Task management is not a piece of cake. It requires great expertise and skills to do this accurately, otherwise, it can be very challenging and it can seriously destroy your productivity.
Task management is not merely about organizing your task in a task calendar. It also involves many other important things including task prioritization, setting time limitation, creating sub-tasks, measuring the performance of all of them, and more.
Entrepreneurs and managers normally have to oversee different tasks in a day. Some of them are of high priority that need extra attention and should be in their minds all the time. On the other hand there are simple tasks having less priority that can be done later in time.
Creating a proper systematic schedule of all these tasks in terms of priority is extremely important or else you can go in the wrong direction. Prioritization of tasks plays a crucial role in successful task management.
The way you make your task sheet plays a major role in the completion of all the tasks added. It is because if you keep all the unnecessary tasks at the beginning of your task sheet, then you will end up wasting too much time on them till you reach the more significant tasks.
It also creates extra pressure on you to manage them quickly. If you do not manage these tasks in time then you are most likely to face the consequences of not meeting your targets on time.
All these bad task management practices affect the quality of your performance and also put a question mark on your productivity which is not a positive sign for any entrepreneur.
There are various task management tips that can help entrepreneurs to enhance their ability to manage their daily tasks. We have discussed all those effective tips in this article that will not only enable entrepreneurs to manage their task sheet accurately but also make them more productive with fewer efforts.
Task Management Tips
So, here are all of these tried and tested task management tips to enhance your productivity and performance which can help you grow your business in a better way.
Break a Task into Sub-tasks
For larger complex tasks, it is better to break them further in small achievable sub-tasks. It will help you to understand the task better and you will feel more confident when you start completing those sub-tasks. This technique works extremely well when you are dealing with long-term tasks because it helps you to manage them effectively.
Here are some more tips to improve time management which play an important role for entrepreneurs.
Start the project with Small Tasks
Small tasks normally have fewer requirements and are easy to be done as compared to bigger tasks where you need extraordinary efforts, teamwork, collaboration and top quality research work. Starting your work with small tasks is an excellent way to manage all your tasks.
It will provide you with an amazing feeling of task achievement which will boost your motivation to handle your bigger tasks easily. Additionally, it also improves the vision of project completion and the path towards your main goal.
Concentrate On a Single Task at a Time
Having all your concentration towards a specific task will help you find better solutions instead of occupying your mind with heaps of tasks. If you involve yourself in more than one tasks at a time, then your concentration will be distributed among all those tasks, and you will not be able to deliver your 100% to any of these task. It’s better to get all your focus towards completing a single task and then move further step by step instead of doing all the things at a same time.
Start the day with the Toughest Task
Avoiding the hard tasks at the start of the day is not the best way to manage tasks because the complex task requires more energy and concentration which is normally at its peak when you start your day. When you successfully finish your difficult tasks at the beginning then managing rest of the tasks becomes more easier and quicker.
List Your Tasks on Paper
Write down all your daily tasks on a paper and arrange them in terms of priority. It enables you to recognize all of your important tasks so that you can complete them instantly without wasting your time. You can also add some key steps related to your important tasks so you can understand them quickly when starting them.
Prepare For All Tasks in Advance
Every task requires some specific information or research work to be done before you start working on it. Getting prepared with all the essential details keeps you involved with the tasks, and you don’t have to waste your time in finding related information which helps you get them done efficiently.
Take the Necessary Small Step to Finish the Tasks
Taking the small step of starting a task is what matters a lot to finish it successfully. When you finally make the step of initiating a task with full concentration then it becomes easier to find that other steps of task completion.
Do Not Add Additional Requirements with Ongoing Tasks
It is quite common to extend the requirements of an ongoing project, but that’s not a good practice because the consequences of this practice are not suitable for handling tasks as an entrepreneur. It can affect the duration of a task and also make your tasks looks bigger than the originally assigned one.
Keep All Productive Tasks On Top Of the List
You should sort out all your productive tasks and place them on top of your task calendar. Completing all those productive tasks, in the beginning, will help you enhance your productivity and help you get the better results of your efforts without going an extra mile. It will also play a important role to improve your motivation as well.
Choose a 30 Minute Task and Continue
Selecting a task and setting 30 minutes time to it will help you to do a specific part of that task in a limited time. By doing this, you can automatically break your tasks into small chunks and can easily have your focus around all the tasks mentioned in your daily task sheet with proper time management.
Think About the Consequences of Not Finishing a Task
Sometimes, the fear of not completing a task on time compels you to think about its negative consequences. It lets you think about the outcomes of not doing that task on time which forces you to get rid of all the distractions and get back on it so that you can finish it before the deadline. A good way to keep you motivated.
Keep Your Tasks Organized At A Single Place
Nobody will find it easier to work in an environment where tasks organization is not given any importance, especially for the entrepreneurs. It is one of the critical things to be considered on top of everything.
Proper organization of tasks is extremely important otherwise; remembering all of them will be a big deal. You should make a list of all your tasks and organize them in one place like in your laptop or a file so that you can look at all of your tasks in the blink of an eye.
Define Actions among Your Tasks
Mentioning some specific words/phrases with your tasks enables you to identify and remember all the key task effortlessly. If you have a massive list of tasks in your task calendar, then there is always a chance of missing some of your essential tasks, but if you define some specific actions around it that can help you recognize, understand the nature of your tasks and prioritize them, then you can easily avoid this issue.
Keep All Tasks Singular
When you place a task in your task calendar, try to make sure that you don’t merge all the related tasks together to make it look complicated such as if you need to write content then you have to spend some time on quality research, finding keywords, and related images for that content. Don’t try to put all these tasks together because they are three different tasks rather than a single task.
Automate Your Tasks in a Sequence
Assigning a sequence to your tasks help you to continue with them in a step-wise series without diverting your concentration here and there. There are many software available for that purpose. These are specifically designed to automatically organize your tasks in a series so that you don’t have to worry about what needs to be done next.
Set Exact Due Dates To Your Tasks
Setting due dates to your tasks help you to view its deadline. It is also quite effective to grab your attention towards it at the right time. Without having due dates on your tasks, it becomes quite hard to set priorities among them which can negatively affect your productivity as well as the completion of goals.
Make A Someday Task List
For all those tasks that don’t have a specific due date but you have to finish them to remain productive, you should keep all of them in your someday list. Once you finish some of these tasks, you can easily place them to the completed tasks list with proper time and date to give yourself an extra boost.
Turn Your Emails into Tasks
You should set a due date to any email that is a part of your task and put it straight away to your task calendar. You can do it manually or with the help of a software as well. There are many task management softwares that have the capability to do this quickly by using drag and drop feature.
Set a Specific Limit on the Number of Tasks per Day
Don’t try to do each and everything in a single day because it is certainly not possible. Having an exact limit of daily tasks is quite sufficient to handle your projects without compromising their quality. It also ensures that you give equal attention to every single project in your list which is necessary if you want to maintain the standard of your work among all your tasks.
Avoid All Unnecessary Interruptions
You might have to face different interruptions while working like personal, family or any business associated problem or task. These interruptions are a part of everyone’s life that cannot be ignored, but they also have the power to divert your focus from your projects. You should have an exact plan to handle them otherwise; it will be hard for you to work around all your important projects of a day and your productivity will be decreased.
Perform an In-depth Time Audit
Doing a detailed time audit is a nice way to keep an eye on all your projects. You can easily view the performance of your tasks and can filter all those tasks that are taking more time to finish than you expected. It also allows you to make all the necessary alteration on your recent strategy to manage your project more accurately.
Make Sure Your Emails, Text Alerts, and Status Updates Are Turned Off
Viewing emails, texts and status updates are something that steals time away from entrepreneurs because it is an activity that is done normally around ten times or more in a day. You cannot keep them out of your life because you definitely want to stay connected with your clients and other important people using these mediums. You should set a specific time to view them so that you can answer all the relevant emails that you can’t miss to answer.
Take Some Rest to Come Up With More Energy
Taking some rest from a hectic working schedule is important for entrepreneurs to manage their project more efficiently. It plays a significant role to refresh the mind and releases tension as well. It is better if entrepreneurs take one day off in a week and enjoy this time with their friends and family without thinking about their business related tasks. It will help them get back to work with energy and productivity.
Get Up Early To Plan Your Tasks
Waking up early gives you some extra time to manage your tasks, and also helps you to add some additional time to any of your time-consuming tasks. Early risers get many benefits like good health, more productivity, and logical thinking. All these advantages help entrepreneurs to stay ahead of their jobs and get better outcomes.
Utilize Task Management Software
Using a task management software can really make entrepreneurs’ life easier. These software are very helpful in creating your daily/weekly tasks calendar, lining up all your recurring tasks, highlighting all your high impact tasks, creating subtasks of your main tasks and so on. You can get all these things done in a matter of few minutes and can create a real difference with your ability to handle tasks.
Keep an Eye on Delegated Tasks
For entrepreneurs, it’s sometimes not that easy to do each and every task by themselves, and they need to delegate some of their tasks to other people in order to meet the deadlines. It is definitely a tough task because you have to trust the capabilities of that person. The best way to confront this trouble is to track their performance in real time to see if they are doing it the way it should be done. You can use tracking software for that to stay informed about the progress of your tasks.
Review Your Tasks
Keeping aside some precise time for reviewing your tasks on a weekly basis is an excellent way to ensure everything is going well. There are some software that provide a complete week view of your tasks. You can not only track the performance of your tasks with them but also can take a glimpse at the tasks of the last week which are still not done so that you can plan a better strategy for their completion.
Keep Things Simple
You should not create a complex strategy for your tasks because it will make things worse. The best way is to follow a simple and easy plan that is easily manageable for you. Sometimes, entrepreneurs try to overdo things by creating a typical task management plan which makes easy tasks look tough for them.
Assign Realistic Time to Your Tasks
You should not underestimate the worth of time while setting tasks in your task sheet because the nature of every task is different. Some tasks require more time to finish whereas other tasks can be done instantly. To keep the similar quality of your work on all the tasks, set enough time to your bigger tasks otherwise; you will finish your day with less work done than you planned which can hurt your motivation.
Filter Your Tasks Category Wise
Separating all the similar tasks in a particular category will make the process of task management quite straightforward for you. It will enable you to list all the identical work at a single area and help you to organize your data in a proper channel so that you can find your essential files easily without wasting too much time.
Concentrate On Risk Identification and Management
Recognizing the risk factor and managing them on time is significant for entrepreneurs to get away from any bigger issue in the future. You can do it by yourself or by utilizing any task management software which is packed with this feature. Neglecting those risks can have a negative impact on the performance of your task management plan.
Integrate Your Task Management Software with Other Software
In order to enhance the efficiency of your tasks, you should integrate your task management software with other important software like sales software and cost reporting software that can provide you with better opportunities dealing with your tasks. You can get improved vision around your tasks with these software and boost the effectiveness of your tasks.
Define the Workflows of Your Tasks at the Beginning
Having your workflows defined before the start of the tasks might take some time, but it is really worth it. It ensures that there is no delay during the process and you do not have to face any problem like that which can affect the flow of your work and can also have a negative impression on your efficiency as well.
Provide Appropriate Feedback to Completed Tasks
Writing suitable feedback with all the finished task will keep things clear and concise for you to understand. Sometimes, entrepreneurs add confusing or irrelevant notes with the tasks rather than keeping it to the point. It can be quite time consuming if not done properly and can create more problems.
Celebrate the Success of Achieving Milestones
After achieving the desired milestones that you have set for your tasks, you should celebrate the success of them to get more motivation. It works well for entrepreneurs because this motivation makes them feel good about their work and their passion for work increases dramatically because they start to believe more about their capabilities.
Final Words
Following all these vital task management tips will make you a taskmaster in no time. You will be amazed to see the difference these tips will create in handling your daily tasks because these tricks of the trade have the potential to help you deal with task management issues. However, it will require some patience and practice to master. Tools like WeekPlan are created to facilitate you and help you keep everything organized into one place.
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