Time Management Courses

What is Time Management?

Time management is the active process of planning how time is spent in an effort to maximize productivity. It involves planning and organizing daily activities into specific time periods to increase efficiency and increase the likelihood that required tasks get worked on or completed. Effective time management can give the impression of increasing one’s available time because task lists get completed within set hours freeing up time later in the period for other things. Within organizations, time management seeks to reduce wasted time by prioritizing projects and work that have the greatest impact on financial goals. Employee time is engaged strategically to maximize revenue. Tools for effective time management include setting goals, creating lists, using calendars and ranking tasks.

Online Courses in Professional Skills and Time Management

Time management is an essential skill for managers. Strategic business management, project management and operations management are just a few of the areas where effective time management is critical for success. Professional soft skills training is available online from RIT, Fullbridge and a number of other institutions. Learn teamwork, leadership and communications skills as well as how to analyze and solve time-sensitive problems. These are important foundational skills that employers look for when hiring new business and management talent.

Also consider enrolling in a course in project management. Introduction to Project Management from the University of Adelaide focuses on the key skills of the project management profession such as time planning, project scoping and schedule management that can be applied to your own life. Complete this course in as little as six weeks and discover tools and methods to increase productivity and efficiency in your own work or career.

Explore these and other online courses on edX. Many are self-paced so you can enroll and start learning today.

What is an Example of Poor Time Management?

Imagine you are in college and you have a homework assignment, a quiz worth 10% of your final grade, and a test that is worth 30% of your overall grade all for tomorrow. You have a second job after classes, so your time is already limited. Let’s assume that you have had no additional time to prepare for these three assignments, so you need to prioritize what to do that night via time management.

You consider finishing the homework assignment first because it will take less time to complete than studying for a quiz or test. The idea of feeling like you are accomplishing small tasks may feel good, but this is poor time management via the broader scope. Many of us fall into this thinking because we want to explore the sense of accomplishment by finishing something easy first before getting to the hard stuff. The quiz and test are far more critical to do well in than completing a homework assignment for a class, but a lot of us give these less time than they deserve.

Taking this example above, you should focus on studying for the test since that is worth 30% of your grade. Any additional time you have left over should be dedicated to studying for the quiz since that is 10% of your final grade. If you have time at the end where you are prepared for both your test and quiz, you should complete the homework assignment.

In today’s world, you will have decisions like this example above to make every day. Whether you are in an office, at home, with friends, or more, you will have to learn how to balance what needs your attention adequately between other commitments. Having excellent time management skills can also relieve stress that emerges when you feel overwhelmed.

How Can Poor Time Management Skills Cause Conflicts in a Company?

Missing deadlines, financial losses due to incomplete work, and stress between team members is a common outcome of poor time management. Too often, we have to depend on others to help push assignments and projects through. If you find that you are spending too much time on duties that are not critical, you could cost your company additional stress. The work quality on your assignments and others may cause this conflict, so it is best to learn time management techniques.

Time Management Techniques and Tips

Time wasters are common in the workplace and life. Whether you have coworkers who like to chat with you throughout the day, checking your phone, responding to emails, phone calls, or showing up late to work are all common ways of time wasters at work. Outside of work, you can have time wasters by spending too much time watching TV, playing video games, or something else altogether. Here are some tips below to better manage your time.

To help with time management, you can consider using a to-do list to help write down your tasks for a day or week. Creating smaller goals can help you budget your time and energy on what’s most important. Goal setting is also important because it can allow you to know when you are accomplishing certain milestones on a project Grouping important tasks together in a to-do list allows for the visualization that you are getting things done when you complete them.

Having a healthy work-life balance is also critical in time management. There are only 24 hours each day, so you have to find ways to accomplish everything you want via self-discipline. Cutting down on specific activities that are bad habits while properly combining important tasks can make you most effective with your time. Let’s say for example that you want to learn a foreign language and lose weight as long-term goals. You know that it will take a lot of time and effort to accomplish both tasks, but finding the right time to spend on both may be a challenge. Instead of spending an hour at the gym and then an hour after studying, you can combine both for proper time management. Let’s say you can watch a video on your phone to help learn this new language while you are on the elliptical. Now every time you go to the gym to accomplish a life goal, you can combine it by studying at the same time to achieve a professional goal.

Why Study Good Time Management Training Online?

There are many advantages of learning good time management training using online courses. The primary purpose of time management is to effectively facilitate primary tasks without sacrificing time from other vital areas. Some examples of time management include creating deadlines, team management, making schedules, to do lists, decision making, and more. If you’ve been looking to master time management in the past, you have come to the right place. Here at edX, we offer time management courses designed to give you the skills needed to be successful in whatever profession you work in.