What Exactly Is Time Management
Time management is being smart with your time.
Or more explicitly: Time management is the strategic allocation and regulation of your time to maximize efficiency, productivity and value in your professional life.
Of course, this value is not just value for your corporation, but also value for your career…
Done right, time management involves planning, prioritizing, and executing tasks in a way that aligns with your and your employer’s mutual goals and objectives. It ensures that you are focusing on high-value activities that drive success, rather than getting bogged down by low-priority tasks.
Importance of Time Management
Whether you like it or not, effective time management is crucial for career success.
Research indicates that effective time management is increasingly linked to better job performance today, when compared to the early 1990s (source). This is likely because employers care more about actual productivity and results, rather than mere busyness (more on this later). But it could also be a result of improved time management methodologies. You be the judge…
It’s also worth noting that, poor time management is associated with negative outcomes, including poor job quality, low productivity, detrimental impacts on career progression, and high levels of stress (source).
Given these findings, mastering time management is not a choice. Of course, what you master and how you master it makes a tremendous difference in your career trajectory.
Mainstream Tips About Time Management
Mainstream sources offer valuable advice on managing your time effectively at work. Although these sources do not consider the social dynamics or office politics in their tips, all other factors being equal, they provide valid advice – which is why we think you need to be familiar with these steps.
Here are some key tips compiled from Slack and Asana:
Tips from Slack
- Know How You’re Spending Your Time: Track your activities to identify where your time goes.
- Stick to a Daily Schedule: Plan your day and follow the schedule to maintain structure.
- Prioritize: Focus on the most important tasks first.
- Automate Repetitive Tasks: Use tools and software to automate routine tasks.
- Tackle the Most Difficult Task First: Address challenging tasks when your energy levels are highest.
- Batch-Process Similar Tasks: Group similar tasks together to improve efficiency.
- Put AI to Work: Leverage AI tools where you can.
- Set Reasonable Time Limits: Allocate specific time frames for tasks to stay on track.
- Learn When to Say No: Protect your time by declining non-essential tasks. (Note: this can be terrible advice if you say no to the wrong person. Learn to differentiate. Never say no to your boss, or anyone in any position who has the authority to fire you. Instead, learn to upmanage and get them to say no for you.)
- Avoid Multitasking: Focus on one task at a time to improve quality and efficiency.
- Keep Things Organized: Maintain an organized workspace and system to enhance productivity.
For more details, refer to Slack’s guide here.
Additional Tips from Asana
Asana’s list is very similar to Slack’s, but it introduces some important concepts you might want to explore further. These include:
- Timeboxing: Allocate fixed time periods to specific tasks.
- Time Blocking: Schedule blocks of time for different tasks or activities.
- Pomodoro Method: Work in focused intervals with short breaks in between. (More on this later)
- Eat the Frog: Complete your most challenging task first thing in the morning.
- Pareto Principle: Focus on the 20% of tasks that will deliver 80% of the results.
For further insights, check Asana’s recommendations here.
Yes, integrating these strategies can help you manage your time more effectively… But…
When you do a fast job, you only get rewarded with more of the same category of work – without any adjustment to your scope, compensation, title, or status.
Therefore, whether or not this effective time management is beneficial or detrimental to your career development must be evaluated; and it depends on a lot of factors.
The Main Issue with Mainstream Time Management Tips
Mainstream time management tips can provide a solid foundation for improving productivity, but they tend to be overly simplistic and lack the critical awareness required for using time toward career advancement.
Here are some key critical considerations:
Getting Ahead
Mainstream time management tips neglect the importance of visibility and strategic actions that lead to promotions and career advancements.
Simply managing your time well is not enough; you must also ensure that your efforts are noticed by key decision-makers. Yes, it is a net good to make you more efficient. But no, it is incomplete unless this efficiency is integrated with and directed towards boosting your visibility and self-promotion.
Lack of Contextual Adaptation
Mainstream tips on time management are one-size-fits-all suggestions. They do not account for the unique demands of different industries and roles. In the ideal world, these tips work. But in the real world, you need methods that align with their specific career goals and organizational cultures. Without this customization, following generic advice might not help your career.
For example, mainstream tips on time blocking might overlook the flexible, client-driven nature of consulting roles. In consulting, success often hinges on adaptability and responsiveness to client needs, which may require rapid task-switching and dynamic scheduling.
In other words, tips need to be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Overemphasis on Efficiency Over Effectiveness
Many time management tips focus on making you more efficient – doing things faster. However, efficiency without effectiveness can lead to busywork rather than meaningful progress.
While the 80/20 rule tries to aim at effectiveness, the problem is that it is done in the wrong spirit: They teach you to use 80/20 to identify quick wins, and to get work out of the way, rather than using 80/20 to work on high-impact projects and initiatives that create value and get you ahead.
Remember: it’s not about getting things done, and how fast you get things done. It’s about creating and controlling value.
Neglect of Strategic Prioritization
Tips like “tackle the most difficult task first” or “batch-process similar tasks” are useful but often miss the bigger picture of strategic prioritization.
What is strategic prioritization? Simply put: High performers need to prioritize not just based on task difficulty or similarity but on strategic importance and impact of the completed task on their career trajectory.
Does completing this task faster help make you more visible? Does it open new opportunities? Does it reflect on your performance review?
Focus on activities that drive significant results and opportunities for advancement.
Potential for Burnout
Time blocking, or timeboxing can lead to burnout if not managed carefully. While these methods help maintain focus, they can also create undue pressure and reduce flexibility, making it harder to adapt to unexpected challenges and opportunities that are critical for career growth.
As you get more efficient, you need to become better at managing burnout.
Inadequate Focus on Networking and Relationship Building
Mainstream tips often overlook the importance of networking and relationship building, which are crucial for career development.
How does networking and relationship building relate to time management? We’ll tell you, thanks for asking:
Time management should not only be about individual productivity but also about creating time for mentorship, collaboration, and building a professional network that can support your career advancement. These concepts are considerably more important than how good of an employee you are and how fast you get things done. Meaning: they need to be deeply interlinked with all your work efforts, including time management.
In other words: teaching you the Pomodoro method is incorrect, unless it is taught in the context of helping you liberate your time from busy work toward networking… Or to use the Pomodoro method as a teaching tool to get more visibility on your team, and be recognized for your efforts.
Getting Pigeonholed
Getting really good at certain time management techniques can lead to being pigeonholed in specific roles or tasks. If you become known only for your efficiency in certain areas, you might miss out on new opportunities that are essential for career growth.
Diversify your skill set and seek varied responsibilities to avoid being pigeonholed.
Even Bigger Issue: Efficiency Versus Looking Busy
Mainstream time management strategies can lead to you appearing less busy than you’re supposed to be. Or even less busy than you actually are…
This, of course, can be detrimental, as appearing too available may give the impression of underutilization or lack of responsibility, potentially undermining your perceived value and career advancement.
Remember: In the corporate world, unless you work in a results only work environment (ROWE), you are not only paid for the value you create, but you are also implicitly paid for your efforts. Companies often pay lip service to valuing efficiency, but in practice, they also value employees who visibly exert effort and engagement.
In other words, they don’t only want you to work and create results, but they also want you to work hard. (Incidentally, this is why a lot of managers subconsciously want you in the office.)
Ultimately, balancing visible productivity is crucial to ensuring your contributions are recognized and valued appropriately in the workplace. If you make it look too easy, you will get punished for it.
Therefore, it’s crucial to manage not only your actual workload but also the perception of your workload to align with corporate expectations.
A New Attitude Toward Time Management at Work
Now that you know where we are coming from… Let’s discuss some high-level time management skills for the workplace:
Strategic Visibility
Balance efficiency with strategic visibility. While maximizing productivity is crucial, ensure your efforts are visible and aligned with corporate expectations.
Regularly communicate your progress and achievements to stakeholders, and incessantly emphasize the value you bring to the organization. Remember: their job is to make you work hard, while your job is to make sure that your hard work is recognized and valued appropriately, contributing to your career advancement.
Perception Management
Manage the perception of your workload effectively. Recognize that in many corporate environments, appearing busy is often as important as delivering results. Be cautious of making tasks look too effortless; unless you are going to be explicitly recognized and rewarded for introducing new efficiencies.
This doesn’t mean fake work and appear busy when you’ve got nothing to do. But it does mean having clear communication channels open with your management, and presenting your efficiency as a value rather than a lack of busyness.
In simpler terms: every time you beat time expectations, you need to make it painfully obvious that you found a “faster way to do it”.
This proactive approach helps solidify your reputation as a committed and valuable team member.
Building Relationships
Getting your work done faster should not be used to ask for more work in a knee-jerk reaction.
Instead, with the time you save through your better time management practices, build strategic relationships across departments and levels of the organization.
Especially focus on cultivating mentorship relationships, and seeking feedback from senior colleagues. Ideally, target and generate benefactors.
High Impact Time Management Techniques
With the correct attitudes in place, let’s now talk about time management techniques that have disproportionately high returns for the effort involved.
Identify & Prioritize High-Impact Tasks
Not all tasks are created equal.
Focus on tasks that align with strategic priorities and have a significant impact on your career trajectory. Prioritize activities that contribute directly to organizational goals and demonstrate your ability to drive results.
Use techniques like the Eisenhower Matrix and SMART goal setting; make sure your time is dedicated to activities that deliver the highest value.
Implement the Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique involves working in focused intervals (usually 25 minutes), followed by a short break. This method helps maintain high levels of concentration and combats fatigue.
After four intervals, take a longer break to recharge.
Using a timer is critical for training in this technique; make sure you get an alarm when the time is up. Also, learning to walk away from incomplete tasks, at least until the next interval begins, is a counter intuitive but extremely effective component of this technique.
Remember: It’s like learning to ride a bike. It’s slower than running at first, but once you’ve got it – you can go a lot faster.
Yes, it takes a couple of days to get used to the Pomodoro Technique, but in our experience it is the single most effective change you can do to get more out of your time.
Leverage Technology
Utilize productivity tools and apps to streamline your workflow. Task management platforms like Trello, Asana, or Todoist can help organize tasks and track progress. Calendar tools like Google Calendar can schedule tasks and set reminders, ensuring you stay on top of your responsibilities without missing deadlines.
Last but not least, AI tools like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini can help you eliminate time consuming and cumbersome tasks. We recommend that you use these tools wherever possible, after, of course, going through their privacy policies.
Conduct a Time Audit
Perform a time audit to identify activities that waste time or add little value. You do this by tracking your activities for a week, and categorizing them into productive and non-productive tasks.
Once you know the lay of the land; eliminate or delegate low-value tasks, and reallocate that time to more impactful activities. (Hint: activities that help get you ahead)
Minimize Interruptions
Interruptions can severely disrupt your focus and productivity. Set boundaries by scheduling specific times for checking emails and messages, rather than responding in real-time. Use ‘Do Not Disturb’ modes on devices during deep work sessions to minimize distractions. And train everyone to interface with you with a 24 hour turnaround.
For most upper managers and executives, this practice is already part of work culture, and needs little explaining. But if you still work with a direct supervisor or a boss that is involved with your work day to day, you should learn how to setup boundaries so that you are not expected to be available at their whim. Since this is a delicate subject, we discuss this at length in our events. But for the impatient, a publicly available and safe starting point is being proactive and basically “giving your boss what they will ask for, before they ask for it”.
Finally, to minimize interrupts, we also recommend setting up meetings with yourself to block time where you want to focus on important, high impact work.
Practice Deep Work
Pomodoro isn’t just for scheduling. It’s also mean to help you do deep work.
Deep work involves uninterrupted, focused periods dedicated to complex tasks that require significant cognitive effort. The goal is to achieve flow states, and become highly effective.
Set aside specific blocks of time for deep work. You may want to vary the timing of your Pomodory sequences; 25 minutes for regular work, 90 minutes for deep work.
During deep work, make sure you are free from distractions and interruptions. We recommend closing your office door, turning off your phone, email as well as any background distractions such as music. (Note: If work in an open office environment, you may want to book a meeting room, go offsite or work from home.)
Conclusion
As you can see, our time management recommendations all tie together:
- You identify and work on activities that give you the most benefit.
- You delegate or eliminate activities or interrupts that get in the way.
- You hyper focus on what you’re doing, one thing at a time.
- You limit your focused time to explicit intervals with a timer.
And of course, you do all of this – not to get more work assigned, but to use the free time to enhance your relationships, generate visibility, work on achieving larger scope accomplishments, and ultimately – get ahead.
Remember this: your real job is not your job. Your real job is building your career.
And this isn’t necessarily selfish, or selfish in the negative, destructive sense. The more you build your career, the more you increase your scope and responsibilities, the more value you create for the world.
Your job is to achieve the highest and best use of your time. That doesn’t happen by working harder, or working faster.
It happens by working smarter and being strategic about where you apply your time.