To succeed in the work environment, managing your time and productivity is essential. Time management can have a big impact on your performance, whether you are a business owner, a student, or an employee.

In this article, you will learn tips to improve your time management and grow your productivity. You will soon realize that they are both interconnected!

1. The 4 Ps of time management

To begin, practice the 4 Ps of time management.

Prioritize

The first P is prioritize, you have to prioritize your tasks. Make a list of all your tasks and then rank them in order of importance. 

But be careful, a to-do list can be very useful but sometimes it can be so long that you don’t know where to start. 

To prioritize correctly you can use the Eisenhower matrix:

Green is the most important task, the one to whom you must give priority. 

Orange are the tasks that are important but not urgent. So you just have to schedule these tasks. 

Blue and red are tasks that are not important, these tasks should be delegated or even deleted. 

Plan

After prioritizing your tasks, you have to schedule them. For this, you can use a daily or weekly planner. 

There are digital tools to help you plan and organize your tasks like Trello or Monday.com. 

→ Discover our selection of top tools for business owners to improve productivity. 

Prepare

After the planning is the preparation. It consists of verifying that you have everything you need to complete your tasks efficiently such as tools, books, or information.  

Perform

Once everything is ready, it is time to perform! Which means that you have to complete your tasks. To perform regularly, you can break down your tasks into smaller ones and work on them. 

Click here if you would like to learn more about the 4 Ps of Time Management. 

2. Avoid multitasking

The research of the American Psychological Association shows that multitasking could be very dangerous as mental juggling reduces efficiency and productivity. Multitasking often induces risk, one of the main examples being texting and driving at the same time.

3. Takes breaks

Many people don’t take a break but in fact, it has a direct impact on boosting your productivity. 

Taking a break helps to refresh your brain and restore your motivation, especially for time-consuming tasks). Moreover, working for long hours without taking breaks caused stress and exhaustion so take a break!

Find out more about how work breaks help your brain!

4. Evaluate and change

The last tip is to evaluate your way of working. For every action you make at work, it’s important to analyze and maybe improve this action. So the workflow can be evaluated and improved depending on many factors such as your tasks and employees. 

To conclude, managing time is essential for improving your productivity and reaching your professional goals. By following this guide and using the appropriate tools, you can maximize your time and become more productive.

Sources:

• The 4 P’s of time management 
• American Psychological Association
• 10 tips of time management
• Taking breaks