Q: Why is effective time management important in building a successful career?

A: Time management is one of the most highly valued skills in the business world today. Every employer is in one way or another looking for employees who can manage their time wisely and increase their productivity. While time is one entity that we have little control over, it can be managed wisely to ensure that set goals are achieved.

In his book Eat that Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get Things Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy suggests 21 strategies to manage time wisely. Tracy emphasizes the need to avoid procrastination and complete tasks you might necessarily not enjoy doing in time. As a business professional, if you carry out tasks when you need to, you are sure to increase productivity and satisfy your clients.

Another good time management strategy is the 80/20 rule. It implies that 20% of our efforts result in 80% of the results we see in our life. Bringing this into time management, a good employee can divide his daily tasks into two. The first 20% will be the toughest tasks that impact their output greatly like preparing the company’s monthly budget and the rest 80% will be less significant tasks like shredding old documents.

With these two strategies, business professionals are sure to manage time wisely, scale up the firm’s productivity, increase efficiency and reduce energy or resource wastage while growing the firm’s income.