer, don’t fret, here are some things that you can do to improve your organizational skills: Track your tasks using software, whiteboard, timesheets, or just paper. by throwing out the unnecessary stuff and de-cluttering it can Keep your workspace clean put you in a more positive and productive mindset. Start taking notes about anything and everything study-related. This will help you keep up with all of your deadlines. Categorize your study to make them more accessible based on the parameters documents of your choosing.  2. Concentration Being able to thoroughly concentrate on the task at hand and avoid all distractions is one of the core tenets of successful time management. Periodic distractions, insufficient sleep, unhealthy eating habits, and more can all have a huge negative impact on our productivity. Get rid of distractions - Getting distracted is one of the sure ways of breaking your concentration and slowly veering into procrastination. To prevent this, try to remove anything that can distract you in your work (e.g., turn off your phone and social media notifications). Limit multitasking - Successful multitasking is a difficult skill to master. Doing it poorly can lower your productivity and have a continuous negative impact on your ability to focus. Instead, try to put all of your attention on one task at a time and work on it until it's done. Sleep! - Many studies have shown that not having enough sleep can negatively affect your concentration. Short breaks at the right time - Taking a short break at just the right moment can help you recharge your energy levels and allow you to extend the amount of time you spend fully focused on a task. Healthy habits - Leading a healthy life can have a huge positive impact on your ability to concentrate. Try to eat healthy foods, avoid junk food, include exercise in your weekly routines, and more.  3. Communication and Delegation Communication and delegation go hand in hand, especially when it comes to team leaders and project managers. Being able to communicate and delegate tasks to different students and team members properly can significantly affect your time-management skills. If you are not apt at either communicating or delegating, you might end up bogged with a huge amount of work and not enough time in the day to finish it all. If you are not good at either of these two time-management skills or just want to improve them, here are a couple of things that you can do: Ask the right Use software to questions at the Prepare in advance Listen right time track projects - - One of the main Communication staples of having - By using - If you are unsure is a two-way an effective study dedicated time trackin about your street, at the environment is g software communication skills knowing when to , you can track the at the university try to minimum. To be progress of your works prepare for important effective at it, ask the right and effectively analyze conversations in questions. This can your performance on advance. Go through learn how to prevent any certain types of tasks. the topics you wish to listen to your When you have that cover during your off misunderstandings hours and ensure colleagues, about tasks or data, you can delegate specific tasks others everything you’ll say is concise and straight family members, lectures from ever and take action to the friends, and to the point. happening in the rest of tasks future. others around you.  4. Managing Stress Levels Properly managing your stress levels is one of the core time management skills. Not doing so can negatively affect your health, productivity, and ability to concentrate and can ultimately lead to burnout. There are many ways of successfully dealing with stress. Some of them are: Take regular Get enough Eat a healthy breaks - sleep Study-life balance If it becomes - One of the most diet too much, If your study - Healthy foods - Having a proper includes important can significantly study-life balance can do wonders ask for help elements of improve your - Remember, spending a lot effectively when it comes to of time in front managing stress body's ability to successful stress management. there’s no is to just get deal with shame in of the screen, everyday stress. There are times try to take enough sleep. Try to avoid when you should put your study asking When sugar-filled teachers’ for breaks sleep-deprived, first, but it’s periodically to people are more foods, as they important not to do it all the time help. If all easily irritable can lead to and leave enough else fails, turn allow your eyes sugar crashes and and brain to and less capable negatively affect room in your schedule for your to a of dealing with your stress levels. social life. professional. unwind. stress.  5. Avoiding Procrastination Procrastination means that you postpone an activity. The delayed task needs immediate attention and is highly urgent. It does not usually mean that you decide to take a rest rather than work. It is about doing something else instead of what needs to be done as soon as possible. Procrastination, or too much of it, can have a serious negative impact on your productivity. Here are some things that you can do that might help: Admit to yourself you’re - You can’t effectively deal with any problem if you don’t first admit that you have a problem. If you want to avoid procrastination and improve your overall time management procrastinating skills, the first step to doing so is admitting to yourself you’re in fact procrastinating. Manage your goals Maybe the reason for your procrastination is that your goals are or seem too lofty. Try to set smaller goals that take less time to accomplish. Rid yourself of - Distractions can lead to prolonged periods of procrastination. Try turning off your phone and putting it somewhere outside your immediate reach to remove the urge to check your distractions social media while you study. Set deadlines - One sure way to stop procrastinating is to set and keep deadlines. By having clear and predetermined time restrictions, you can push yourself to finish your work more effectively and in a timely manner. Take - Don’t scrutinize and punish yourself for procrastinating. Realize you’re doing it, take accountability for it, and make adjustments to change your negative accountability behavior.  6. Prioritization Improving your time management skills involves knowing both how and when to prioritize certain tasks. Analyzing all of your work responsibilities and assessing which ones need to be done first is an important step in efficiently meaning your time. There are many ways to manage and effectively prioritize and deal with all of your daily responsibilities. Some of them include: P T M ea -an rs a ik T g o ri m d an cg ia k cn iy a n o lg g u r le t m y at e sa k s rn sk et s v a i e n e fd w f er t ec a tv s i k ev s e w il a y n n g d c ay t n o r u a rb c e k p rd p o r n g o re g e r si e n s s s rd ei fg f u le ar re ln t y cw a y n s. h e lF rp o m y o w u r ci t h i o n o sg e t h w e h im c d h o w o fn o y n o u ra w s th i u t d e y b to a sr d k s t o n e eu sd si n g p r it io rm e i tr ia zc ik i n n g. s o f t w a r e , t a k e y o u r p i c k.  7. Resting Resting is one of the principal ways to keep and maintain high productivity levels. Taking a rest when you need one and using that rest period to revamp your energy levels is a valuable time-management skill. For example, don’t use your time away from a PC or your laptop screen to visit social media sites on your phone. You might think you’re resting, but in fact, you are putting the same strain on your eyes and brain as you would while working.  8. Setting Clear Goals Knowing why and for what purpose you are doing something is important to manage your time productively. Having clear and precise short and long-term goals will give you a purposeful reason to get organized. Having straightforward goals will allow you to better prioritize your work, discern and focus on what’s important, and, at the same time, ditch anything that’s not part of your long-term plans.  9. Scheduling Making a daily schedule, and sticking to it, is one surefire way to bring your time management skills to the next level. You can considerably improve your productivity by planning your entire day and scheduling when to perform certain tasks. Just don’t forget to add rest times to your schedule. Remember that rest and recovery periods are important parts of effective time management.