I love exploring ways to manage my time more efficiently, but sometimes I take it for granted that everybody immediately understands the benefits associated with better time management.
Of course, when you’re close up and involved with something all the time, it is easy to make assumptions about what others know and don’t know.
And if someone tells that you should work on managing your time better, it’s fair to expect a response of “Why?”
Time management takes planning and effort, so if you’re going to invest effort, you need to know what’s in it for you, right?
Well, there’s quite a lot in it for you, actually.
So, in this post, I want to highlight the very real benefits that come with implementing strategies to manage your time more efficiently.
This really is something that can change your life for the better.
It’s not just about being more productive at work and becoming some kind of automaton. This a genuine life skill that will help you get more out of your life.
At some point in our lives, I’m sure every single one of us has experienced the repercussions of not being organized with our time.
For example, how many of these can you relate to?
- Rushing about – everything is done last-minute
- Getting stressed
- Being late
- Feeling impatient
- Missing deadlines
- Failing exams
- Putting things off
- Turning in poor work
- Neglecting family and friends
- Poor health
- Lack of sleep
- Unclear goals
I’ve no doubt you have experienced at least a handful of these.
And most of them, if not all, can be avoided through the implementation of some simple time management strategies, many of which I have covered elsewhere on this blog.
So, if you need some convincing that time management is worth the effort, here are the benefits to life that you can experience when you improve your time management skills.
1. You get more done
Time is finite and one of the first benefits of managing your time well is that you can achieve and experience more.
Sure, you’ll be able to get more done at work, but you’ll also be able to make more time available to spend on your personal interests and hobbies and with your friends and family.
Life isn’t all about work and you deserve time to enjoy life and do the stuff you want to do.
If being able to get more done with your life doesn’t convince you, I’m not sure what else will, but I’ve got nine more for you anyway, coz I’m kind of a zealot like that. 🙂
2. Less stress
Ok, so maybe getting more done doesn’t do it for you. But how about less stress?
Who doesn’t want less stress in their lives?
If you have greater control over how you spend and allocate your time, you a far less likely to feel stressed. Stress is your body’s reaction to a situation, but if you structure your day the right way, you can avoid a lot of stress-provoking situations.
This relates not only to things like planning work-time appropriately so that you do not miss deadlines but also scheduling sufficient leisure time.
Read more: How Time Management Can Reduce Stress >>>
3. Better decision-making
Something I have found personally since I have created more structure in my days is that I have become a lot more efficient at making decisions.
Part of this is due to the way that I have learnt to prioritize my tasks (see below) so that the unimportant and non-urgent things going on in my life take a back seat or get dropped or delegated to someone else, which involves less need to decision-making on my part.
4. More successful in career and life
This is a fantastic by-product of being better at managing your time.
Managing your time makes you more organized, but it also encourages you to use strategies that help you focus your attention on a given task, enabling you to maximize the time allocated to it.
Time management techniques like the Pomodoro Technique and understanding how to create the right environment for deep work can be invaluable in making progress in your career and your life generally.
Read more: Time Management Tips From Successful People >>>
5. Better work-life balance
There is a misconception that time management only relates to time spent working, but it can (and possibly should) be applied to your leisure time as well.
Protecting your time outside work is important for your mental and physical health and your relationships.
The effective use of time management techniques for your free time can help you to achieve that often-elusive work-life balance.
Read more: How To Achieve A Work-Life Balance >>>
Read more: Why You Should Schedule Your Free Time >>>
6. Important stuff receives more attention
To manage your time well you need to prioritize the things you do. Far too often people waste their time on tasks that provide an outcome of little or no value instead of focusing on the things that make big differences in our lives.
Learning how to prioritize your To-Do list will ensure you focus your attention on the important things and let those of no importance slide.
This applies to your work, your health and your relationships.
Read more: How To Focus At Work And While Studying >>>
7. Boosts morale & confidence
Getting things done produces a feeling of accomplishment and a nice little dopamine hit.
There’s nothing better than the satisfaction of completing a task and reviewing what you have achieved over any given day, week, month or year.
8. Living life, less rushed
Sometimes, you’ve got to “stop and smell the roses”.
Life is short and time goes quickly and in the modern world and so it is easy to forget to take the time to slow down and enjoy the experience of the here and now and truly live in the moment.
People spend too much time ruminating about the past and worrying about the future, but having more control over your time can help overcome this.
9. More organized
Show me someone who manages her time well and I can pretty much guarantee that all aspects of her life are organized.
Being organized means you’re less likely to be late for everything, you’re in control and less likely to get flustered.
If you’re organized, it’s much easier to be successful in whatever you turn your attention to.
10. Less procrastination
Chronic procrastinators waste so much time in life.
While the causes of procrastination can be complex, being organized with your time will go a long way to fixing many of them.
Scheduling your time and adopting strategies like ‘eating the frog’ will make it far more likely that you procrastinate on tasks, especially the important ones.
Without wishing to encourage procrastination in readers already susceptible to it, I’d like to invite you to take a few minutes to watch this wonderful Ted Talk by Tim Urban of the awesome ‘Wait But Why‘ website.
For some tips on how to stop procrastinating, check out this post.
Time Hack Hero Takeaway
If you were doubting the benefits of adopting time management techniques, I hope that the ten benefits I have outlined here are enough to convince you.
Admittedly, time management can be hard and requires a considerable amount of effort, discipline, planning and sometimes, learning.
But I truly believe that the potential results massively outweigh the input required.
Many people try to improve their time management and fail, but there are usually good reasons for that happening and if you know the pitfalls, you can reduce the likelihood of failure.
With this blog, I am aiming to collate, discuss and share all the best methods I can find to help you find success with time management, so feel free to look around and check out the other posts.
[Featured image credit: Pexels]