Time Management and its impact on Productivity

Time is a precious and limited resource. We live in high-speed times, where everything is for “yesterday”, we are always in fifth or sixth (this is for those who still remember what it is like to have gears in the car) and in constant acceleration. Worse is that nowadays it is fashionable not to have time! If you can’t do, gather, sit down, talk, it’s actually seen as a “good” indicator. This resource, already inherently limited, becomes even more limited, because we have created the habit of thinking that we always have little of it.

Associated with this habit, or escape, or need, there is difficulty in managing this resource. Not only at the level of controlling the use of the effective real time that we have or believe we have, but also at the level of its organization and prioritization – whether in a more personal or professional area of ​​life. On the one hand, we manage to control more effectively what we have to do, we have more management software available in companies, we have more devices where agendas are available at all times, making everything easier. However, this facilitation does not generate more time or less delays. We continue to be unproductive, to arrive late and to constantly complain about the lack of quality of life, in short, we still have no time! It becomes irrelevant to have various means if we do not know how to use them effectively and productively.

We couldn’t talk about time management without mentioning the main resource we have – ourselves. The fact that we are not machines, means we need to worry about our health – Physical, mental and social. We need to rest, to have energy, to have happiness, to have stability, to smile. Our physical state influences our emotional state and this influences our actual productivity as well, the opposite also happens. Several researches and scientific studies show that positivism, for example, improves our immune and heart systems.

Another issue is really realizing how busy we are. Being busy is NOT being productive! To determine what is important and what is urgent, as well as the order in which daily activities are carried out, we analysed the Eisenhower Matrix, developed by former US President Dwight Eisenhower. In this matrix are identified the important urgent activities – to be done immediately, the unimportant urgent activities – to delegate, the important non-urgent activities – to be scheduled and the non-urgent and unimportant activities – to eliminate. It is therefore important to know how to define objectives and divide them into several categories, thus scheduling their execution.

We can use the SMART technique to set smarter goals:

S = specific

M = measurable

A = attainable

R = relevant

T = time-based

Instead of setting general goals, such as “being happy”, it is important to set daily, weekly and/or monthly goals to achieve them more quickly and effectively: “do 30 minutes of exercise a day; Gadget-free dinner to spend more time with the family.”

The use of mobile devices can also be a decisive factor in the lack of time. It is important to think about the number of hours dedicated to these devices and with what purpose. We often resort to them unnecessarily, they didn’t ring, there are no messages, there are no alerts, we won’t see anything objective, it becomes more of a habit, in this case a bad habit that consumes time. Once again, it is positive that these resources exist, we have to learn to use them productively and not dependently.

The Pomodoro technique, developed by the Italian Francesco Cirillo, is a great ally of focus and productivity. It is so called because its creator used a tomato-shaped kitchen stopwatch to time his daily tasks. This methodology consists of 25 minutes of focused and uninterrupted work, followed by 5 minutes of rest or leisure.

The secret to success is balance. Moments of rest are necessary to recharge your energies and give even more meaning to your goals. The brain can make you feel anxious and/or unproductive during these times. But these moments of break are as important and necessary as any moment of work – it is therefore crucial that they are managed with intelligence and focus, in order to achieve defined objectives.

Teleworking or the possibility of working in a “mixed” way can be an important ally in time management and in the possibility of having more time available. However, here too there are dangers, being a matter still unknown. If the available time is misused, or used in an unproductive way, not taking into account the goals to be achieved, it will simply serve to create more distraction, in the end resulting in a waste of time!

The real power is not in having many tools, strategies and options, but in knowing how to control them, controlling ourselves.