In both your personal and professional life, time management is a crucial skill. Not a lot of people are skilled at managing their time. In the real world, why is time management important for business?
People don’t often think about it at work, but it is an important factor. Proper time management can help boost performance and productivity.
Companies that are more adept at managing time will have stronger chances of success. In this article, I will go over 11 reasons why time management is key to succeeding in business.
UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 6, 2023
- Improves The Overall Quality Of Work
- Prevents Holding Off On Important Tasks
- Helps Meet Deadlines
- Keeps You Focused On Priorities
- Results In Less Stress
- Brings More Efficiency While Working
- Leads To Better Decision Making
- Allows More Time To Grow Your Business
- It’s Easier Now Than Before
- Better Time Management Benefits Everyone
- Allows More Time For Personal Life
Improves the overall quality of work
Understanding how to conduct tasks properly can help someone gain more confidence at work. If it’s going at a self-pace (while not going too slow), that helps a lot. It’s good to have some form of independence when it comes to working diligently.
When you prepare and give yourself enough time, you’ll do a much better job with the work you create. Whether that’s doing repetitive tasks, or working on major projects, you want to produce better results with high-quality work.
Rushing through your work produces poor-quality work. Further, if that is the case, you will likely lose more clients if you constantly return work with errors.
Prevents holding off on important tasks
Without proper time management, it’s hard to know when to do work that matters. If you hold off work until later, you’ll put yourself in a more difficult situation when deadlines loom.
Rather than work on tasks that don’t move the needle, why not schedule blocks of time to work on your priorities? When you do that, you’re less likely to procrastinate. Why would you want to procrastinate anyway?
It may not be easy, but it does help with focusing on your priorities. Doing it by blocking off time in your schedule will make working much easier moving forward.
Helps meet deadlines
When work needs to get done, deadlines are usually set in stone. It is normal to establish deadlines in the workplace since it establishes standards and keeps things moving.
Without setting deadlines, a lot of work would not get done. As mentioned earlier, a lot of people would procrastinate much more often.
My experience dealing with deadlines
I worked at some mail processing centers (for a few banks), where we had to push work out within a few days. What I’m referring to is commonly known as service-level agreements (SLAs).
As part of SLAs, a service provider and a client agree to when the work needs to be completed.
So in my experience, we would have to get the work out within 48-72 hours. 72 hours was the maximum cap to get work out in a timely manner.
Most of the time, we met the SLAS, but other times, we couldn’t get the work out on time as agreed by the client. That’s why it’s important to be mindful of how you use your time while at work. Even not working for an hour or two can make a difference in meeting SLAS at work.
Keeps you focused on priorities
Prioritization is key to what work matters the most. When we don’t prioritize our tasks, we tend to work on what we feel like doing (instead of what we need to work on).
I’ve always been a firm believer in taking care of my priorities first thing each day. It’s a practice I’ve followed for some time, and it’s worked out well.
For example, it’s a good practice to list out one or three things that need to be done before you do anything else. You should also time yourself to maintain focus (or not waste time unintentionally).
Results in less stress
When working at a decent pace (while relaxed), you’ll feel less stressed. Taking regular breaks in between helps as well.
Another thing to make note of is being mindful of your mood. That helps you be aware of your thoughts and stay in the present moment.
There are effective things to do, such as creating priority lists. Making priority lists is one I regularly do and helps me be less stressed. For more tips on managing stress while at work, check out this Mayo Clinic post for more information.
Brings more efficiency while working
The more time you can save by learning how to accomplish tasks faster, the better. It is important to maintain efficiency with work while still keeping an eye on quality.
If there are better ways to do a specific task, focus on what’s quicker and more effective. Similarly, if a task can be done in less than two hours, don’t spend more than that time on it. Put another way, do not spend up to 12 hours on a task or two when it can be done in two hours or less.
Leads to better decision-making
When you don’t have a lot of work to do, it opens up more time to focus on other areas. For example, spending more time expanding your business.
When you have that extra time available, it allows you to make better decisions as well. On the other hand, if you’re swamped and feel stressed out, the less likely you’ll make the best decisions for your business.
Making poor decisions never brings good outcomes for anyone. When you feel like you’re rushing (and not thinking clearly), that’s when poor decisions end up happening.
Allows more time to grow your business
Going off the last point, better time management can give you more time to grow your business to the next level. If you have a business that’s doing well, you may be able to start hiring individuals or outsourcing some of your work.
Understanding when to delegate your work (or hire more people) can benefit the business in the long run. I believe knowing how to delegate and outsource can be essential to keeping your business growing (now and in the future).
It’s easier now than before
In the modern era, we have much to take advantage of with managing time. From time trackers to software tools, there are some great solutions for businesses to take advantage of.
On this website, I discuss some great products to help you keep track of time or improve efficiency in your business. It’s amazing how much we have at our disposal, especially when it comes to growing a business.
Better time management benefits everyone
When a company manages its time properly, it benefits everyone who works there. From upper management, to middle management to associate level, all of them are better off when they feel more confident and productive.
If there’s a common understanding of meeting performance and productivity standards, every person will step up to take the initiative. If the goal is to have satisfied clients and more revenue, efforts will be made to make that happen.
Allows more time for personal life
When you manage your time better at work, it gives you more free time outside of work as well. Whether that’s spending time with family, or engaging in a favorite hobby, it helps.
Having a good work-life balance shows you’re good at managing your time. That’s something that more people desire to have, but it’s going to take some effort to meet the best outcomes.
Final Words
Time management is something not to take lightly, especially in business. Unfortunately, not many people are skilled at it when it comes to their job or running a business.
The reasons laid out earlier are important to keep in mind. That’s one of the primary focuses of this website: To help small and mid-size businesses take back control of their time.
When businesses can manage their time effectively, they can grow faster and increase their revenue. By doing it in the ways mentioned in this post, the desired outcomes will likely happen if done correctly.
Our website will continue to be devoted to helping businesses grow while providing them with the best resources.
It is integral to the success of any business not to ignore time management- but to continuously improve on it.
Your Turn: Is Managing Your Work Time A Priority For You?
I would like to get your thoughts on this subject matter. Do you take time management seriously at work?
Is this an area you excel in, whether an employee or a business owner? If not, what do you struggle with right now? How can you do a better job of managing time?
Feel free to leave your thoughts by leaving a comment below. I look forward to reading your response, and I’ll gladly respond promptly.
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Eric is the owner and chief editor of notimekillers.com. He takes great pride in helping people manage their time and grow their businesses. Eric is a firm believer in financial and time freedom, as he believes in financial independence and taking ownership of your time. “Time is your most important asset. It can be your best friend or worst enemy. How you use your time can shape the future you desire to have.” In his leisure time, Eric loves to write and read whenever possible. He enjoys going for long walks outdoors while doing in-home workout videos every week. You can also connect with Eric via LinkedIn.
