Managing your time effectively is an important professional skill to develop.

Organizing your tasks each day helps you complete work on time, prioritize your
projects and communicate your progress to supervisors and colleagues. Having
strong time-management skills can ultimately lead to accomplishing key goals
and advancing in your career.

In this article, we discuss nine important time management skills and how you
can improve and showcase your skills during a job search.

Related: Best Skills To Include on a Resume

9 time management skills

Time management skills help you manage your time well. Some of the most
important time management skills include:

1. Organization

Staying organized can help you maintain a clear picture of what you need to
complete and when. Being well-organized might mean maintaining an up-to-
date calendar, being able to locate certain documents easily, having a tidy
environment and taking detailed, diligent notes.

2. Prioritization

Assessing each of your responsibilities for priority is key in being a good time
manager. There are many ways to prioritize what you need to accomplish. You
might decide to complete fast, simple items followed by longer, more involved
ones. Alternatively, you might prioritize your tasks starting with the most time-
sensitive, or a combination of both.

3. Goal-setting

Setting goals is the first step to becoming a good time manager. Goal-setting
allows you to clearly understand your end goal and what exactly you need to
prioritize to accomplish it. Setting both short and long-term goals can lead to
success in your career.

4. Communication

Developing strong communication skills can allow you to make your plans and

goals clear to supervisors and colleagues. It can also allow you to ask questions
when necessary, and communicate challenges in a timely manner so that
everyone stays on track.

5. Planning

A fundamental part of time management is planning. Being efficient in planning

out your day, meetings and how you will accomplish things will help you stick to
your schedule.

6. Delegation
While delegation is most often done by managers, you can also practice
delegating tasks if you are managing a project. While it can often be difficult to
say “no” when someone asks you to do something at work, it's important to
practice having boundaries to manage your time well and ultimately accomplish
your goals.

7. Stress management

When practicing good time management, you should also be attentive to your
mental health. Handling stress in a positive way can help you stay motivated
and perform well when going through your schedule. You might do this by
including small breaks throughout your day, or by rewarding yourself in small
ways as you accomplish tasks.

8. Problem-solving

Strong problem-solving skills will help you overcome challenges and keep
projects moving forward and on schedule. Problem-solving will also help team
members to stay on the same page with each other.

9. Note-taking

Taking notes and keeping documents up to date are important when managing
time and tasks. Following outdated guidelines, for instance, could slow you
down or cause you to have to redo some of your work.

Related Article: 20 Time Management Tips for Professionals

How to improve time management skills

Working on your time management skills can help you become a better
employee and a strong candidate when you apply for new opportunities. Here
are a few ways you can improve your time management skills:

1. Set short and long-term goals

Practicing regular goal-setting can help you clearly understand exactly what you
need to accomplish to achieve certain results. To hit larger, long-term goals,
identify smaller milestone goals along the way. For example, if you have a goal
to be promoted within six months, you might need to set smaller goals to
improve certain skills. Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable,
relevant and time-based. For more on setting goals, visit SMART Goals:
Definition and Examples.

2. Manage your calendar

Setting time aside to complete the most important tasks on your list is important
for managing your time. You might consider blocking off certain brackets of time
on your calendar on a regular basis so you are guaranteed to have time in your
schedule without distractions or meetings. You should also consider whether or
not attending certain meetings is beneficial. If you feel you will not add value or
contribute in any certain way, you should feel empowered to decline certain
meetings. If you do this, use discretion and be polite–you might consider
sending the meeting owner an email letting them know why you have declined.

Related Article: 10 Time Management Apps to Organize Your Projects and

Keep You on Track

3. Prioritize your assignments

Prioritization is a difficult skill but gets easier with practice. You can practice
prioritization by making to-do lists. Writing or typing out everything you need to
get done can help you physically prioritize the tasks that are most urgent or easy
to get out of the way. If you need help, you might consider asking your manager
or a colleague who is good at prioritizing how they would complete work.
Understanding due dates and how the task affects others and business goals
can help you to get certain things done ahead of others. If you are still unable to
meet the due date, you might be able to ask for a deadline extension on a task.

Improving time management skills can help you be a better worker and have the
ability to focus fully as you go about your day. You can be a better time manager
by being organized, setting goals and prioritizing your to-do list.

4. Say "yes" to occasionally saying "no"

One way to manage your time is to learn that it's okay to say no to some
requests at work. If you're trying to meet a tight deadline, for example, it might
be impossible to complete your work on time if you agree to take on work that
isn't a priority. Colleagues will understand if you can't help out on a project if you
have a tight deadline to meet.

5. Don't procrastinate

There's a difference between prioritizing and procrastinating. When you

organize your tasks in order of importance, just make sure that nothing drops off
the list completely. It's okay to schedule less important tasks for another day.
Procrastination takes place when those tasks are constantly pushed off the
day's schedule.

Are you looking for a job now?

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How to add time management skills to your

resume
During a job search, you'll want to make sure that potential employers know you
have strong time management skills. Including these skills on your resume will
help you stand out to a hiring manager.

The most obvious place to include time management skills is in the Skills
section of your resume. This is the optimum space for someone to quickly scan
your resume and understand your skill level. But you'll also want to place your
time management skills within the job descriptions in your Experience section.
This gives you a chance to be specific about how you used your skills to meet
deadlines and accomplish goals. So you aren't just telling a hiring manager that
you have these skills, you are showing concrete results of these skills.