Time Management AppsHow To Build Time Management Skills
If you work from home, you have the freedom to choose how to use every minute of the day. But without good organization, you can find yourself wasting a lot of your precious time.
Countless apps, tools, and systems aim to help you better manage your time. Get too bogged down on these apps and you’ll waste all your time working out how to use all of their features! The best time management apps perform a specific simple duty for you in a manner better than traditional time-keeping methods can. Supercharge Your To-Do Lists
For example, you may jot your tasks down in a to-do list on a pad. Apps like Remember The Milk and Todoist work to replace that to-do list with a convenient app that syncs across all of your devices. You can get reminders by email, Twitter, Skype, or mobile app. Tasks can be broken down further into subtasks, and you can share to-do lists with your colleagues and family.
You might consider using an app like Remember The Milk if you find yourself coming up with small things all the time that you want to remember. Split Your Work into Manageable Chunks with Pomodoro Apps
What about organizing your time throughout the day so you can always concentrate on the task at hand?
Francesco Cirillo created the Pomodoro time management technique in the 1980s. You break your time into high-attention 25-minute sessions followed by breaks of 3-5 minutes. Online apps like Tomato Timer make trying out this focusing technique easy. You might find that 25 minutes isn’t the right amount of time to get a good chunk of work done each time. Depending on your line of work, consider adjusting to 90-minute sessions followed by 20-minute breaks. The important thing is to work when you’re supposed to work and rest when you’re supposed to rest. This allows you to maintain intense focus on your work for sustained periods without getting burned out. Manage Team Project Time Effectively with Project Management Tools
You probably don’t just have to worry about your own time – you need to consider the time of others working on a project together with you. Often, they’ll be waiting for you to complete a task or you’ll be waiting for them.
The more people involved in a project and the more intertwined tasks to keep track of the more difficult project management becomes. Collaborative project management apps like Trello and Asana make organizing and prioritizing tasks between team members easier. Everyone has access to the same boards through their browsers and phones, and tasks can be set dependencies so you can see what needs to be completed first and the knock-on effects of missing deadlines. Project management tools like Trello are good for high-level management of time without getting bogged down micromanaging the time spent on every task. See How You Really Spend Your Time with Time Tracking Software
Do you sometimes wonder where the day went? Time tracking software like RescueTime and Toggl can automatically logs the applications and websites that you spend your time using so at the end of the day you can check out reports that help you understand your daily habits better.
With a paid subscription, these apps can be set to alert you when you’ve achieved your daily goals or block websites that are distracting you. Similar apps are available for your smartphone, which should really be banished from your home office when you’re trying to get work done. Build Healthy Habits
It can take time to build healthy habits like periodically stretching or drinking more work. Habit training apps like HabitMinder can gently prod you to form these healthy habits and keep you accountable with reports and sessions screens. You can choose from predefined habits or create some of your own.
Use Time Management Apps to Your Advantage
There’s been surprisingly little research into whether time management apps can help productivity significantly. An important thing to remember is the time management app is great at helping you track time on a task once you’ve decided to prioritize it, but it’s still up to you to prioritize the right things in the first place.
AuthorMandy Fard is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW, CMRW) and Recruiter with decades of experience in assisting job seekers, working directly with employers in multiple industries, and writing proven-effective resumes. |
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AuthorMandy Fard is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW, CMRW) and Recruiter with decades of experience in assisting job seekers, working directly with employers in multiple industries, and writing proven-effective resumes. Archives
October 2024
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