Time Management for Work: How to Get More Free Time

Time management, for work, school, or just in general, is not a course typically taught in school while you are growing up. You may just think that it’s a skill that some people just have naturally and some people don’t. That isn’t true at all. Time management is a skill that has to be learned, some people just learn it sooner rather than later. Time management for work is especially important, as there aren’t always enough hours in the day to complete everything that needs to be done and nobody likes taking work home night after night. By not working efficiently, many people are sacrificing personal time and time with their family and friends. This, in turn, increases stress, as there never seems to be time to unwind when you’re surrounded by so many tasks.

Even if you didn’t learn time management on your own or while attending school, you can still learn it now. Prioritizing, creating lists, and avoiding distractions are just some of the skills you’ll need to learn in order to properly manage your time. Luckily, there are resources out there for you.

The Importance of Time Management for Work

The most important thing about managing your time wisely is that it decreases the amount of time you spend on tasks and enables you to complete more work in less time. Hourly employees know how hard it can be to complete everything that needs to be done in the 20, 30, 40 hours a week that you’re given. Sometimes you’ll get to the end of the 8-hour workday and realize that you still have seven of the ten tasks on your to-do list left unfinished.

This usually means that it will have to wait for another day or for another employee to complete it, neither of which is the best of options. Those who are salaried know that work-life balance can be extremely difficult, especially since it can feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to complete everything. Working upwards of 50-60+ hours doesn’t leave much free time.

Having time management skills can help to make the most of the hours you have or to decrease the amount of time you’re spending working. Whether you’re trying to fit everything into an 8-hour workday or just trying to decrease the amount of time you’re spending at the office or at home working, if you have good time management you’ll be able to finish the things you need to finish in a reasonable amount of time.

Time management isn’t just about decreasing the amount of time you spend on a task, either. It also helps you to focus more on the task at hand, while expending less effort since you aren’t struggling to stay focused or becoming stressed out over an encroaching deadline. The more you practice your time management skills, the more self-disciplined you are and this can bleed over into other aspects of your life.

Where to Learn Time Management Skills

Time management helps decrease your stress, free up your time, help you learn better self-discipline, and mostly just to get more done in less time with less effort expended. Sounds great, right? But how exactly do you learn time management skills? As mentioned before, it’s really not something you outright learn in K-12 schooling and you probably didn’t take a college course on it either.

While some people do gain time management skills throughout the course of their education, others do not. Sometimes you just need a little extra help. Sometimes you don’t learn in a “trial by fire” sort of way, or you don’t just pick up skills while learning something else. That’s okay! Luckily, there are places out there that will teach you time management skills.

One such place is CreativeLive. Upon first glance, you’ll notice that this appears to be an education site catered to artists. You will find classes on photography, videography, music, art, crafts, etc. This isn’t all CreativeLive has to offer, however. Even if you’re not an artist, you’ll benefit from taking a class or two in the Self-Improvement, Skills, or Entrepreneurship sections of the site.

CreativeLive wants everyone to live their dreams and to learn the skills they need to be successful in life, no matter what their trade or career. They provide accessible classes of a variety of levels so that anyone can log in and gain the knowledge they need to rise up in the world.

On CreativeLive you’ll find a community of professionals and educators, as well as other students from all walks of life. You’ll be able to interact with others and grow from their experiences, not just from the content taught in each course.

How to Learn Time Management Skills

CreativeLive doesn’t just have one course on time management. Anyone can benefit from a basic introductory course but sometimes you need a little more knowledge or to have the material presented in a different way. The great thing is that there are no prerequisites or specific order to the classes available. Simply pick which ones work for you, when they work for you.

‘Time Management 101‘ is a good place to start. In this class, you’ll learn the importance of structure, how to properly use your calendar, how to go beyond just making a to-do list, how to manage your email, and more. Time management isn’t some intangible, mysteries skill. It’s a variety of different skills, strategies, and tools that work together to help you make the most of the time that you have.

This class will not only provide you with the tools you need to manage your time wisely, but it will also help you discover which methods work best for you. You’ll also learn how to avoid distractions, how to delegate tasks that don’t necessarily need to be done by you, and how to prioritize so that you’re focusing on the things that need to be done first.

Another course you can take is ‘The Productivity Life.’ This class is focused on working deliberately and efficiently, not necessarily quickly. You’ll learn how to develop good habits in your life overall, in addition to your time management. Some tasks just aren’t important and this class will teach you how to prioritize and rid yourself of things that aren’t actually important to your day-to-day working success.

You’ll learn the idea of “productive procrastination,” how to make productivity a habit so that you don’t have to think about it to perform it, and how to motivate yourself when you just don’t feel like doing something. The skills you’ll learn in this class can be applied to any aspect of your life, not just work.

‘What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast’ is also an option. This class argues that there is enough time in the day and in the week to finish everything that needs to be done, while also enjoying free time and recreation, it’s just that most people aren’t making correct use of that time.

This course will teach you time management for work but also for the rest of your life. You’ll start off by learning how to log your day – how to write down everything that you do and see how long you’re spending on certain tasks. You will then go on to figure out what your priorities are, what your goals and dreams are, and how to focus on your strengths when working. This class will help you to stop wasting your precious time and start using it effectively.

Become More Efficient

Anyone can benefit from a time management for work course, even those who think they already manage their time well. Some people do get everything they need to finish done over the course of the week, but when they look at the amount of time they spent on it, they may find it was far more than they really needed to.

People who just can’t say no and take on too much can also benefit from taking a time management course. Learning to prioritize and cut out things that aren’t important is a vital aspect of managing your time well.

Time management is about so much more than just making a to-do list. It is about setting achievable goals. It’s about filling your time in the most productive way possible and about not spending more time than you need to on your work. It’s about maximizing your task completion while decreasing the amount of effort spent just trying to get it done.

Practical, concrete things like using a calendar or keeping up with your email are also small yet necessary things on the path to proper time management. Whatever your job and however well you feel you manage your time, go ahead and take a course. You may find that you learn something and that your work (and your life) ends up being much less stressful and far more productive.