5 Time Management Tips That Will Boost Your Career

Last week I discussed my one tip that will help your career more than anything else. Along with continuing to learn one new skill every year, there’s something else that will help you to be successful: Being in control of how you spend your time.

I’m often asked, “How do you get so much done in one day?” and my response is always this: “Simple. I schedule my workload every day.”

When a friend of mine asked that question and heard my response she was horrified. “Oh, I could never do that. I’m just not a structured kind of person. I’d rather see how my day is going and how I feel, and then decide what I work on throughout the day.”

Everyone has differences when it comes to the way they approach their work. My friend happened to be the type of person who liked living from one moment to the next, handling things as they arose. But the issue was that she wasn’t receiving the pay raises or promotions she had been hoping for.

So I gave her a fun little exercise to do: Document what she did every hour of each day at work for one week. When we sat down to chat afterward, she was almost bursting to talk. “I can’t believe how much time I’ve been spending on emails! And I also realized how much I get distracted from what I planned to do and end up doing something else.”

Sound familiar? It can be easy to get sidetracked at work when you don’t