3 Ways to Manage Time to Avoid Work Stress

Taking on projects that do not suit us, agreeing to meet everyone who asks for it, and being busy in meetings, whether essential or not, drives us to waste a lot of time, miss deadlines, and live in constant tension.

Note: This article is by Erin Falconer, who shares her experience with time management.

We feel that no matter how much we try, there is not enough time to complete tasks, and we are always busy working on many tasks at once without finding enough time to work on our goals.

A few weeks ago, work exhausted me, and I felt more stressed than ever before. I was rushing from one meeting to another, often arriving late and having a bad time, and when I finally lay in bed that night, I began to think about why I made my work schedule so busy. I found that filling my schedule with so many appointments made me feel productive, as if that made me an important person, but busyness does not necessarily mean achievement; sometimes it is a pointless preoccupation.

After that terrible day, I decided to be more conscious in organizing my schedule and to give myself more space to breathe, which means not attending back-to-back meetings or stressing myself during work, but do you know what I felt when I finally managed to set a comfortable agenda? I felt guilty as if I was falling behind in my work, and I still get that feeling from time to time, but I get over it by reminding myself not to associate my importance with the tasks I accomplish and how I wish I had learned that years ago.

3 Effective Ways to Manage Time

If you want to manage your time, here are some ways to do it:

1. Only take on important work

Have you ever thought about what the perfect business is for you and who your ideal customer is? This question changed my career. When I first read this question, I wondered, "Hey, can I really choose who I work with?" Why didn't anyone teach us to slow down and think about who we deal with professionally? Why didn't anyone tell us we had the right to be selective of our customers?

Our only condition is not to treat outlaws without realizing we can set the conditions that suit us, so it's time to do so. For me, ideal customers are people who can teach me new things, share great articles and books, love sharing ideas and experiences, and try to help me improve by sharing their experiences. They are also open to new ideas I propose to improve themselves, and your life will radically change once you realize that you do not have to take on the paid work offered to you.

2. Avoiding unimportant meetings

Even when you take on work that only matters to you, it's still hard to avoid getting caught up in ongoing meetings. According to a study conducted at the University of California, office workers take an average of 25 minutes to refocus on their tasks after dropping out. Surprisingly, they're often interrupted every 11 minutes.

If meetings distract you, is there anything you can do about it? Some meetings are critical, but many are not, and you can schedule the necessary ones in a way that suits your time and mental state.

I always try to leave a few days free of meetings, but when this is not possible, I try to clear the morning or afternoon of meetings to give me enough time to focus and work without interruption. Sometimes, I feel incompetent when I empty my schedule of meetings, but I try to remind myself that these moments are necessary to make real progress.

3. Don't waste time on unnecessary encounters

I occasionally receive messages from friends and entrepreneurs in my city to meet for coffee. These meetings are always fun and enjoyable, especially when the discussion is pleasant and fruitful.

However, the downside is that these meetings consume a lot of time that I can invest in work, so instead of rejecting all these meetings, I decided to hold only one session a week, and this is how I avoid wasting my time with continuous entertainment without work.