If you’re a professional, then you‘d know that time saving tips can make you excel in your tasks. Proper time management can really help you become successful – do you agree?
You must’ve heard of the popular phrase, “time is money”. In fact, the wise know that time is more valuable than money.
The time that you save, not only aids you in your professional endeavors, but also helps balance your personal, social, and professional aspects of life.
Learning work-life balance skills is important for all professionals, including bloggers. I guess bloggers need to know more about how to save time and balance their work and life.
Few months back, Corina wrote a guest post for me – “3 Tips to Maintain a Work-Life Balance Working From Home”. I’m sure that’ll help most of you lead a better life.
Your work life balance depends on how you divide and manage your time.
Be honest and tell me, don’t you often overwork yourself – just to achieve your targets.
By overwork, I mean you put in extra time to either complete your job or increase your productivity.
You thus actually exploit your time resources.
I confess that I too do that at times, more often than I should be doing.
But have you ever considered the implications of this seemingly harmless or useful practice?
Have you ever thought about where this extra time comes from?
Either you take out time from what you had previously allotted for some other work, or from your “me” time. Or you use the time that you had reserved to spend with your family and friends.
Therefore, unknowingly, in order to complete one task, you make yourself suffer from three losses.
One, you overwork yourself, which may mean that you tire yourself, thus you end up spending more time on your tasks. Remember if you overwork beyond certain limits, your productivity decreases.
Two, the time to recharge yourself or your free time decreases, thus you’re not as creative or innovative as you should be, due to which your job suffers.
Three, the lack of time and disturbed schedule may cause a domino effect and adversely affect your other tasks, making you stressed out.
Additionally, if you had committed time to your family or friends, they also suffer because of your overworking.
Not to forget that your chronic overworking can lead to health issues in the long run too.
But the good news is that you can save yourself from all these problems if you learn some time management tips.
I’ve already defined time management and given important tips for time management in this post that you must read – “6 Easy Tips for Time Management You Need to Know”.
“Your greatest resource is your time.” ~ Brian Tracy
6 Time Saving Tips for the Overworked
Let me tell you, it might be okay overworking occasionally, but it’s not good being chronically overworked.
According to a reported study, long hours at work may not correlate with financial success.
You might commit more mistakes if you spend long hours working. Moreover, you will be fatigued, and might even compromise productivity.
Instead of overworking, it’s better and wiser to learn time-saving tricks to gain more time that you can use productively, instead of using your already assigned time resources.
Here’s an infographic that I came across and found it worthy to share with you.
It enumerates 7 simple time-saving tricks for the overworked that eventually make the task of time management easier for you.
What do you think of these tricks or tips to save time?
Though all these tips are great, I personally like two out of all the time saving tips, which I need to implement with immediate effect.
Dealing with small tasks immediately and setting feasible deadlines for the tasks. Setting realistic deadlines help you remain motivated and mobilize the best skills to be more productive.
I feel the pending small tasks and the indecision on matters that seem small and unimportant weigh more on you and cause more anxiety. So, it’s important to not keep them pending.
Deadlines are so helpful if you use them as mentioned in the tip, else it can be counterproductive and cause work stress instead. What do you think?
You’ve to be realistic because things often take more time than we assume.
Thus, it’s also important to have a schedule and plan your work well in advance.
I’m sure you make “to do” lists and use the related facilities provided in your mobile, computer, web, or pen them in your writing pad or diary.
Okay, what do you do the first thing in the morning when you open your computer or laptop?
Make a rough plan for the day, check mail, approve comments, track your sales, analyze the analytics, or other things.
I think your choices decide the kind of day you’ll have. If you plan your day and make a to-do list the first thing, you’ll be able to know your priorities and sideline the “not-so-important” or “can-be-done-later tasks”, isn’t it?
As far as sharing of work is concerned, if you’re managing your blog alone, I’m sure you can delegate tasks to others using the services of experts at Fiverr or virtual assistants online.
“To do two things at once is to do neither.” ~ Publius Syrus
One has to be careful when you are working alone, because some of you might try to multitask.
You need to know that for quality output you need to devote yourself to do one task at a time. If you don’t, you might’ve to spend more time producing quality work.
Also, working online is like walking on a landmine – you never know when and what you will step on, or what will distract you and take you completely off guard.
Your strong commitment and concentration will keep you safe or focused.
Apart from these tips, studies indicate that the time in the morning is the most productive. Remember, early birds feel less overworked than those who like to work late night.
I can personally vouch for this fact. I observe my work pace slows down when I work late nights whether I’m working on the posts, managing social media, and answering to comments on my blog.
However, I know many people, especially bloggers, prefer working late at night and that’s entirely up to you and the choices you make.
Lastly, if you’re passionate about your work and happy with your own self, the chances are that you don’t feel overloaded even if you overwork. That’s because you enjoy your work.
But excess and regular overwork is harmful in any case.
Yes, I try not to overwork myself, though sometimes I am – I must confess! But these time saving tips come handy and are a great reminder to make best use of the time dedicated to a job, aren’t they?
Oh, how can I forget to reward myself when I complete a task on time without overworking on it?
I like to treat myself by taking out a little time to watch my favorite TV shows while sipping my coffee. 🙂 What are your ways to reward yourself?
Hey! The weekend is almost here, so aren’t you going to take a break and have fun being away from work!!
Reclaim your weekends, recharge yourself, and increase your productivity.
No more being overworked and feeling overloaded. Off I go for my much needed weekend break! 🙂
“Weekends do not count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.” ~ Bill Watterson
Over to you –
What do you do when you’re overworked? How do you save your time while at work? Share your tips and tricks in the comments.
Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos