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Importance of Time Management as a Creative

To begin with our main subject what is time management; Time management” is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. Good time management enables you to work smarter – not harder – so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressures are high.

While time management is critical to success for all individuals, it is critically important to creatives. This is because creatives are typically faced with tons of challenges each day and quickly compile massive “To Do” lists. This article presents tips to help creatives to better manage their time to be more effective.

The first step in time management for creatives is to identify key uses of their time. For instance, what percent of your time is spent answering phone calls (both personal and professional), having company meetings, traveling to meetings, finding information, managing your team, etc.?

After identifying the key uses of time, creatives must determine whether these uses maximize the value of their time. For example, questions must be answered such as whether more value is added to the organization if the creative spent less time traveling and more time managing the team.

In addition to figuring out the best uses of their time; creatives must follow several tried and true time management tips.

• Set goals correctly. Set goals that are achievable and measurable. Setting goals for your business is incredibly important. It provides a clear path to follow and the motivation to reach a predetermined ...

 

• Prioritize wisely. Prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency. Creatives must prioritize time management. That's because creatives have to own every part of their business. A creative must understand which tasks should come first, how much time to allocate to each task, and how and what to delegate to others in the business to efficiently move it forward.Set a time limit to complete a task

Setting time constraints for completing tasks helps you be more focused and efficient. Making the small extra effort to decide on how much time you need to allot for each task can also help you recognize potential problems before they arise. That way you can make plans for dealing with them.

 

For example, assume you need to write up five reviews in time for a meeting. However, you realize that you’ll only be able to get four of them done in the time remaining before the meeting. If you become aware of this fact well in advance, you may be able to easily delegate writing up one of the reviews to someone else. However, if you hadn’t bothered to do a time check on your tasks beforehand, you might have ended up not realizing your time problem until just an hour before the meeting. At that point, it might be considerably more difficult to find someone to delegate one of the reviews to, and more difficult for them to fit the task into their day, too.

• Take a break between tasks

When doing a lot of tasks without a break, it is harder to stay focused and motivated. Allow some downtime between tasks to clear your head and refresh yourself. Consider grabbing a brief nap, going for a short walk, or meditating.

• Organize yourself

Utilize your calendar for more long-term time management. Write down the deadlines for projects, or for tasks that are part of completing the overall project. Think about which days might be best to dedicate to specific tasks. For example, you might need to plan a meeting to discuss cash flow on a day when you know the company CFO is available if you have one.

 

• Remove non-essential tasks/activities

It is important to remove excess activities or tasks. Determine what is significant and what deserves your time. Removing non-essential tasks/activities frees up more of your time to be spent on genuinely important things.

 

• Plan ahead

Make sure you start every day with a clear idea of what you need to do – what needs to get done THAT DAY. Consider making it a habit to, at the end of each workday, go ahead and write out your “to-do” list for the next workday. That way you can hit the ground running the next morning.

 

Conclusion: It’s no ease job been a creative, especially in a country like Nigeria where the stress level is very high but if you plan your time very well using the time management tip, I listed you will achieve a more productive day.

Article was originally written for https://businesspost.ng/featureoped/importance-of-time-management-as-a-creative/

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