Future Skills

CHAPTER 17TIME MANAGEMENT

It's hard to know how the pandemic and the associated shift to more remote and hybrid working will affect work–life balance and stress levels in the long term. I know people who find working from home to be stressful and less productive, with the distractions of family life (not to mention that feeling that they can never really “switch off” from work at the end of the day). For others, it's a big improvement on the demands of traveling to and from the office every day, allowing them to focus more on getting the actual work done. I'll be interested to see future studies on the link between remote working, productivity, stress, and time management.

What's clear now is that time management is just as important as ever. Whether you work from home, work full-time in an office, run your own business, or work for an organization, the ability to manage your time effectively is essential for your workplace performance and, frankly, your mental health (see Chapter 20 for more on looking after yourself). It's especially important in this age of fast-paced work, information overload, and constant distractions from email and app notifications.

What Is Time Management?

Time management is the ability to use your time efficiently and productively, especially in a work context. Achieving this in practice often requires planning your time and thinking strategically about how best to spend your time—but more on that coming up later in the chapter.

The productivity ...